This essay tries to look at the way in which Kālidāsa approaches towns in his three kāvyas: Meghadūta, Kumārasaṁbhava and Raghuvaṁśa. Most of the descriptions are stereotypical, using stock phrases and formulaic expressions, some of them straight from texts like the Arthaśāstra. However, there is one city that is described somewhat realistically—Ayodhya, which was deserted following Rāma’s departure. Both these—the stereotypes of prosperous towns and the realism of a decayed town—fit into the pattern of ‘urban decay’ presented by historians on the basis of archaeological evidence, a landmark in Indian historiography.

中文翻译：

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卡利达萨的卡维亚镇和城市衰败的论点

本文试图探讨卡利达萨在他的三个卡维亚（Meghadūta、Kumārasambhava 和 Raghuvaṁśa）中接近城镇的方式。大多数描述都是刻板的，使用惯用的短语和公式化的表达方式，其中一些直接来自《艺术史》等文本。然而，有一座城市的描述有些现实——阿约提亚（Ayodhya），它在罗摩离开后就被遗弃了。繁荣城镇的刻板印象和衰败城镇的现实主义，都符合历史学家根据考古证据提出的“城市衰败”模式，这是印度史学的一个里程碑。