one of the most pleasing female characters of Hindu mythology. She is mentioned as a water nymph in the Yajurveda, is the subject of a beautiful episode of the Mahabharata, and is spoken of in the Puranas. Her name has become specially familiar in Europe through the celebrated drama of Kalidasa, which, introduced to us by Sir William Jones in 1789, became the starting point of Sanscrit philology in Europe.