Meteorology and Metaphor

Chapter seven explores the Meghadūta’s ability to depict figurative scenes that are simultaneously accurate in their description of the natural world. Nature is not seen as a backdrop to the human drama, but as an integral part of it. The dynamics of Kālidasa’s landscape are compared to the verses of William Blake and the landscapes of Henry David Thoreau and Ann Dillard. The “fulcrum of loka” (meaning both “place” and “people” in Sanskrit) shows just how multivalent the landscape of the Meghadūta is. Examples are given, as in the Cloud’s visit to the divine abode of Śiva, in which the trees are upraised arms, and the red twilight hue makes the Cloud (thundering as a drum) resemble the god’s red elephant hide drum.