The Meghaduta or Cloud Messenger is one of the masterpieces of Indian, indeed world literature. {1} Its 120-odd stanzas, each of four unrhymed lines, were written in the Mandakrata {2} metre at some time between 100 BC and 500 AD. {3} The Mandakrata is a long metre, moving slowly like the python, with a form as follows: {4} {5} Kalakalah, the ferry in the sound, now lets great boats lie. Beneath bold, broad, stone forts in which stiff Brits fix pride, lie little boats aground. Wet, wild, welcome, warm they hint at bitter storms. Bold, bitten barricades fall. Whose to say "fly," if nits pick petty fights and the work wanders widely? Each line has 17 syllables and 10 stresses (or, more accurately, long syllables, as Sanskrit poetry is quantitative.) The stanza is richly elaborated and tightly knit {6}, so that each stands as a somewhat individual creation. When we realize that Indian poetry is often richly sensuous, moreover, with a leaning towards reflection and speculation un...