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{{Short description|Sanskrit poem}}
{{Infobox religious text|religion=[[Hinduism]]|author=[[Vedanta Desika]]|language=[[Sanskrit]]|caption=Painting of Rama and Sita, the central characters of the poem.|image=Rama and Sita enthroned, adored by Hanuman; Lakshmana holds a morchal (6125082400).jpg|name=''Hamsa Sandesha''|verses=110}}{{Italic title}}
{{use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}

{{Infobox poem
|name = Hamsa Sandesha
|image =
|image_size =
|caption =
|subtitle = The Swan's message
|author = [[Vedanta Desika]]
|original_title = हंससन्देश
|original_title_lang = Sanskrit
|translator =
|written = 13th century
|first =
|illustrator =
|cover_artist =
|country = India
|language = Sanskrit
|series =
|subject = Rama's love for Sita
|genre = [[Sandesha Kavya|sandeśa kāvya]] (messenger poem)
|form =
|meter = [[mandākrāntā]]
|rhyme =
|publisher =
|publication_date =
|media_type =
|lines = 110 verses
|pages =
|size_weight =
|isbn =
|oclc =
|preceded_by =
|followed_by =
|wikisource =
}}

The '''''Hamsa Sandesha''''' ([[Sanskrit]]: {{lang|sa|हंससन्देश}}; [[IAST]]: {{IAST|Hamsasandeśa}}) or "The message of the Swan" is a [[Sanskrit]] love poem written by [[Vedanta Desika]] in the 13th century CE. A short lyric poem of 110 verses, it describes how [[Rama]], hero of the ''[[Ramayana]]'' epic, sends a message via a swan to his beloved wife, [[Sita]], who has been abducted by the demon king [[Ravana]]. The poem belongs to the [[Sandesha Kavya|''{{IAST|sandeśa kāvya}}'']] "messenger poem" genre and is very closely modeled upon the ''[[Meghadūta]]'' of [[Kālidāsa]].{{sfn|Hopkins|2002|p=314}} It has particular significance for [[Srivaishnava|Sri Vaishnavas]], whose god, [[Vishnu]], it celebrates.

== Sources ==
The ''Hamsa-Sandesha'' owes a great deal to its two poetic predecessors, Kālidāsa's ''Meghadūta'' and [[Valmiki|Valmīki]]'s ''[[Ramāyana]]''.{{sfn|Bronner|Shulman|2006}} Vedanta Desika's use of the ''Meghaduta'' is extensive and transparently deliberate;{{efn|Compare for instance the identical position of ''{{IAST|sa kāmī}}'' at the end of a line in ''Meghaduta'' 1.2 and Hansa-Sandesha 1.1}}
his poem is a response to one of India's most famous poems by its most celebrated poet. Vedanta Desika's debt to Valmīki is perhaps more pervasive but less obvious, and possibly less deliberate too. Where the poet consciously plays with Kalidasa's verse, he treats the ''Ramayana'' more as a much-cherished story. Nevertheless, he is clearly as familiar with the details of Valmiki's poem as with Kalidasa's, and he echoes very specific images and details from the epic.{{efn|Compare for instance ''Ramayana'' 6.5.6 and ''Hamsa-Sandesha'' 2.40}}

== The poet ==
[[Vedanta Desika]] ([[IAST]]:{{IAST|Vedānta Deśika}}) is best known as an important ''[[acharya]]'' in the Srivaishnavite tradition of South India which promulgated the philosophical theory of {{IAST|[[Viśiṣṭādvaita]]}}. He was a prolific writer in both [[Tamil language|Tamil]] and [[Sanskrit]], composing over 100 philosophical, devotional and literary works; the ''Alagiya-Sandesha'' is his only work of this kind.

Vedanta Desika was born in 1269 CE. One popular story about his birth and childhood runs as follows: His devout parents were childless. One day they were visited in two separate but simultaneous dreams in which they were instructed to go to Tirupati, an important pilgrimage spot in south India, where they would be given a son. Once there, his mother had another dream in which she gave birth to [[Venkatesha]]'s (the god of Tirupati) ''{{IAST| ghaṇṭa}}'' (bell). The next day the temple bell was missing and the chief priest, who had also had a visitation, celebrated the imminent birth of a child sent by the lord. Twelve years later, {{IAST| Veṇkaṭeśa}} was born, the ''{{IAST|ghaṇṭa-avatāra}}'' (incarnation of the bell) who later became best known as ''Vedanta Desika'' (an honorific which literally means "guide for the [[Vedanta]]").<ref>As detailed by {{harvnb|Hopkins|2002}}</ref> A talented child, he amazed the senior priests at the age of five and proclaimed that he had learnt all there was to know by 20.

Vedanta Desika was the chief ''acharya'' of [[Kanchi]] (now Kanchipuram in [[Tamil Nadu]]), the centre of the northern Srivaishnavite community, but later went to live in [[Srirangam]] (a town near Trichy in southern Tamil Nadu), the centre of the southern Sri Vaishnavas. He died at Srirangam in 1370, having returned to the city after its re-capture by Hindus following a Muslim sack. Vedanta Desika's intent of writing such a poem was to attract readers of Sanskrit literature towards Sri Vaishnava philosophy by using this poem as a medium of introducing Sri Vaishnava concepts in the poem.

==Structure of the text==
The poem is divided into two clear parts, in line with Kalidasa's ''Meghaduta''. The first half, of 60 stanzas, describes how Rama sights and engages the swan as his messenger,<ref>Verses 1.2-1.7</ref>
and then describes to the swan the route he should take and the many places – primarily holy spots - he ought to stop on the way.<ref>Verses 1.8-1.60</ref>
The second part begins in Lanka where the poet introduces us to the [[ashoka]] grove where Sita is being held,<ref>Verse 2.7</ref>
the {{IAST| śiṃṣūpa}} tree beneath which she sits,<ref>Verse 2.8</ref>
and finally Sita herself in a string of verses.<ref>Verse 2.9-2.23</ref>
The actual message to Sita consists of only 16 verses,<ref>Verses 2.31-2.46</ref>
after which Rama dismisses the swan and the narrator completes the story of the Ramayana. The poem ends with an autobiographical note by the poet.<ref>Verses 2.48-50 respectively</ref>

==Alagiya==
The messenger in this poem is referred to as a '''{{IAST| rājahaṃsa}}''' ('royal ''{{IAST|haṃsa}}''').<ref>Verse 1.2</ref>
According to [[Monier-Williams]], a ''{{IAST| haṃsa}}'' is a "goose, gander, swan, flamingo, or other aquatic bird" and he notes that it can refer to a poetical or mythical bird.{{sfn|Monier-Williams|1899|p=1286}} Although popularly thought of as a swan, particularly in modern India, ornithologists have noted that swans do not, and never have, existed in the Indian avifauna,{{sfn|Ali|Ripley|1978|pp=134–138}} and Western translations tend to plump for 'goose',{{efn|See translation of the ''Hamsa-Sandesha'' in {{Harvnb|Bronner|Shulman|2006}}}} or 'flamingo';{{efn|See translation of the ''Meghadūta'' in {{Harvnb|Mallinson|Kalidasa|Dhoyi|Rupagosvami|2006}}}} 'crane' is also a possibility.

==Genre==
The ''[[Sandesa Kavya|{{IAST|saṃdeśa kāvya}}]]'' ('messenger poem') genre is one of the best defined in Indian literature. There are about 55 messenger poems in Sanskrit,{{sfn|Narasimhachary|2003}} plus others written in vernacular tongues. These span India chronologically, topographically and ideologically: there are Muslim and Christian messenger poems, and poets are still composing these poems today.{{sfn|Hopkins|2004}} Each follows Kalidasa's ''Meghaduta'' to a greater or lesser extent. They involve two separated lovers, one of who sends the other a message, and thus are designed to evoke the ''[[Sringara|{{IAST| śṛṅgāra rasa}}]]'' ('feeling of love'). And they 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.

==Metre==
The [[Sanskrit metre|metre]] used in ''Alagiya-Sandesha'' is the slow {{IAST|[[mandākrāntā]]}} ('slowly advancing') metre which is thought to be suitable for the love-in-separation theme. The specifications of this metre are encapsulated in the following line (which is itself set to the ''{{IAST|[[mandākrāntā]]}}'' rhythm):{{efn|For Mallinātha's note on the definition see ''Meghadūta'' 1.1 in {{Harvnb|Kale|1969}}}}{{lang|sa|मन्दाक्रान्ता जलधिषड़गैर्म्मौ नतौ तो गुरू चेत्}}
:''{{IAST|mandākrāntā jaladhi-ṣaḍ-agaur-mbhau natau tād-gurū cet}}''

The line means, by way of several technical abbreviations, that the ''{{IAST|mandākrāntā}}'' metre has a natural break after the first four syllables and then after the next six, with the last seven syllables as one group. It is further defined as containing several different ''gaṇas'', i.e., poetical feet consisting of predefined combinations of ''guru'' and ''laghu'' – long and short – syllables.{{sfn|Apte|1959|loc=vol. 3, appendix A, p. 8}} When each line is scanned it looks like the following:

:(– – –) ( – | u u ) ( u u u ) (– | – u) (– – u) (–) (–)

with the vertical bars representing the natural pauses and the brackets the predefined feet. Each stanza consists of four lines or ''pāda''s.

In European terms, the scansion may be written out as follows:
:| – – – – | u u u u u – | – u – – u – x |

==Commentaries==
Commentaries include one by Agyatkartrik.{{efn|This commentary can be found in the Chaukhambha edition of the ''Haṃsasandeśa''.}}

==Views and criticism==
The Alagiya-Sandesha was written during the medieval literary resurgence, long after the classical heyday of Sanskrit literature, and falls into the category of post-1000 CE regional Sanskrit literature. Such literature tended to enjoy less national recognition than its predecessors and in modern India literary works of this type are all but forgotten.{{sfn|Bronner|Shulman|2006}} The ''Alagiya-Sandesha'' too has slipped into obscurity for all but Sri Vaishnavas.

What criticism and discussion there is tends to focus either on the ''Alagiya-Sandesha'' in the shadow of the ''Meghaduta'',<ref>See {{Harvnb|Bronner|Shulman|2006}}</ref> or on its religious and philosophical significance. Modern Western scholarship on the poem and its author includes books and articles by Stephen P Hopkins,<ref>{{Harvnb|Hopkins|2002}} and {{Harvnb|Hopkins|2004}}</ref> and by Yigal Bronner and David Shulman.{{sfn|Bronner|Shulman|2006}}

== See also ==

* ''[[Yadavabhyudaya]]''
* ''[[Gopalavimshati]]''
* ''[[Rukminisha Vijaya]]''

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

===Citations===
{{Reflist|22em}}

==Works cited==
{{refbegin|35em}}
*{{cite book| title = Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan
| last1 = Ali | first1 = Salim
| last2 = Ripley | first2 = Sidney Dillon
| author1-link = Salim Ali
| author2-link = Sidney Dillon Ripley
| publisher = Oxford University Press
| volume = 1 | pages = 134–138
| date = 1978
}}
*{{cite book| title = The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary
| last = Apte | first = V. S.
| author-link = Vaman Shivram Apte
| publisher = Prasad Prakashan | location = Poona
| date = 1959
}}
*{{cite journal | title = A Cloud Turned Goose': Sanskrit in the Vernacular Millennium
| last1 = Bronner | first1 = Y.
| last2 = Shulman | first2 = D.
| journal = Indian Economic & Social History Review
| year = 2006 | volume = 23 | issue = 1 | pages = 1–30
| doi = 10.1177/001946460504300101
| s2cid = 145438393 }}
*{{cite book| title = Singing the Body of God: the Hymns of Vedantadeshika in their South Indian Tradition
| last = Hopkins | first = S | year = 2002
| publisher = Oxford University Press | location = New Delhi
| isbn = 0-19-512735-8
}}
*{{cite journal | title = Lovers, Messengers and Beloved Landscapes: Sandeśa Kāvya in Comparative Perspective
| last = Hopkins | first = S.
| journal = [[International Journal of Hindu Studies]]
| year = 2004 | volume = 8 | issue = 1–3 | pages = 29–55
| doi = 10.1007/s11407-004-0002-2
| s2cid = 144529764 }}
*{{cite book| title = The Meghadūta of Kālidāsa | edition = 7th
| last = Kale | first = MR
| publisher = Motilal Banarsidas | location = New Delhi
| date = 1969
}}
*{{cite book| title = Messenger poems
| last1 = Mallinson | first1 = James
| last2 = Kalidasa
| last3 = Dhoyi
| last4 = Rupagosvami
| year = 2006
| publisher = New York University Press
| isbn = 0-8147-5714-6
}}
*{{cite book| title = A Sanskrit-English Dictionary
| last = Monier-Williams | first = Monier
| author-link = Monier Monier-Williams
| publisher = The Clarendon press | location = Osford
| date = 1899
}}
*{{cite book| title = The Hamsa Sandesa of Sri Vedanta Deśika
| last = Narasimhachary | year = 2003
| location = Sapthagiri
}}
*{{cite book| title = Hamsasandesa of Acharya Venkanatha
| last = Venkanatha | first = Acharya | year = 2004
| author-link = Vedanta Desika
| publisher = Chowkhamba Krishnadas Academy | location = Varanasi
}}
{{refend}}

{{Hindu deities and texts}}
{{Ramayana}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamsasandesa}}
[[Category:13th-century poems]]
[[Category:Hindu texts]]
[[Category:Sanskrit poetry]]
[[Category:Works based on the Ramayana]]

Hamsa-Sandesha - Revision history

Rsingh at 00:23, 9 January 2024