We know from Kalidasa's writings that he spent at least a part of his
life in the city of Ujjain. He refers to Ujjain more than once, and in
a manner hardly possible to one who did not know and love the city.
Especially in his poem _The Cloud-Messenger_ does he dwell upon the
city's charms, and even bids the cloud make a détour in his long
journey lest he should miss making its acquaintance.[2]

We learn further that Kalidasa travelled widely in India. The fourth
canto of _The Dynasty of Raghu_ describes a tour about the whole of
India and even into regions which are beyond the borders of a narrowly
measured India. It is hard to believe that Kalidasa had not himself
made such a "grand tour"; so much of truth there may be in the
tradition which sends him on a pilgrimage to Southern India. The
thirteenth canto of the same epic and _The Cloud-Messenger_ also
describe long journeys over India, for the most part through regions
far from Ujjain. It is the mountains which impress him most deeply.
His works are full of the Himalayas. Apart from his earliest drama
and the slight poem called _The Seasons_, there is not one of them
which is not fairly redolent of mountains. One, _The Birth of the
War-god_, might be said to be all mountains. Nor was it only Himalayan
grandeur and sublimity which attracted him; for, as a Hindu critic has
acutely observed, he is the only Sanskrit poet who has described a
certain flower that grows in Kashmir. The sea interested him less. To
him, as to most Hindus, the ocean was a beautiful, terrible barrier,
not a highway to adventure. The "sea-belted earth" of which Kalidasa
speaks means to him the mainland of India.

Another conclusion that may be certainly drawn from Kalidasa's writing
is this, that he was a man of sound and rather extensive education. He
was not indeed a prodigy of learning, like Bhavabhuti in his own