मेघदूतम् · कालिदास · 2.13

मेघदूतम् · कालिदास · 2.13

अलका · the horses, and the scars of Rāvaṇa's sword

पत्रश्यामा दिनकरहयस्पर्धिनो यत्र वाहाः

प
त्र
श्या
मा
दि
न
क
र
ह
य
स्प
र्धि
नो
य
त्र
वा
हाः

शैलोदग्रास्त्वमिव करिणो वृष्टिमन्तः प्रभेदात्

शै
लो
द
ग्रा
स्त्व
मि
व
क
रि
णो
वृ
ष्टि
म
न्तः
प्र
भे
दात्

योधाग्रण्यः प्रतिदशमुखं संयुगे तस्थिवांसः

यो
धा
ग्र
ण्यः
प्र
ति
द
श
मु
खं
सं
यु
गे
त
स्थि
वां
सः

प्रत्यादिष्टाभरणरुचयश्चन्द्रहासव्रणाङ्कैः

प्र
त्या
दि
ष्टा
भ
र
ण
रु
च
य
श्च
न्द्र
हा
स
व्र
णा
ङ्कैः

corrected pāda b reads त्वमिव करिणो वृष्टिमन्तः where the text prints त्वमिव वृष्टिमन्तः.

A word has dropped out. As printed the pāda is fourteen syllables where the metre wants seventeen, and the metre says only how many are missing, not which. Two witnesses supply the same word. vendor/dcs-meghaduta.txt, which carries the poem as Kale prints it, reads करिणः between इव and वृष्टिमन्तः; Mallinātha prints करिणो in his stanza and construes it in his commentary — करिणः प्रभेदान् मदस्रावाद्धेतोस्त्वमिव वृष्टिमन्तः, raining like you by reason of the rut flowing from their temples. The horses of Alakā are as tall as mountains and rain from their temples as elephants do. With the word the pāda is seventeen syllables weighing the full Mandākrāntā pattern, with no pādānta licence needed.