The Kumarasambhava of Kalidasa, probably composed about A.D. 100, is the greatest long poem in classical Sanskrit. It is the love story of Siva and Parvati, the God and the Goddess, who are viewed as lovers and as cosmic principles. The poem of their love is a paradigm of the inevitable union between male and female played out on the immense scale of supreme divinity. Beginning with a description of Himalaya (who is both mountain and god) and the birth of his ...