Kālidāsa

About Kālidāsa

Kālidāsa was an ancient Indian writer, widely regarded as the greatest poet and dramatist in the Sanskrit language, whose works significantly shaped Indian literature and theatre for centuries. Though his exact lifespan is debated, he is commonly dated to the 4th or 5th century CE. His influence is such that MIT's Pantheon project ranks him #778 in historical importance out of approximately 15,000 figures, recognizing his profound and lasting cultural impact across the subcontinent and beyond.

However, this historical weight does not translate to contemporary online visibility. In 2025, Kālidāsa garnered only 19K annualized Wikipedia pageviews, indicating an 'Attention Gap' of -18x relative to his importance ranking. To contextualize this underattention, fellow writer Du Fu, ranked only slightly lower at #799, commands over four times the traffic with 83K views, suggesting a stark regional or language-based disparity in current internet engagement with classical literature.

Despite the overall low traffic, Kālidāsa shows slight positive current interest; his 2025 Momentum (comparing Q1 vs Q3) increased by +16%, though his Year-over-Year change dipped by -8.6%.