Triveni Journal

1927 | 11,233,916 words

Triveni is a journal dedicated to ancient Indian culture, history, philosophy, art, spirituality, music and all sorts of literature. Triveni was founded at Madras in 1927 and since that time various authors have donated their creativity in the form of articles, covering many aspects of public life....

Kalidasas’ Megha Dooth

Dr. C. Jacob

Whether the kavya ‘Megha Dooth’ written by Kalidas in Sanskrit comes under one of the five Maha Kavyas in Sanskrit or not, it is a classic. It would not lose its value by passage of time. The MEGHA DOOTH kavya is known as Megha Sandesam in Telugu. Kalidas seems to have read the infinite book of nature, more particularly the minds of men and their nature. The ethical aspects Kalidas touches in his kavyas are eternal truths.

MEGHA SANDESAM is the story of a person by name Yaksha who is banished by king Kubera to stay away from his young, wholesome wife for one year as a punishment for his inadvertance in discharging his official duties. What a typical punishment it is! The order of the king has to be obeyed. So Yaksha leaves the country. Soon starts in him the pangs of separation from his beloved wife. He feels the necessicity of a good messenger to convey his feelings to his wife. Having found none readily available to be entrusted with this work, his eyes fall on a cloud as a readily available alternative. So he seeks his help. He requests the cloud to convey the message of his welfare to his wife at a distant place. From now on, Kalidas passes on many a morals to his readers, of course indirectly which have permanent values, keeping them spellbound all through the time.

Yaksha prefers the cloud to carry his message to his lovely wife because he finds many noble qualities and capabilities in him. First he addresses the cloud with great de­votion and speaks in praise of his good qualities. The cloud is naturally pleased and reacts positively. Yaksha is doubly confident that the cloud can efficiently fulfil his wish. In this context the great poet, Kalidas observes: “If we behave pleasingly towards others, others also behave pleasingly towards us.”

Yaksha starves of sex. He is young. He is subjected to emotions. He loses the power of reasoning. If not so, how can he believe that an inanimate thing like the cloud will act as his messenger? Man blinded by sexual passions sometimes becomes timid. Though yaksha is bold by nature, tormented by the arrows of Manmadha he loses all his courage, self-confidence and self-dignity. Only humility and submissiveness remain in him. Here Kalidas remarks, “The lowly and the mean beg anybody, anything”.

Yaksha extols the noble qualities of the cloud in several ways. He praises him and flatters him and slowly prepares him to oblige and undertake the task. He in fact pleases the cloud by saying that it is his nature always to help others. Here says Kalidas: “The riches of great men lies not in serving themselves but only in alleviating the sufferings of others.”

Yaksha now imagines and tells the cloud what will be the exact state of his wife by the time he reaches her. He acquaints the cloud in detail with the distinguishing features of his lovely wife by the help of which anybody can identify her. He treats the cloud as his friend. He is conscious of the danger of sending a friend to his wife, that too during night time and after long separation. Kalidas tells a beautiful truth here through the mouth of Yaksha. Yaksha addresses the cloud like this: “You may doubt the propriety of a stranger visiting a woman during night time but you need not, because my wife is a chaste, righteous woman.” That means, a chaste and righteous woman can be approached by anybody at any time without any hesitation and without blemish to her character.

The love-sick Yaksha tells the cloud what words he has to utter first on seeing his wife. He explains to him how his wife will be anxious to know about his welfare and extends hospitality to him with utmost care and regard, being filled with unbounded joy.

He assures him of such kind treatment and adds that he need not have any doubt about it. In this context Kalidas makes this remark: “A message brought to a lady from her beloved husband by a trustworthy friend is like her husband himself coming to her straight.”

Yaksha, the hero of the story, next requests the cloud to console his wife by telling her not to be distressed at all for his plight because he is coming to her soon, soon after the punishment ceases. He asks the cloud to impress upon his wife that he has survived all these days by imagining the pleasures he is going to enjoy when he joins her and that she might also do the same. Let us now hear what Kalidas is going to tell through the mouth of Yaksha here. Yaksha says, “Hear me my darling. To none in this world joys and sorrows are unending. Like the bars in a wheel they go up and further down.”

The woe-be-gone young man, Yaksha instructs the cloud as to how he has to travel, where to stop and where to rest, where to glance at and pass on. All the while Yaksha euologises the cloud for the quality of his rendering service to others disinterestedly. The cloud patiently hears what all Yaksha says all the time without saying a word in reply. Yaksha takes his silence as a sign of acceptance. So he praises the cloud that to say anything in reply is against his nature besides being derogatory to his magnanimity. The philosophic expression of Kalidas in this context is remarkable. It is easy to say but difficult to do. Good men never make verbal promises but show everything in deeds when their help is sought.”

All the kavyas of Kalidas are bound in great truths which have eternal value. One should read Kalidas to enrich himself with knowledge that is necessary to understand human nature and how to live.

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