#indianlitedit

A yaksha, requests a cloud to carry a message of love and longing to his lover who is far away. The yaksha hero of this poem serves the god of wealth, Kubera, and having failed in some responsibility, has been cursed to live for a year in Ramagiri in Vindhya mountains of Central India. The year proves too long to endure, for his lover who remains unnamed is a woman or yakshi who lives in Alaka, a city in the distant Himalayas. The yaksha is obsessed, he reminisces his past moments with his lover, and fantasizes that she too is lovesick for him. However, the Meghaduta is much more than a fanciful love-poem. The yaksha tries to motivate the cloud by describing the wonderful sights en route to Alaka, and the poem, thus, also works as a travelogue of an itinerary from the Vindhyas to the Himalayas.

Ritusamharam is a glorious ode to nature’s bounty and the enduring emotional response it evokes in mankind as a whole. Recounted as a celebration of the passing seasons, it is a feast for the senses, capturing the myriad facets of love and longing in a kaleidoscope of sumptuous imagery: the mischievous moonlight that, like a pining lover, steals glances at sleeping maidens; the monsoon-bloated rivers that rush to the sea with a lustful urgency; the flame of lovemaking that is kindled anew at the onset of winter; the heady scent of mango blossoms that makes even the most unyielding of hearts quiver. Even animals, big and small, are swept into the playful pattern of the great poet’s lyrical homage.

Raghuvamsam is an epic poem in classical Sanskrit. It recounts the legendary tales of the Raghu dynasty, whose scions include the divine hero of the Ramayana. In this majestic mahakavya, Kalidasa invokes the whole gamut of literary flavours, ranging from the erotic and the heroic to the tragic and comic, the horrific and peaceful. The descendants of Rama are also brought to life. Within these pages we see the ideal couple, Dilipa and Sudakshina, their son Raghu’s valour and generosity, the tragic love of Aja and Indumati, the travails of Dasaratha, the feats of Kusha and Atithi, and finally, the dynasty’s downfall with Sudarshana and Agnivarna.