Indian Antiquary Vol 59

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 126

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JUNE, 1930
NATURE STUDY IN THE SANSKRIT POEM MEGHADOTA.
BY LILY DEXTER GREENE, PH.D. In a perusal of the Sanskrit poems and dramas, we find wonderful descriptions of natural scenery. These are used in such a way as to show real appreciation of material beauty of form, richness of colour and freshness of poetic fancy.
It is my purpose to make a study of Sanskrit Literature, with particular reference to these descriptions, and to find out, as far as possible, the names and principal physical aspects of the plants mentioned, and to show how the poetic fancy of the Hindu writer uses these wonderfully realistic descriptions to embellish his story, as he weaves his noblest thoughts and deepest feelings into a peculiarly variegated pattern.
These nature descriptions are not in the least prosaic and dull, but with accuracy of observation and delicacy of expression, the poet draws pictures that stand out vividly and challenge our highest praise.
First of all, let us consider Kalidasa's poem, "The Cloud Messenger," or, as it is called in Sanskrit, Meghadata. The subject of this poem is a simple one, but rather unique. One of the attendants of Kuvera has angered him, and, as a result, is condemned to a period of twelve months' exile from his home. In the lonely sacred forest, he longs to send some message to his wife, but as there is no human being to convey it, he calls upon the cloud, one of those (ccoy masses seen in a tropical sky at the beginning of the monsoon.
The whole poem is full of beautiful imagery and replete with many references of mytho. logical and local value. The Yaksha, who is the central figure, is an inferior divinity, and an attendant of Kuvera, the god of wealth, but he remembers, that the first duty of a polite suppliant is to offer an oblation, as if to a guest, or to a fellow deity. The usual oblation is called argha ( = boat) because of the boat-shaped vessel in which it is offored. It consists of water, milk, points of kuća grass, curds, ghi, rice, barley and white mustard.
Various deities are offered special oblations, but here, with true poetic feeling, Kalidasa substitutes the fragrant white blossoms of the Kutaya tree, instead of the more prosaic offerings. These now-blown buds are wonderfully fragrant, pure white in colour, and blossom at the beginning of the rainy season. This small mountain tree (Wrightia antidysenterica, Roxb., Holarrhena antidysenterica, Wall.) grows in various parts of India in elevated regions, and is commonly called karaya, kutaja, or kutaya. The seeds and bark of the kulaya are both considcrcd very beneficiai in certain diseases.
Stanza 17
As the cloud passes on its way, bearing the message to the wife of the Yaksha, it is told to dass eastward, and the reference to " Indra's bow" means the rainbow
Thenco sailing to the north and veering to the west
On Amrakůţa's lofty ridges rest." and in stanza 18, there is a fanciful, but picturesque idea in the words
"When o'er the wooded mountain's towering head,
Thy hovering shades like flowing tresses spread." stany 20 the mountain rivulets on the slopes are very realistically portrayed, where the Revå (i.c., Narmada) stream 18 spoken of in the following passage:
“Whose slender streams upon the brown hill's side,
Like painted streaks upon the dusky hide
Of the tall elephant." One who has travelled in the higher ranges of the Himalaya mountains during the rainy season will fully appreciate the scene where the streams "through stones and stocks wind slow their arduous way.”
This and the subsequent quotations within inverted commas aro from H. H. Wilson's translation in vorse, first published at Calcutta in 1914.