Cloud Messenger 90 - Paintings and Adaptation by Mark W. McGinnis -

This book of 90 paintings is based on a poem titled The Meghaduta (Cloud Messenger) by India's greatest Sanskrit poet, Kalidasa (c. 400-500 AD). t is a story of a Yaksha (a semi-god) who has been banished for a year to a remote mountain for neglecting his duty to his master, Kubera, the god of wealth. After eight months of separation from his beloved young wife he sees a cloud touching the mountaintop and the poem is a long monologue of the Yaksha to the cloud in which he asks the cloud to carry his message of love to his wife.