A History of Indian Literature v3.c35.s8.88

v3.c35.s8.88

³ Cf. Eggeling, Ind. Off. Cat. p. 1467 ff; Haeberlin 374-400, 401-409. 323-347, 348-373. In the Padāṅka or Kṛṣṇapadāṅkadūta have been described the bewailings of a cowherdess, who discovered the footprint of Kṛṣṇa in the grove and is reminded thereby of her absent lover. In the Manodūta the poet Viṣṇudāsa makes his own mind the messenger for the purpose of giving expression to his own feeling of devotion to Viṣṇu; see Ind. Off. Cat. p. 1470. Another poem bearing the same title and composed by Vrajanātha (1758) is not really an imitation of Meghadūta. It describes the message that Draupadi sends to Lord Kṛṣṇa, while her garment is being removed from her body; see Km., Part XII, pp. 84-130; Krishnamacharya 128 f. There are number of verses in the Jātaka No. 297 (cf. Pischel, HL, 28 note), in which an impaled man gives a passing crow a love-complaint to his beloved: they are neither imitation nor prototype to these "messages", but are interesting parallels to these.