Kālidāsa The Poet Upamā Cloud Mountain Moon Artists Simile Gallery Journey Ask Present

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He did not merely describe the world. He taught us to see it differently.

The Poet

Seven works, one way of seeing

Lyric poem

Meghadūta

The Cloud Messenger — an exiled Yakṣa sends a monsoon cloud to his beloved.

Drama

Abhijñānaśākuntalam

The recognition of Śakuntalā — love, forgetting and remembrance.

Epic poem

Raghuvaṃśa

The lineage of Raghu, ancestors of Rāma.

Epic poem

Kumārasambhava

The birth of Kumāra — Śiva, Pārvatī and the Himālaya.

Lyric poem

Ṛtusaṃhāra

The gathering of the seasons.

Drama

Mālavikāgnimitram

Mālavikā and king Agnimitra.

Drama

Vikramorvaśīyam

Urvaśī won by valour.

Upamā

Look at this — and see that

Face

↓

Moon

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LightCoolnessNightBeautyLonging

A simile is a door.

01 — Cloud

Tap a word. Feel its weight.

कश्चित्कान्ताविरहगुरुणा स्वाधिकारात्प्रमत्तः शापेनास्तंगमितमहिमा वर्षभोग्येण भर्तुः । यक्षश्चक्रे जनकतनयास्नानपुण्योदकेषु स्निग्धच्छायातरुषु वसतिं रामगिर्याश्रमेषु ॥

A certain Yakṣa, careless in his duty, was cursed by his master to a year's exile — his greatness set like the sun, made heavy by separation from his beloved. He made his home among the hermitages of Rāmagiri, where the waters are holy from Sītā's bathing and the trees cast deep, gentle shade.

Meghadūta — Pūrva-megha 1

Draft rendering — needs scholarly review

02 — Mountain

The measuring rod of the earth

अस्त्युत्तरस्यां दिशि देवतात्मा हिमालयो नाम नगाधिराजः । पूर्वापरौ तोयनिधी वगाह्य स्थितः पृथिव्या इव मानदण्डः ॥

In the north there is a mountain whose very soul is divine — Himālaya by name, king of mountains. Plunging into the eastern and western oceans, he stands like a measuring rod laid across the earth.

Kumārasambhava 1.1

Draft rendering — needs scholarly review

03 — Moon

A flaw that sinks into light

अनन्तरत्नप्रभवस्य यस्य हिमं न सौभाग्यविलोपि जातम् । एको हि दोषो गुणसंनिपाते निमज्जतीन्दोः किरणेष्विवाङ्कः ॥

For the mountain, source of endless jewels, snow did not diminish its glory. A single flaw, amid a host of virtues, sinks out of sight — as the dark mark of the moon sinks into its own rays.

Kumārasambhava 1.3

Draft rendering — needs scholarly review

Artists

Word → Image → Eye

Śakuntalā by Raja Ravi Varma — **Śakuntalā** — Raja Ravi Varma (1848–1906), c. 1870s–1890s. Oil on canvas. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain (artist died 1906). Collection details to be verified before print.

दर्भाङ्कुरेण चरणः क्षत इत्यकाण्डे तन्वी स्थिता कतिचिदेव पदानि गत्वा । आसीद्विवृत्तवदना च विमोचयन्ती शाखासु वल्कलमसक्तमपि द्रुमाणाम् ॥

After only a few steps the slender girl stopped for no reason — ‘a blade of darbha grass has pricked my foot’ — and stood with her face turned back, freeing her bark garment from the branches, though it was not caught at all.

Abhijñānaśākuntalam 2.12

Draft rendering — needs scholarly review

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