Sea Monsters and Sea Gems: Of the Virtues of the Ideal King in the Raghuvaṃśa

The Raghuvamsa is as a gallery of portraits of kings, all of them –but the last– encomiastic in tone. Taking all these portraits together, it stands out that Kalidasa’s ‘ideal ruler’ is a very complex character, who is supposed to be endowed with diverse, dissimilar –and sometimes even contrasting– virtues. It won’t come as a surprise, then, that besides possessing these very virtues, a great king must be able to harmonize them. This article aims at pointing out the images and the stylistic devices that are employed by Kalidasa to convey the idea that a great king is characterized, above all, by his ability in reconciling and keeping in balance the potentially conflicting qualities he is required to possess.