THE MEGHADUTA 85 harshness a metre so elaborate as the Mandākrāntā is conclusive proof that he was no novice, though we may admit the possibility that he desired by this metrical tour de force to establish his capacity once and for all, and to exhibit himself as a great poet. Suggestions for the subject-matter may have been taken from the Rāmāyaṇa,' where Rāma's deep longing for his lost Sītā offers an obvious prototype for the Yakṣa's sorrow for the wife from whom he is severed, and the description of the rainy season in iv. 28 has some points of similarity. But the idea is carried out with marked originality and beauty. A Yakṣa banished for a year by Çiva his master, because of failure of duty, is reminded by the approach of the rainy season of his wife, lamenting him in their abode at Alakã, and begs a passing cloud to bear to his beloved the news of his welfare and the assurance of his devotion. From Rāmagiri, his place of exile, the cloud is bidden go, in the company of the cranes and the royal swans en route for Lake Mānasa, to the region of Māla and to mount Amrakūṭa. Thereafter it is to seek the Daçārṇa country with its city of Vidiçã, and then must drink the waters of the Vetravati before proceeding to visit Ujjayini, after crossing the Nirvindhyā and the Sindhu. The shrine of Mahākāla must be visited, the Carmaṇvati crossed, and the holy Brahma-arta after passing Daçapura; there the cloud will visit the field of Kuruksetra, the scene of Arjuna's great deeds, and drink the water of the Sarasvati, for which Balarama, who fought not for love of his kin, abandoned his beloved wine. Thence it must go to where the Ganges descends from the Himalaya near mount Kanakhala, and then to Kailasa, passing through the gap of mount Krauñca which Paraçurāma made as a path to the south. Then the water of lake Mānasa will refresh the cloud, and on the top of the mountain is Alakã where the beloved of the Yakṣa dwells. The delights of the divine city are fully depicted, and the poet then describes to the cloud the home he is to seek out; it can be seen from afar off through its archway; in the garden is a coral trec, its mistress's pet, and a flight of emerald steps leads to a well in which golden lotuses grow, and the swans, delighted, think no more even of their beloved Manasa. There is the beloved, sorrowful, and blighted by separation, emaciated, 1 There is in the Kämavilāpa Jataka (ii. 443) a very distant parallel.
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