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Dhoyin or Dhoy? (?????, ????) was a poet at the court of the Sena king Lakshman Sen who ruled Gauda in what is now Bengal during the latter part of the twelfth century CE. His Pavanad?ta or Wind Messenger is probably one of the earliest surviving examples of the many messenger poems which were written in imitation of K?lid?sa's Meghad?ta or Cloud Messenger.It tells the story of Kuvalayavat?, a gandharva maiden from the south who falls in love with king Laksmana when she sees him during his victory tour of the world. She asks the south wind to take her message to the king at his court.The theme of all messenger poems is viraha, separation in love. Allusions to romance are never far away. Despite sharing K?lid?sa's use of conventional romantic motif, Dhoyin’s messenger poem is much more than a mere pastiche of the Meghad?ta. Dhoyin devotes nearly half of his work (48 out of 104 stanzas) to describing the wind’s journey from Sandal mountain in the south to king Laksmana’s palace at Vijayapura in Bengal, but spends a long time on the message (38 stanzas) in which the lovelorn condition of Kuvalayavat? and the wonderful qualities of the king are described in detail.Dhoyin has aims beyond the expression of rasa, aesthetic sentiment, which is traditionally the sole purpose of Sanskrit poetry. He devotes a greater proportion of his poem to the message because he can thus pursue his aims more effectively. The Pavanad?ta is similar in style to K?lid?sa's Meghad?ta.

The Clay Sanskrit Library has published a translation of Pavanad?ta by Sir James Mallinson as a part of the volume Messenger Poems.

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Dhoyin", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0