Kalidasa probably lived in the fifth century of the Christian era. No truly biographical data are preserved about the author, who nevertheless enjoyed a great popularity during his life, and whom the Hindus have ever regarded as the greatest of Sanskrit poets. His plays and poetry are primarily based on the Vedas, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and the Puranas. Sanskrit plays by Kalidasa influenced late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century European literature. Several ancient and medieval books state that Kalidasa was a court poet of a king named Vikramaditya.