A VISUAL INTERPRETATION OF KALIDAS’ MEGHADUTA

ABSTRACT

For the Menaka Diwali issue of 1979, artist Nana Joshi created nine colour visualisations of verses from the Meghadūta. Meghadūta (मेघदूत, also spelled as Meghdoot, literally means cloud messenger) is a lyrical poem in Sanskrit by Kalidasa from the 4th century AD. Nana Joshi’s visualisations were based on the Marathi translation of Meghadūta by poet Kusumagraj (VV Shirwadkar, कुसुमाग्रज). As these visualisations became popular, these (along with some other illustrations) were re-published in a book form by Menaka Prakashan in the Marathi translation of Meghadūta by Dr. Vasant Patwardhan. Nana Joshi created several more black and white illustrations for the book.

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