'In this body no member has value save that which, thanks to the movement of the chariot, she has touched; all else is a mere burden to the earth.' Hyperbole[1] is permissible.
sāmantamaulimaṇirañjitapādapīṭham: ekātapatram avaner na tathā prabhutvam
asyāḥ sakhe caraṇayor aham adya kāntam: ājñākaratvam adhigamya yathā kṛtārthaḥ.
'Despite the radiance shed on my footstool by the jewelled diadems of vassal princes, despite the subjection of the whole earth to my sway, not so much joy did I gain from attaining kingship as the satisfaction won from paying homage to the feet of that lady, O my friend.' The recovery of the nymph from her faint caused by the savage onslaught upon her is described in a happy series of similes:[2]
āvirbhūte çaçini tamasā ricyamāneva rātrir
naiçasyārcir hutabhuja iva cchinnabhūyiṣṭhadhūmā
mohenāntar varatanur iyaṁ lakṣyate mucyamānā
gan̄ga rodhaḥpatanakaluṣā gacchatīva prasādam.
'As the night, freed from the darkness when the moon has appeared, as the light of a fire in the evening when the smoke has nearly all gone, so appears this lady fair, recovering from her faint, and winning back her calmness, like the Ganges after her stream has been troubled by the falling of her banks.'
The Mālavikāgnimitra, it is true, has far fewer beauties of diction than the other two dramas, but it contains many verses which are unmistakably the work of Kālidāsa, though they present much less than the maturity of his later style. The figure of discrepancy (viṣama) is illustrated by the description of the god of love whose bow, so innocent in seeming, can yet work such ill:[3]
kva rujā hṛdayapramāthinī: kva ca te viçvasanīyam āyudham
mṛdutīkṣṇataraṁ yad ucyate: tad idam manmatha dṛçyate tvayi.
'How strange the difference between this pain that wrings the heart, and thy bow to all seeming so harmless. That which is
