Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

Kavya

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to ...

has a long history of its development. The idea of sending of a message, through a messenger, from one person to another is not to be found wanting in the Hindu epics but it was taken up as an independent theme for a poem firstly by Ghatakarpara and later on by

Kalidasa Kālidāsa (''fl.'' 4th–5th century CE) was a Classical Sanskrit author who is often considered ancient India's greatest poet and playwright. His plays and poetry are primarily based on the Vedas, the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata and t ...

, Dhoyi, Udaya,

Bhavabhuti Bhavabhūti (Devanagari: भवभूति) was an 8th-century scholar of India noted for his plays and poetry, written in Sanskrit. His plays are considered the equal of the works of Kalidasa. Bhavabhuti was born in Padmapura, Vidarbha, in Gondi ...

and many other poets of note. sandesh kavya also called DutaKavya or message poem Sandesha Kavya (

IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during ...

: sandeśa-kāvya) belongs to the category of Khandakavya.

Overview

language, ''sandeśa'' (संदेश) means "message", and '' kāvya'' (काव्य) means "poem" or "poetry". Sandesha kavya deals with the sending of a message through the agency of a messenger (Duta). The idea of sending a message through a messenger (Duta) is old and familiar in literature.

Ghatakarpara’s Sandesha Kavya

The fore-runner of ''Sandesha Kavya'' is a small poem bearing the title - "Poem of the Broken-jug" which is a poem by Ghatakarpara on the message sent to the husband by a wife who was in grief on account of separation; it deals with the lamentation of the abandoned wife who does not address her lamentation to one person alone but to the monsoon clouds, her confidante, her distant husband and some trees but none of them entrusted with the task of carrying her message. The poem is of twenty-four stanzas in five different metres. Even though nothing is known about the poet except his name which stands mentioned at the very end of the poem but he is believed to be contemporary of

and one of the Nine Gems in the court of Vikramāditya, though he does not reach the lofty, subtle, romantic height of Kalidasa.

Abhinavagupta Abhinavagupta (c. 950 – 1016 CE) was a philosopher, mystic and aesthetician from Kashmir. He was also considered an influential musician, poet, dramatist, exegete, theologian, and logicianRe-accessing Abhinavagupta, Navjivan Rastogi, pag ...

holds the view that this poem was actually written by Kalidasa, and has written a commentary on it, but the construction etc., of the poem indicates that Kalidasa did not write this poem.

Eminent Sandesha kavyas

In Kalidasa’s ''

Meghadūta } ''Meghadūta'' ( sa, मेघदूत literally ''Cloud Messenger'') is a lyric poem written by Kālidāsa (c. 4th–5th century CE), considered to be one of the greatest Sanskrit poets. It describes how a '' yakṣa'' (or nature spirit), wh ...

'', the messenger is the cloud, in Dohyi’s ''

Pavanadūta ''Pavanadūta'' (पवनदूत) or ''Wind Messenger'' was composed by Dhoyin or Dhoyī, a poet at the court of the Sena king Lakshmana who ruled Gauda, in what is now Bengal, during the latter part of the twelfth century CE. His Pavanadūta ...

'', the messenger is the wind, in Udaya’s ''Mayurasandeśa'', the messenger is the peacock. The methodology employed by Kalidāsa in the construction of his ''Meghadūta'', a lyric in a little over one hundred verses that personifies objects of Nature and describes Nature with all its beauties and glories, has been imitated by later Sanskrit poets. Pavanadhuta is written by Dhoyin a 12th century CE court poet the Gauda king

Lakshmana Lakshmana ( sa, लक्ष्मण, lit=the fortunate one, translit=Lakṣmaṇa), also spelled as Laxmana, is the younger brother of Rama and his loyalist in the Hindu epic '' Ramayana''. He bears the epithets of Saumitra () and Ramanuja ( ...

of the

Sena dynasty The Sena dynasty was a Hindu dynasty during the early medieval period on the Indian subcontinent, that ruled from Bengal through the 11th and 12th centuries. The empire at its peak covered much of the north-eastern region of the Indian subcont ...

. The poet narrates tells the story of a

gandharva A gandharva () is a member of a class of celestial beings in Dharmic religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, whose males are divine performers such as musicians and singers, and the females are divine dancers. In Hinduism, they are ...

maiden Kuvalayavatī who falls in love with King Lakshmana. She asks the wind ( Pavan) to take her message of love to the king.

used this metre for Act IX 25-26 of his ''Mālatīmādhava'' in which the abandoned Mādhava searching for a cloud to take his message to Mālatī speaks in ''Mandākrāntā metre''. These apart, there is the message sent by a devotee to the Lord described in '' Hamsasandeśa'' of Venkatanātha Vedāntadeśika, and the message from the wife to husband in ''Cakorasandeśa'' of Vāsudeva of Payyur.

Arrangement of content

Sandeśa kāvyas are always in two parts; in the first part, the hero is presented, there appears the messenger and the route to the destination is described. The second part includes the destination, the house of the heroine, the heroine and her state of grief in separation, the message describing the hero’s own condition and a word of solace, with an identification mark mentioning some incident the hero and the heroine could know, to assure that the messenger is genuine. The messenger can be anyone – a person, a bird, a bee or a cloud or wind, and that messenger provides very interesting descriptions of cities en route with palaces and temples, pubs and parks, theatres, mansions and streets; the country parts and forests, hills and rivers, animals and birds, trees, creepers and flowers, cultivated fields and peasant girls, artisans. Love in separation is the chief emotion depicted in this type of lyrical poetry and there is certain individuality in the treatment of the theme; this type of poetry is not found in any other literature.

Mandākrāntā metre

The

metre The metre ( British spelling) or meter ( American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its pre ...

used is known as ''

Mandākrāntā ( Sanskrit: ) is the name of a metre commonly used in classical Sanskrit poetry. The name in Sanskrit means "slow-stepping" or "slowly advancing". It is said to have been invented by India's most famous poet Kālidāsa, (5th century CE), who used ...

'' which is slow-moving and consists of ''pada'' of four lines each, with each line of seventeen syllables as in

Kālidāsa Kālidāsa (''fl.'' 4th–5th century CE) was a Classical Sanskrit author who is often considered ancient India's greatest poet and playwright. His plays and poetry are primarily based on the Vedas, the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata and ...

's poem

Stanza 15: :रत्नच्छायाव्यतिकर इव प्रेक्ष्यमेमत् पुरुस्ताद् वल्मीकाग्रात् प्रभवति धनुष्खण्डमाखण्डलस्य , :येन श्यामं वपुरतितरां कान्तिमापत्स्यते ते बर्हेणेव स्फुरितरुचीना गोपवेशस्य विष्णोः , , १५, , : : : : :, – – – – , u u u u u – , – u – – u – x , :"Like the blending of tints in the jewels, to the Eastward, at the top of the mountain of Valmīkā, will appear a portion of a bow of Akhandala (Indra), by means of which thy dark blue body will gain excessive beauty, like that of the Shepherd clad Vishnu (Lord Krishna) from peacock’s tail, which possesses glittering beauty."

In other Indian languages

Sandesha Kavyas are found written in many other Indian languages. ''

Unnuneeli Sandesham ''Uli Sandam'' is among the oldest works in Malayalam language. It is a '' sandesa kavyam'' (message poem), a message written in poetry, on the lines of the famous ''Meghadūta'' of Kalidasa. In the case of this work, it is a message written by a ...

'', one of the oldest literary works in

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam wa ...

language is composed as a Sandesha Kavya.Dr. K. Ayyappa Paniker (1977). ''A Short History of Malayalam Literature''. pp 25-26.

References

{{Reflist Sanskrit poetry Sanskrit words and phrases