[1] It is said to have been invented by India's most famous poet Kālidāsa,[2] (5th century CE), who used it in his well-known poem Meghadūta ("the Cloud-Messenger").
The final section of 7 syllables is also found at the end of other metres such as śālinī, mālinī, candriṇī, sragdharā, and vaiśvadēvī.
The śālinī metre, a variety of triṣṭubh, goes as follows: It thus consists of the beginning and end of the mandākrāntā without the central section.
It has been argued that both mandākrāntā and sragdharā are later expansions of the earlier śālinī, which occurs occasionally even in the Vedas mixed with other varieties of triṣṭubh.
[9] The mandākrāntā metre was also used in the play Mālatīmādhava by Bhavabhūti (8th century), for a scene in which the abandoned lover Mādhava searches for a cloud to take a message to his beloved Mālatī.