The Megha Duta, or Cloud Messenger, a poem, in the Sanscrit language.

Wilson's first published Sanskrit translation, the first publication of the Meghadūta in the West

Kālidāsa (c. 4th–5th century CE); Horace Hayman Wilson (1786-1860, trans.). The Megha Duta, or Cloud Messenger, a poem, in the Sanscrit language. Calcutta printed: London reprinted, Black, Parry, and Co., 1814. 8°. XXII, 23-175 pp. Later half calf, marbled sides.

First English translation of the Meghadūta, the most renowned text by India's greatest ancient poet. This famous Sanskrit love poem became popular in Europe in the early 19th century, chiefly because of the present translation by Horace Wilson. Written in the 4th-5th century by the Classical Sanskrit author Kālidāsa, it tells the story of a lover who sends his message to his beloved by a cloud. The present edition includes Wilson's commentaries on his translation of the ancient poem.

Translator Horace Wilson was the first professor of Sanskrit at Oxford. He made his name through his many translations of ancient Sanskrit texts. For his first ever published translation of an Indian text he took on the most important work there is: the Meghadūta. It was first published in a small edition at Calcutta, which was a success, making enough cause for a second edition to appear in London, the present work: "published under the sanction of the College of Fort William". Thus making it the first publication of the Meghadūta in the West.

The worked sparked not only a popular interest in ancient Indian poetry but launched the career of Wilson as well. The foreword presents the reason for publication as follows: "The very high panegyric bestowed on Mr. HORACE Wilson's Translation of the "Mégha Dúta, or Cloud Messenger" in the Discourse delivered by the Right Honourable LORD Minto, to the Students of the College of Fort William in Bengal, on the 20th September 1813, has induced the publishers to reprint the English Translation, that the public may be acquainted with this ancient Sanscrit Poem by CÁLIDÁSA.".

Condition: Haverhill Public Library 1876 bookplate to front paste-down, blind stamp and numbers in pencil on verso of title-page. Repaired tear to title-page. Half-title slightly soiled. Otherwise in very good, clean condition.

Reference: Brunet I, 1474. Lowndes 348.

https://mailchi.mp/3effb457134e/wilson-megha-duta