dynasty. The poet narrates tells the story of a gandharva maiden Kuvalayavatī who falls in love with King Lakshmana. She asks the wind (Pavan) to take her message of love to the king. Bhavabhuti used this metre for Act IX 25-26 of his Mālatīmādhava in which the abandoned Mādhava searching for a cloud to take his message to Mālatī speaks in Mandākrāntā metre. These apart, there is the message sent by a devotee to the Lord described in Hamsasandeśa of Venkatanātha Vedāntadeśika, and the message from the wife to husband in Cakorasandeśa of Vāsudeva of Payyur. Arrangement of content Sandeśa kāvyas are always in two parts; in the first part, the hero is presented, there appears the messenger and the route to the destination is described. The second part includes the destination, the house of the heroine, the heroine and her state of grief in separation, the message describing the hero’s own condition and a word of solace, with an identification mark mentioning some incident the hero and the heroine could know, to assure that the messenger is genuine. The messenger can be anyone – a person, a bird, a bee or a cloud or wind, and that messenger provides very interesting descriptions of cities en route with palaces and temples, pubs and parks, theatres, mansions and streets; the country parts and forests, hills and rivers, animals and birds, trees, creepers and flowers, cultivated fields and peasant girls, artisans. Love in separation is the chief emotion depicted in this type of lyrical poetry and there is certain individuality in the treatment of the theme; this type of poetry is not found in any other literature. Mandākrāntā metre The metre used is known as Mandākrāntā which is slow-moving and consists of pada of four lines each, with each line of seventeen syllables as in Kālidāsa's poem Meghadūta Stanza 15: रत्नच्छायाव्यतिकर इव प्रेक्ष्यमेमत् पुरुस्ताद् वल्मीकाग्रात् प्रभवति धनुष्खण्डमाखण्डलस्य | येन श्यामं वपुरतितरां कान्तिमापत्स्यते ते बर्हेणेव स्फुरितरुचीना गोपवेशस्य विष्णोः ||१५|| | – – – – | u u u u u – | – u – – u – x | "Like the blending of tints in the jewels, to the Eastward, at the top of the mountain of Valmīkā, will appear a portion of a bow of Akhandala (Indra), by means of which thy dark blue body will gain excessive beauty, like that of the Shepherd clad Vishnu (Lord Krishna) from peacock’s tail,