Meghadūta

Last updated

King looking at a cloud in a night sky. Meghaduta illustration. Guler School of Pahari painting, c. 1800. Lahore Museum Megh Dutam Illustration.jpg
King looking at a cloud in a night sky. Meghadūta illustration. Guler School of Pahari painting, c. 1800. Lahore Museum
A Sanskrit manuscript of meghduutm (Meghadutam), the celebrated long poem by Kalidasa, fl. ca. 5th century AD, India. A manuscript Meghdutam by Kalidas.pdf
A Sanskrit manuscript of मेघदूतम् (Meghadūtam), the celebrated long poem by Kālidāsa, fl. ca. 5th century AD, India.
A scene from Meghaduta with the yaksha and the cloud messenger, with the first verse of the poem - on an Indian stamp (1960) Stamp of India - 1960 - Colnect 141770 - 1 - Yaksha pleading with the cloud from the - Meghaduta.jpeg
A scene from Meghaduta with the yaksha and the cloud messenger, with the first verse of the poem - on an Indian stamp (1960)
Artist's impression of Kalidasa composing the Meghaduta Kalidasa inditing the cloud Messenger, A.D. 375.jpg
Artist's impression of Kalidasa composing the Meghaduta

Meghadūta (Bengali : মেঘদূত, Sanskrit: मेघदूतम्, literally Cloud Messenger) [1] is a lyric poem written by Kālidāsa (c. 4th–5th century CE), considered to be one of the greatest classical sanskrit poets. It describes how a yakṣa (or nature spirit), who had been banished by his master to a remote region for a year, asked a cloud to take a message of love to his wife. The poem became well-known in Bengali literature and inspired other poets to write similar poems (known as "messenger-poems", or Sandesha Kavya) on similar themes. Korada Ramachandra Sastri wrote Ghanavrttam, [2] a sequel to Meghaduta.

Contents

About the poem

A poem of 120 [3] stanzas, it is one of Kālidāsa's most famous works. The work is divided into two parts, Purva-megha and Uttara-megha. It recounts how a yakṣa, a subject of King Kubera (the god of wealth), after being exiled for a year to Central India for neglecting his duties, convinces a passing cloud to take a message to his wife at Alaka on Mount Kailāsa in the Himālaya mountains. [4] The yakṣa accomplishes this by describing the many beautiful sights the cloud will see on its northward course to the city of Alakā, where his wife awaits his return.

In Sanskrit literature, the poetic conceit used in the Meghaduta spawned the genre of Sandesa Kavya or messenger poems, most of which are modeled on the Meghaduta (and are often written in the Meghaduta's Mandākrāntā metre). Examples include the Hamsa-sandesha, in which Rama asks a Hansa Bird to carry a message to Sita, describing sights along the journey.

In 1813, the poem was first translated into English by Horace Hayman Wilson. Since then, it has been translated several times into various languages. As with the other major works of Sanskrit literature, the most famous traditional commentary on the poem is by Mallinātha.

The great scholar of Sanskrit literature, Arthur Berriedale Keith, wrote of this poem: "It is difficult to praise too highly either the brilliance of the description of the cloud’s progress or the pathos of the picture of the wife sorrowful and alone. Indian criticism has ranked it highest among Kalidasa’s poems for brevity of expression, richness of content, and power to elicit sentiment, and the praise is not undeserved." [5]

It is believed the picturesque Ramtek near Nagpur inspired Kalidasa to write the poem. [6]

Visualisation of Meghadūta

Meghadūta describes several scenes and has inspired many artists, including the drawings by Nana Joshi. [7] An excerpt is quoted in Canadian director Deepa Mehta's film, Water. Simon Armitage appears to reference Meghaduta in his poem "Lockdown".[ citation needed ]

The composer Fred Momotenko wrote the composition 'Cloud-Messenger', music for a multimedia performance with recorder, dance, projected animation and electronics in surround audio. The world premiere was at Festival November Music, with Hans Tuerlings (choreography), Jasper Kuipers (animation), Jorge Isaac (blockflutes) and dancers Gilles Viandier and Daniela Lehmann. [8]

The English composer Gustav Holst set the Meghadūta to music in his 1910 choral work, The Cloud Messenger , Opus 30. [9]

The Indian filmmaker Debaki Bose adapted the play into a 1945 film titled Meghdoot. [10]

In 2019, Priti Pandguangan re-created Meghadūtam as an electronic literature piece for the Electronic Literature Organization Collection 4. [11]

See also

Editions

Translations

The Meghadūta has been translated many times in many Indian languages.

References

  1. "Meghdutam" . Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  2. Korada, Ramachandra Sastri (1917). Ghanavritham.
  3. Pathak, K. B. (1916), Kalidasa's Meghaduta, pp. xxi–xxvii.
  4. Wilson (1813), page xxi.
  5. Keith, A. B. (1928). A History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 86.
  6. "History | District Nagpur,Government of Maharashtra | India" . Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  7. Joshi, Nana. "A Visual Interpretation of Kalidas' Meghadūta". Joshi Artist. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
  8. "Alfred Momotenko-Levitsky, composer". www.alfredmomotenko.com.
  9. Matthews, Colin. "Holst, Gustav". Grove Music Online. Archived from the original on 31 May 2020. Retrieved 22 March 2013.(subscription required)
  10. Sanjit Narwekar (1994). Directory of Indian Film-makers and Films. Flicks Books. p. 59. ISBN   978-0-948911-40-8.
  11. "Electronic Literature Collection Volume 4". collection.eliterature.org. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
  12. "Meghadūta kā Hindī-gadya mein bhāvārth-bodhak anuvād". Wikisource (in Hindi). Retrieved 2 October 2024.
  13. "Meghdutam - Hindi Translation by Bijendra Kumar Sharma". Internet Archive. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
  14. "Shyamala Kant Varma". Hindi Samay. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
  15. "Meghdoot: A Poem and Translation of the Great Poet Kalidas". Exotic India. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
  16. Monica (23 April 2018). "Writer Pradhan passes away". The Himalayan Times. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
Text
Translations
Recordings
About the work