Meghadūta: A Comparative Study of Western and Eastern (Malayalam) Critical Perspectives

Author(s): Dr. KS Latha

Abstract:

The comparative study of Western and Eastern perspectives on Meghadūta demonstrates that the poem’s richness lies precisely in its openness to diverse critical approaches. Western critics illuminate its lyrical beauty, emotional universality, and artistic perfection, while Eastern-especially Malayalam-scholars uncover its deeper aesthetic, cultural, and symbolic dimensions grounded in rasa, dhvani, and cultural geography. Together, these readings affirm Meghadūta as both a timeless work of world literature and a profound expression of Indian poetic consciousness.
This paper offers a comparative critical study of Kālidāsa’s Meghadūta through Western and Eastern-especially Indian and Malayalam-scholarly perspectives. Western critics primarily approach the poem as a universal romantic lyric, emphasizing its aesthetic beauty, pictorial imagery, and emotional refinement. In contrast, Eastern critics interpret Meghadūta within the framework of Sanskrit poetics, foregrounding concepts such as śṛṅgāra rasa, vipralambha, and dhvani. Malayalam scholars further extend this tradition by reading the poem as an emotional travelogue in which Indian geography becomes a symbolic map of longing and separation. By juxtaposing these perspectives, the study demonstrates that Meghadūta simultaneously functions as a masterpiece of world lyric poetry and as a culturally rooted aesthetic text deeply embedded in Indian emotional and philosophical thought. The paper concludes that Western and Eastern readings are complementary rather than contradictory, together enriching the interpretative possibilities of Kālidāsa’s celebrated poem.

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Pages: 109-111     |    3 View     |    0 Download