ABSTRACT

Opening as well as closing with the words of Stephen Hawking, many issues of science, technology, economics, and history figure in this chapter. Even with possible misgivings, the reader’sattention is drawn to how there exists a deep link with the epic poets’ consciousness in the words of Hawking.

The chapter brings out the effort and dream of Virgil, even while keeping to the divisions of East and West, towards forging a socio-political and cultural oneness of humanity as depicted in The Aeneid, as well as the way it remains active even today. We may as well take it as the story of Virgil, who tried in his own way to manage the problems of division among the races – the very problems Barack Obama sadly mentioned as he stepped down as president of the USA.

Did Kalidasa perhaps attempt in his work something akin to it? Here is a difficult attempt, made with much trepidation, to draw the readers’ attention to such a possibility, for the Indians who came after Kalidasa clearly turned and looked another way never to return, let alone approximate his achievement. They left Kalidasa alone to reign as the permanent exemplar of Indian excellence!