The History of Indian Literature c9.90

c9.90

The Erotic Lyric commences, for us, with certain of the poems attributed to Kálidása. One of these, the *Meghadúta*, belongs at all events to a period²¹⁹ when the temple worship of Śiva Mahákála at Ujjayiní was in its prime, as was still the case at the time of the first Muhammadan conquerors. Together with other matter of a like sort, it has been admitted, and under Kálidása's name, into the Tibetan Tandjur,∗ from which, however, no chronological deduction can be drawn, as the date of the final completion of this compilation is unknown. The subject of the *Meghadúta* is a message which an exile sends by a cloud to his distant love, together with the description of the route the cloud-messenger is to take—a form of exposition which has been imitated in a considerable number of similar poems. A peculiar class is composed of the sentences of Bhartṛihari, Amaru, &c., which merely portray isolated situations, without any connection as a whole. A favourite topic is the story of the loves of Kṛishṇa and the shepherdesses, the playmates of his youth. It has already been remarked that the later Kávyas are to be ranked with the erotic poems rather than with the epic. In general, this love-poetry is of the most unbridled and extravagantly sensual description; yet examples of deep and truly romantic tenderness of feeling are not wanting. It is remarkable that, in regard to some of these poems, we encounter the same phenomenon as in the case of the Song of Solomon: a mystical interpretation is put upon them, and in one instance at least, the Gíta-Govinda of Jayadeva,219a such a mystical reference appears really to have been intended by the poet, however incompatible this may at first sight seem with the particularly wanton exuberance of fancy which is here displayed.