Happily Ever After? Love, Realism, and Parody in the Partridge Messenger

This chapter studies the Partridge Messenger (Cakorasandeśa), an anonymous Sanskrit courier poem composed in Kerala in the early nineteenth century. While this poem is largely conformist in its stylistic choices, it is highly unusual in the relationship it describes: a lover who must leave his beloved because she is no longer interested in him, sending a message of love while knowing that other men have already replaced him. Unlike classical courier poems where love is often depicted as telepathic, perfect, and strong, here it is portrayed as anything but secure and mutual. Reading this poem along with other case studies from Kerala’s rich history of courier poetry and examining it against the broad rejection of unrequited love as a subject worthy of poetic description in Sanskrit classical poetry, I discuss the Partridge Messenger’s realistic vision of love as a form of parody, going toward and away from the genre conventions of courier poetry.