DOI:- https://doi.org/10.64880/shikshasamvad.v3i4.21

Author : Aishwarya Singh

Abstract

Widely regarded as one of Kalidasa’s most celebrated works, Meghadutam is noted for its emotional depth, poetic refinement, and vivid engagement with the natural environment. While scholars have extensively examined the poem’s aesthetic appeal and emotional themes, its ecological imagination has received far less critical attention.

 This article re-examines the poem through the intersecting lenses of ecofeminism, posthumanism, emotional ecology, environmental communication, sacred geography, climate humanities, and care ethics.

The analysis suggests  that  in Meghadutam, nature functions not merely as a backdrop to human experience, but as an active ecological network in which landscapes, climatic processes, and more-than-human entities shape the poem’s emotional and ethical world. Employing qualitative textual analysis and close reading, the paper explores the ecological significance of the cloud, the relational role of sacred landscapes, and the dynamic interplay between affect, environment, and communication. The cloud is reimagined as a more-than-human agent of care and ecological connectivity.

Bringing ecofeminist ethics of care into dialogue with posthuman understandings of distributed agency, the study reinterprets the cloud not simply as a poetic messenger but as an ecological participant that mediates connections across geographical, emotional, and cultural spaces. The analysis reveals a vision of coexistence shaped by care, interconnectedness, and a shared responsibility toward the living world. In doing so, it challenges human-centred models of agency and highlights the active involvement of non-human forces in shaping lived experience.

The study expands ecofeminist literary criticism by demonstrating how classical Sanskrit literature offers alternative ways of conceptualizing ecological agency, relationality, and environmental ethics.  Beyond its literary significance, Meghadutam offers ecological insights that remain relevant to present environmental and climate-related concerns.

Keywords: Ecofeminism; Meghadutam; Emotional Ecology; Non-Human Agency; Sacred Geography; Posthumanism

Cite this Article: 

Aishwarya Singh,“ Ecologies of Care and Non-Human Agency: A Posthuman Ecofeminist Reading of Kalidasa’s Meghadutam” Shiksha Samvad International Open Access Peer-Reviewed & Refereed Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, ISSN: 2584-0983 (Online), Volume 03, Issue 04, Pp.189-200, June-2026. Journal URL: https://shikshasamvad.com/