Come the first ever day of Aashadh, the fourth month in the Hindu calendar, and literally the whole of India goes lyrical and artistic. Well, the very occasion prompts such a beautiful transformation.
"Aashadh's pratham diwase, megham ashlisht sanum", the famous quote from the great messenger poem by Kalidasa, makes most all thus go evocatively creative year by year. Well, the very theme of the photographically realistic and yet deeply symbolic poem has this wondrous effect.
This year, i decided to have a look at two very unusual depictions of it. The first of these was the first ever English translation of this sensitive poem. This 1813 version is available in the Harvard University Library, and it is indeed a great feel to find it on the Internet Archives.
The second representation of the Kalidasa poem that i looked at was the 1960 postal stamp dedicated to this poem. Believe me, it is quite beautiful. It shows the emaciated Yaksha, a too elongated figure actually, even when we know his separation woes.
The rest of the ten paise ticket has a lovely combination of the cloud whom the yaksha is addressing, the distant places he would travel to, the flowers fluttering around but in a way almost like his everflowing tears, the beauty of the rain drenched month, the works, in brief!
Both these versions are absolute proof that years come and years go, but never vanishes the magic of great literature. Instead, it has the power to move, even if momentarily, the most prosaic and dull minutes of a typical day in to a wonderland! Long live literature!
Pratima@ Memory, even when faded, distant and thin, evokes an era long lost, but lyrical.
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