A History of Sanskrit Literature c11.s5.1

c11.s5.1

In distinction to the *Ṛtusaṃhāra* the *Meghadūta*² is unquestionably a work of Kālidāsa’s maturity; the mere fact that he adopts for it and maintains throughout with only occasional harshness a metre so elaborate as the Mandākrāntā is conclusive proof that he was no novice, though we may admit the possibility that he desired by this metrical *tour de force* to establish his capacity once and for all, and to exhibit himself as a great poet. Suggestions for the subject-matter may have been taken from the *Rāmāyaṇa*,¹ where Rāma’s deep longing for his lost Sītā offers an obvious prototype for the Yakṣa’s sorrow for the wife from whom he is severed, and the description of the rainy season in iv. 28 has some points of similarity. But the idea is carried out with marked originality and beauty. A Yakṣa banished for a year by Çiva his master, because of failure of duty, is reminded by the approach of the rainy season of his wife, lamenting him in their abode at Alakā, and begs a passing cloud to bear to his beloved the news of his welfare and the assurance of his devotion. From Rāmagiri, his place of exile, the cloud is bidden go, in the company of the cranes and the royal swans *en route* for Lake Mānasa, to the region of Māla and to mount Āmrakūṭa. Thereafter it is to seek the Daçārṇa country with its city of Vidiçā, and then must drink the waters of the Vetravatī before proceeding to visit Ujjayinī, after crossing the Nirvindhyā and the Sindhu. The shrine of Mahākāla must be visited, the Carmaṇvatī crossed, and the holy Brahmāvarta after passing Daçapura; there the cloud will visit the field of Kurukṣetra, the scene of Arjuna’s great deeds, and drink the water of the Sarasvatī, for which Balarāma, who fought not for love of his kin, abandoned his beloved wine. Thence it must go to where the Ganges descends from the Himālaya near mount Kanakhala, and then to Kailāsa, passing through the gap of mount Krauñca which Paraçurāma made as a path to the south. Then the water of lake Mānasa will refresh the cloud, and on the top of the mountain is Alakā where the beloved of the Yakṣa dwells. The delights of the divine city are fully depicted, and the poet then describes to the cloud the home he is to seek out; it can be seen from afar off through its archway; in the garden is a coral tree, its mistress’s pet, and a flight of emerald steps leads to a well in which golden lotuses grow, and the swans, delighted, think no more even of their beloved Mānasa. There is the beloved, sorrowful, and blighted by separation, emaciated, seeking by many a device to while away the long days until her husband’s return. Gently she is to be wakened from her slumber by the cloud, which is to give her a message of tender love from her husband, and an assurance of his faith and certainty of reunion.