Studio: international art (35.1905)

“THE BANISHED YAKSHA”

FROM THE WATER-COLOUR DRAWING

‘ Where Ramagiri’s cool, dark woods extend,

And those pure streams, where Sita bathed, descend ;
Spoiled of his glories, severed from his wife,

A banished Yaksha passed his lonely life :

Doomed by his lord’s stern sentence to sustain
Twelve tedious months of solitude and pain.

To these drear hills through circling days confined,

In dull, unvaried grief, the god repined.

Some solace in the glooms that deepened round;

And bade him hail, amidst the labouring air,

A friendly envoy to his distant fair.

Cheered with the thought, he culled each budding flower
And wildly wooed the fertilizing power.

Due homage offered, and oblations made,

The Yaksha thus the Cloud majestic prayed.”

Translated from KalidAsa’s “Megha Duta”
(Cloud Messenger), by H. H. Wilson.

BY

ABANINDRO NATH TAGORE.

But fancy found