Meghadūta

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This article is about the ancient Indian poem. For the Indian military operation, see Operation Meghdoot.
King looking at a cloud in a night sky. Meghadūta illustration. Guler School of Pahari painting, c. 1800. Lahore Museum
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

Meghadūta (

lyric poem written by Kālidāsa (c. 4th–5th century CE), considered to be one of the greatest 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 Sanskrit 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.

About the poem

A poem of 120

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

Hansa Bird to carry a message to Sita
, describing sights along the journey.

In 1813, the poem was first translated into

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]

An excerpt is quoted in Canadian director Deepa Mehta's film, Water. The poem was also the inspiration for Gustav Holst's The Cloud Messenger Op. 30 (1909–10).

Simon Armitage appears to reference Meghaduta in his poem ‘Lockdown’.

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

Visualisation of Meghadūta

Meghadūta describes several scenes and is a rich source of inspiration for many artists.

An example are the drawings by Nana Joshi.[7]

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]

Influence

Indian filmmaker Debaki Bose adapted the play into a 1945 film titled Meghdoot.[9]

See also

Editions

  • Wilson, Horace Hayman (1813). The Mégha Dúta, Or, Cloud Messenger: A Poem, in the Sanscrit Language. Calcutta: College of Fort William. Retrieved 11 November 2010.. 2nd ed 1843 Introduction, text with English verse translation, and assorted footnotes.
  • Johann Gildemeister, ed. (1841), Kalidasae Meghaduta et Cringaratilaka ex recensione: additum est glossarium, H.B. König. Kalidasae Meghaduta et Çringaratilaka: additum est glossariumMeghaduta ; et, Çringaratilaka Sanskrit text, with introduction and some critical notes in Latin.
  • The Megha-dūta (3 ed.), Trübner & co., 1867 With Sanskrit text, English translation and more extensive notes separately.
  • Colonel H. A. Ouvry (1868), The Megha dūta: or, Cloud messenger, Williams and Norgate The Megha Dūta: Or, Cloud Messenger. A prose translation.
  • Ludwig Fritze (1879), Meghaduta, E. Schmeitzner. German translation.
  • The Megha duta; or, Cloud messenger: a poem, in the Sanscrit language, Upendra Lal Das, 1890. Hayman's translation, with notes and translation accompanying the Sanskrit text.
  • Exhaustive notes on the Meghaduta, Bombay: D.V. Sadhale & Co., 1895 Exhaustive Notes on the Meghaduta: Comprising Various Readings, the Text with the Commentary of .... Text with
    Mallinātha
    's commentary Sanjīvanī. Separate sections for English translation, explanation of Sanskrit phrases, and other notes.
  • Eugen Hultzsch, ed. (1911), Kalidasa's Meghaduta: Edited from manuscripts With the Commentary of Vallabhadeva and Provided With a Complete Sanskrit-English Vocabulary, Royal Asiatic society, London Kalidasa's Meghaduta
  • T. Ganapati Sastri, ed. (1919), Meghaduta with the commentary of Daksinavartanatha
  • Sri sesaraj Sarma Regmi, ed. (1964), Meghadutam of mahakavi Kalidasa (in Sanskrit and Hindi), chowkhmba vidybhavan varanasi-1
  • Ramakrishna Rajaram Ambardekar, ed. (1979), Rasa structure of the Meghaduta - A critical study of Kalidaas's Meghaduta in the light of Bharat's Rasa Sootra (in English and Sanskrit)

Translations

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

  • The Bengali poet Buddhadeva Bose translated Meghadūta into Bengali in 1957.
  • Dr. Jogindranath Majumdar translated Meghaduta in Bengali keeping its original 'Mandakranta Metre' for the first time published in 1969
  • Acharya Dharmanand Jamloki Translated Meghduta in Garhwali and was well known for his work.
  • Bhojpuri Language
    .
  • Many Nepali poets such as Jiwanath Updhyaya Adhikari, Shiva Kumar Pradhan, Biswa Raj Adhikari have translated Meghduta in Nepali language[10]
  • Mukhathala G.Arjunan translated Meghaduta in Malayalam keeping its original 'Mandakranta Metre'
  • Bahasa Malaysia
    prose form in Thirukkural dan Megha Duta (2018)

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. ISBN 978-0-948911-40-8
    .
  10. ^ Monica (23 April 2018). "Writer Pradhan passes away". The Himalayan Times. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
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