22 June - Kālidāsa stamp release in 1960

Kālidāsa was a Classical Sanskrit writer, widely regarded as the greatest poet and dramatist in the Sanskrit language of India. His plays and poetry are primarily based on the Vedas, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Puranas.His surviving works consist of three plays, two epic poems and two shorter poems.

Much about his life is unknown, only what can be inferred from his poetry and plays.His works cannot be dated with precision, but they were most likely authored within the 4th–5th century CE

The stamp bears as theme the following Sanskrit verse from the Meghadūta.  

आषाढस्य प्रथमदिवसे मेघमाश्लिष्टसानुम् |
वप्रक्रीडापरिणतगजप्रेक्षणीयं ददर्श ||
āṣāḍhasya prathamadivase meghamāśliṣtaṣnuṃ /
vaprakrīdā pariṇatagajaprekṣanīyam dadarśa //

तव न जाने हृदयं मम पुनः कामो दिवापि रात्रावपि |
 निर्घृण ! तपति बलीयः ||
tava na jāne hṛdayam mama punaḥ kāmo divāpi rātrāvapi |
nirgḥṛṇa tapati balīyaḥ |

27 December - Mirza Ghalib

Ghalib born Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan, (27 December 1797 – 15 February 1869),was a prominent Urdu and Persian poet during the last years of the Mughal Empire. He used his pen-names of Ghalib (Urdu: غالِب, ġhālib means "dominant") and Asad (Urdu: اسَد, Asad means "lion"). During his lifetime, the already declining Mughal empire was eclipsed and displaced by the Colonial British Raj and finally deposed following the defeat of the Indian rebellion of 1857, are some of the events that he described through his work.

Most notably, he wrote in both Urdu and Persian. His Persian Divan is at least five times longer than his Urdu but his fame rests on his poetry in Urdu.

Today, Ghalib remains popular not only in India and Pakistan but also among the Hindustani diaspora around the world.