Illustrated catalogue of the plants and trees of Kalidasa’s Meghaduta

Tomomi Sato, a student at Australian National University, has created an illustrated catalogue of the plants and trees of Kalidasa’s Meghaduta. The online site presents Tomomi’s watercolour paintings of the 26 plants, from the japa (at bottom of page) to the yuthika (below), found in the poem, along with the verses in which they appear. Tomomi referred to photos and descriptions in botanical catalogues to paint each as faithfully as possible. The result is a series of colour-rich illustrations, simple and vibrant – perfect, in short, for Kalidasa’s elegant verse.