This content was extracted from Wikipedia and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
Mandākrāntā (Sanskrit: मन्दाक्रान्ता) is the name of a metre commonly used in classical Sanskrit poetry. The name in Sanskrit means "slow-stepping" or "slowly advancing". It is said to have been invented by India's most famous poet Kālidāsa, (5th century CE), who used it in his well-known poem Meghadūta ("the Cloud-Messenger"). The metre characterises the longing of lovers who are separated from each other, expressed in the Sanskrit word viraha विरह "separation (of lovers), parting".