Appointment with Kalidasa

Author(s): G K Bhatt
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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Literary Works
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in concept, poetic style, superb imagination, masterly execution and in profound, heart-stirring emotional appeal it is a lyrical gem that can hardly be matched. The poem has a slender but delectable narrative thread which accounts for its genesis and which runs through its colourful fabric. A Yakşa, servant of the lord of Alakā, Kubera, made some mistake in his duty; Kubera punished him with a curse, banishing him from Alakā into exile for a period of one year. As the poem opens, the Yakşa has passed eight months of his bapishment, living alone on the Rāmagiri, away from his loving wife. The first day of Aşādha augurs the advent of the Rainy season and the sight of an elephantine cloud, black with rain-water, butting at the line of the horizon, fills Yakşa's eyes with tears, bringing up his suppressed sorrow of separation, because the monsoon period is always hard on lovers close to each other in love but separated. An idea of sending a message of love and assurance to the pining wife far away in Alakā through the roaming cloud takes shape in the mind of the Yakşa. As a matter of fact, a cloud is merely an aggregate of smoke, fire, water and windy vapour, and lacks the intelligent, efficient sense organs for picking up, understanding and delivering a message couched in human language. But intense love, particularly the soul-scorching agony of separated love, can blind a person to the obvious, taking away the normal ability to distinguish between the animate and the inanimate. So, the Yakșa decided to uncover his soul in agony before the cloud and turn him into his personal messenger Hence the title of the poem.
The Yaksa offered the cloud a loving greeting with the Kutaja flowers and spoke to him with words of tender love and persuasion. He praised the cloud for his high lineage and described him as the 'Praksti-purusa' of the bounteous Indra: he relied on the supreme quality of the cloud as a 'refuge of the tortured' and persuaded him to take with him his message to the city of Alakā in the Kailasa mountain range, where the presence of Siva bathes perpetually the terraces of its mansions in brilliant moonlight.
The Yakşa then proceeds to describe the route the cloud can take to reach Alakā from Rāmagiri. It is a glowing description of various places, and not a geographical tour tinged with historical or legendary information. With every place mentioned on the route, the poet creates an image, a picture framed with ornate or poetic detail. The places will have their own charm each to delight the cloud; there wiil be birds, rivers, and women to greet him ar.d show him the way : there will be rest-places like mountain-tops and occasions for personal enjoyment when the cloud came across a river; there will be places to offer devotional service, and opportunities to earn the gratitude of rain-thirsty earth, birds or the agricultural community. For example : the flying cranes can keep company with the cloud in his long journey, at least part of the way; and the Sāranga birds can show him the way. The river Rewā or Narmadā, breaking into several streams on the marble rocks will present the likeness of a huge black elephant decorated with white strips of colour. The fragrant earth and