Meghadūta

The name Kālidāsa is synonymous with natural beauty, lyrical poetry, dramatic stories, sensuous
heroines and valorous heroes in classical Sanskrit literature. His play Abhijñānaśākuntalam was
one of the first plays from India to be translated into English. The poem Meghadūta is a
prototype of its genre (dūtakāvyam or messenger poetry) and has inspired many works and
writers including some from the West. The whole genre could be said to have begun with this
work. The importance of the work within the class of Sanskrit classical literature as
a khaṇḍakāvya (short lyrical poetry as against a Mahākāvya which is an epic poem) can be
gauged by the number of commentaries that have been written on the work.

Meghadūta – The Theme

The whole poem is nothing but the message that a husband (Yakṣa) separated from his wife
(due to punishment meted out by Kubera) sends to his wife through a messenger. The
messenger is a rain cloud and therefore, an inanimate object.

The poem has two parts – Pūrvamegha and Uttaramegha. The first part of the poem
or Pūrvamegha, is a geographical description of India or Bhāratvarsha on the path that
the Yakṣa (the Yakṣa lives in Rāmagiri in the Vindhyas) asks the cloud to take in order to reach
his hometown of Alakā in the Himalayas. The descriptions of the places and people that the
cloud will encounter on his way are one of the best in the entire Sanskrit literature. The
description of Alakā, the condition in which the cloud is likely to find his wife and the message
itself which is of hope and the joyous return of the husband after the end of the rainy season
make up the second part known as the Uttaramegha.

Meghaduta: Style

Kalidasa's Meghaduta (literally the cloud messenger) is probably the best known of his poetry
that has come down to us. Its manageable length also makes it a popular target for translators,
and numerous English versions exist.
Ryder divides the poem up into two halves -- "Former Cloud" (63 stanzas) and "Latter
Cloud" (52 stanzas, for a total of 115 stanzas). The division is a natural though not a necessary
one.
The Meghaduta was originally written in four-line stanzas, each line having seventeen
syllables, in a metre called mandakranta (which Ryder describes as "a majestic metre called the
'slow stepper' The Cloud-Messenger tells the story of a Yaksha (a "divine attendant on Kubera,
god of wealth") who is exiled for a year from his home and his young bride. After several
months have already passed, and with the coming of the rainy season, the Yaksha asks a passing
cloud to convey a message to his distant beloved. The poem covers the route the cloud would
take, what it might see and encounter, and then focusses on the message and the bride itself. It is
a beautiful and clever idea -- hard to ruin completely, regardless of the translation.
 The vivid journey -- focussed on the cloud's point of view -- has many remarkable points. It
is a tour of much of India.

Kalidasa's poems is full of striking images, from the teary lover trying to play a song on the
lute that she herself composed but now can't recall to the urban and natural vistas the cloud
would encounter. Love and longing, love and passion, dominate throughout, seen (or at least felt)
in every scene, always in the air. Much of it Ryder conveys quite adequately, faltering only with
the actual message that the cloud-messenger is to pass on. Where FEE, for example, there bluntly
allows: "With his body thy body he enters" (98) and LN similarly suggests "by mere wish joins
his body / with your body" (99), Ryder has no such joining or entering, only daring to "weave the
fancies that thy soul entwine" (II.xxxix.4).

A decent -- and, to Western ears, the most poetic -- rendition, Ryder's The Cloud-
Messenger serves as an acceptable Westernized (and sanitized) version of the Meghaduta. It is
barely Kalidasa's poem, but given the near-impossibility of adequately conveying Kalidasa's
Sanskrit in English it offers a tolerable compromise.

Meghadūta – A Literary Analysis

The poem continues to be a textbook case where all the five main schools of poetic analysis can
be applied and the five features generally expected in good literature appear in equal measures
and perfect balance. Where most poems have an abundance of one feature and the others in a
supporting role, Meghadūta uses all the features in the best possible manner:

1. the employment of judicious use of figures of speech (alaṅkāra),

2. appropriate use of metre and style (guṇarīti),
3. sublime application of suggested sense (dhvani),
4. the right balance of emotions and feelings (rasasiddhānta) and;
5. the best stylistic use of stylistic expression (vakrokti).

Meghadūta – A Celebration of Beauty

The whole poem in its descriptive form is a celebration of beauty. This beauty is divided into
four types on the basis of the subject matter. Therefore, we have;

 Bhāśāsaundarya
 Nisargasaundarya
 Strīsaundarya
 Vicārasaundarya
Bhāśāsaundarya or the beauty of language is expressed through the right use of phonetic sound,
the metre which is lyrical and no strong words. It is like a lazily flowing stream. The first verse
itself sets in the tone of the whole work. When spoken aloud, it just meanders softly through
speech rather than jump sharply like a waterfall.

A certain Yakṣa, had been cursed by his master due to negligence in duty to be separated from
his wife for a year. He therefore, took up his abode among the hermitages on Rāmagiri which
had a thick growth of shady trees and waters which were rendered holy by the ablutions of
Janaka’s daughter (Sitā).

Meghaduta or description of natural beauty is the forte of the author as also seen in his other
works. The ‘word picture’ drawn is so strong and intimate that it is the belief of most scholars
that Kālidāsa may have personally visited these places. Probably the love for his hometown (he
is believed to be from Ujjain) comes through when he asks the cloud to take a detour as the
picturesque city of Ujjayini cannot be missed. The beautiful description of Alakā’s first look is a
testimony to the best use of simile. The author compares the Kailāsa mountain to a lover, with
the city of Alakā lying on the lap of her lover and the pure white Ganges the garment which is
dropped by the lady (city).

O, you moving at will, on seeing Alakā with its garment the Ganges dropping from it, lying on
its slope as if on the lap of a lover, you will not fail to recognize it; (the city) which having lofty
mansions in it, supports in your season, a multitude of clouds, showering water, as a woman does
her tresses interwoven with strings of pearls.[1]

Strīsaundarya is expressed through the women who are beautiful and sensuous. More than
anything they are graceful in their beauty by being coy. Yet this bashfulness is accompanied by
the confidence that each one has in herself. Even in the misery of separation the narration of their
state has a beauty all its own. The beautiful eyes of the ladies are compared to a Kunda flower
(species of Jasmine) with a black bee sitting on its petal. The stylisation of this comparison is
unique, in that it says on the lifting of the eye lashes the eye is seen which looks like the flower!

Having crossed that river, proceed, making your form an object of curiosity to the eyes of the
ladies of Daśapura, which are well acquainted with the sportive movements of the bushy
eyebrows, whose dark and variegated lustres flash up owing to the eye-lashes being lifted up,
and which rival with the beauty of the bees following the Kunda flowers as they are tossed about.
[2]

Vicārasaundarya or the beauty of thought and concept is conveyed through the right use of
words and phrases especially when innumerable synonyms are available. The idea of using
the Yakṣa as the protagonist is brilliant. The Yakṣas are known for being cursed frequently,
taking pleasure in carnal pursuits and generally a part of a couple. This makes the separation
from his wife even more poignant and keen.
The analysis of Meghadūta is unending, and every new person brings in a new perspective. Its
popularity and depth is testified by the number of commentaries and studies conducted right
from medieval times to the present. The present article only introduces the poem and sets the
tone for further readings!