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itself. Though small in size, it is indeed voluminous, for it is packed up with lucid and charming language, striking thoughts and sentiment of love. The sentiment of pathos and the tender emotions are described in this poem admirably through the Mandākrāntā metre which is specially fitted to describe journeys, rainy season and pitiable conditions. This work is diversified with appealing apophthegms scattered here and there. The various places of interest like mountains, cities, rivers are astonishingly and accurately described. The changes brouglit about in nature by the advent of the monsoon are masterly portrayed by the great poet, Kālidāsa, the best of all poets. Though the sentiment of love is found to have drawn near to the very verge of the obscene, the high level is, on the whole, maintained. In the first half of the journey of the cloud, the poet has described the cloud as one playing the lover. While describing the speech addressed by the Yaksa to the cloud-messenger to worship Mabākāla, Caraṇanyāsa etc., the poet is found referring to his own belief. Though the city of Alakā is described conventionally, the Yakşa's mansion is so graphically described that it rises up before the mind's eye of the reader.
The Yakśa's wife and her amusements are described in such a way that the sentiment of pathos is extremely evoked. The picture of a stran t is conventionally depicted by the poet and placed before us. This part appeals very powerfully to the reader. The description of the message which is described as being given by the Yakşa himself to his wife is an unparalleled master-piece of the poetic work of Kālidāşa. The Yaksa is described as describing, first of all, the thoughts, concerning his wife, constantly launting his mind and the misery experienced by him, owing to his separation from his beloved. His mental excitement, caused by his separation from his beloved, is described so great that owing to the tears gathering in his eyes, he is deprived of his capacity of drawing a picture similar to his wife's form on a slab and so
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