aashADhasyapraSamadivasE ...

When I read about the month of aashADha, I suddenly remembered kAlidAsa's mEghadUtam. In it the second poem talks of the month of aashADha. It was the end of the month of aashADha. The yaksha, cursed by kubEra, was biding his time on the mountains of rAmagiri. He was separated from his wife. Due to worry and sorrow, he was emaciated. Even his golden bracelet was hanging loosely on his hand. His eyes fell on the mountain top and there he saw dark clouds which looked like an elephant ready to play in the stream.

तस्मिन्नद्रौ कतिचिदबलाविप्रयुक्तः स कामी
नित्वा मासान कनकवलयभ्रंशरिक्तप्रकॊष्ठः
आषाढस्य प्रशमदिवसॆ मॆघमाश्लिश्टसानुं
वप्रक्रीडापरिणतगजप्रॆक्षणीयं ददर्श

kAlidAsa wrote the entire of mEghadUta of more than hundred stanzas in the mandAkrAnta meter, a feat in itself. mandAkrAnta is a majestic meter moving slowly, gently, but mellifluously. A puzzle for the reader here. Can you mention a SlOka in this metre which is normally used in the daily Hindu prayers? The postal department issued a stamp in the fifties or sixties with the the last two lines of the second poem whose meaning is given above. I took the picture of an elephant shaped dark cloud and assembled into a pattern to mark this.

In the early fifties, B N Reddy directed vAhini's mallISvari, perhaps the best movie ever produced in Telugu. There the mEghsandESa theme was used in a song, sung by bhAnumati and ghanTasAla (bhAnumati and N T Rama Rao acted in the film) and tuned by rAjESvara rAv. You may catch it at the following youtube link:

aakASavIdhilO - bhAnumati and ghaMTasAla - mallISvari -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFygUni3xZk

In another movie mEghasandESam, yEsudAs sang the following song, tuned by ramES nAyuDu, that fetched him the best Indian singer award for that year.

aakASa dESAna aashADha mAsAna - yEsudAs - mEghasaMdESaM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFmYj30vN5A&feature=PlayList&p=5973143FB3...

Regards! - mOhana