KA[S']YAPA.
What other favour can I bestow on thee, my son?
KING.
What other can I desire? If, however, you permit me to form another wish, I would humbly beg that the saying of the sage Bharata[130] be fulfilled:
May kings reign only for their subjects' weal;
May the divine Saraswatí[131], the source
Of speech, and goddess of dramatic art,
Be ever honoured by the great and wise;
And may the purple self-existent god[132],
Whose vital Energy[133] pervades all space,
From future transmigrations save my soul.
[Exeunt omnes.
NOTES:
1. Í[S']a preserve you.
That is, 'the Lord,' a name given to the god Siva, when regarded as supreme. As presiding over dissolution he is associated with Brahmá the Creator, and Vishnu the Preserver; constituting with them the Hindú Triad. Kálidása indulges the religious predilections of his fellow-townsmen by beginning and ending the play with a prayer to [S']iva, who had a large temple in Ujjayiní, the modern Oujein, the city of Vikramáditya, situated north-eastward from Gujarát.
2. In these eight forms.