Knowra Sanskrit kāvya Sanskrit kāvya Sanskrit kāvya is a tradition of literary composition prized for ornate language, formal artistry, and figures of speech. It includes poetry and prose, from court epics to short lyrics.
Alaṃkāra : Alaṃkāra is a figure or ornament of poetic language, such as a simile, metaphor, or sound pattern. Kāvya’s figures of speech give verbal artistry a vocabulary and a set of techniques.
Raghuvaṃśa : Raghuvaṃśa is Kālidāsa’s Sanskrit mahākāvya tracing the lineage of the legendary kings of the Solar dynasty. Its courtly epic form exemplifies kāvya’s scale, polish, and descriptive ambition.
Bharata Muni : Bharata Muni is the traditional author of the Nāṭyaśāstra, an ancient Sanskrit treatise on drama and performance. The Nāṭyaśāstra’s account of rasa became a foundation for later kāvya aesthetics.
Śāstra : Śāstra is a Sanskrit term for systematic instruction or authoritative treatises on a subject. Kāvya foregrounds literary experience, while śāstra organizes knowledge through exposition and rules.
Rasa (aesthetics) : Rasa is the aesthetic savor evoked when a work transforms represented emotions into a shared artistic experience. Kāvya’s formal choices are valued partly for the emotional flavors they evoke.
Kumārasambhava : Kumārasambhava is a Sanskrit mahākāvya attributed to Kālidāsa, recounting the birth of the god Kumāra. Its mythic narrative shows how kāvya reshapes traditional stories through elaborate poetic description.
Nāṭyaśāstra : The Nāṭyaśāstra is an ancient Sanskrit treatise on drama, performance, music, and aesthetic response. Its concepts of dramatic form and rasa informed the wider theory of literary art.
Itihāsa : Itihāsa is the Sanskrit category of traditional history, especially the epics Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata. The epics supply stories to kāvya, but their traditional status and aims differ from crafted court poetry.
Dhvani : Dhvani is poetic suggestion: meaning or feeling conveyed indirectly beyond a poem’s explicit words. The theory explains how kāvya can communicate more through implication than literal statement.
Meghadūta : Meghadūta is Kālidāsa’s Sanskrit lyric poem in which an exiled yaksha sends a message to his wife through a cloud. Its carefully patterned imagery and emotional suggestion make it a landmark lyric kāvya.
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