The Kokila Sandeśa (Sanskrit: कोकिलसन्देश) or "The Message of The Koel" is a Sanskrit love poem written by Uddanda Śāstrī in the 15th century AD. A short lyric poem of 162 verses, it describes how a nameless hero, abducted from his wife’s side by mysterious women, sends a message to her via a koel. The poem belongs to the sandeśa kāvya, (‘messenger poem’) genre and is modelled upon the Meghadūtaof Kālidāsa.[1] It is one of the most famous of the many sandeśa kāvya poems from Kerala.
Uddaṇḍa Śāstrī was a 15th-century Tamil from a village whose learning and scholarship is so great that even the parrots are reciting the Vedas as the koil flies past.[2] He made his way west, seeking patronage, and eventually ended up in Kerala where he is said to have married a lady from Chendamangalam (which leads some to assume the poem's heroine, of the Marakkara household in Chendamangalam, is in fact his wife).[3]
The poet is supposed to have acquired the title Uddaṇḍa, which means 'pre-eminent' (literally 'one who has a stick upraised'[4]), from the Zamorin court of Calicut where he found patronage;[5] his original name was Irugupanātha.[6] It was this verse, the very first words the poet spoke to the Zamorin, which is said to have earned him his name:
उद्दण्डः परदण्डभैरव भवद्यात्रासु जैत्रश्रियो
हेतुः केतुरतीत्य सूर्यसरणिं गच्छन् निवार्यस्त्वया ।
नो चेत् तत्पटसम्पुटोदरलसच्छार्दूलमुद्राद्रवत्
सारङ्गं शाशिबिम्बमेष्यति तुलां त्वत्प्रेयसीनां मुखैः ॥ [7]
The sandeśa kāvya ('messenger poem') genre is one of the best defined in Indian literature. There are about over 30 messenger poems in Sanskrit from Kerala alone [8] plus many other Sanskrit and regional-language ones from other parts of the country. Each follows Kālidāsa's Megha Dūta to a greater or lesser extent. Most involve two separated lovers, one of whom sends the other a message, and thus are designed to evoke the śṛṅgāra rasa ('feeling of love'). They tend to adhere to a bipartite structure in which the first half charts the journey the messenger is to follow, while the second describes the messenger’s destination, the recipient and the message itself.
Editions include:
