ghart at SOCRATES.BERKELEY.EDUTue Oct 30 11:47:09 EST 2001Of course, in modern India, the suffix -daasa does not denote aSudra. But in premodern India, according to Apte and others, -daasawas a suffix meant for Sudras much as -sarma was (and is) forBrahmins and -varma for Ksatriyas. So the question I'd ask Maadhav(who knows much more Sanskrit than I do) is: are there any knownBrahmin names from before the 5th century AD that end in -daasa? Ofcourse, one could suppose that Kaalidaasa was not the poet's originalname and that he took it as a sort of poetic name because of his lovefor the Goddess. Still, it would be interesting to find parallels. I admit that, given the milieu of the Gupta court and its patronageof Brahmanical Hinduism, it is a distinct possibility that Kaalidaasawas a Brahmin. GH. More information about the INDOLOGY