Of the six universally recognized "great poems"here enumerated, the first two, and doubtless the two finest, are those attributed to Kalidasa. (I) The Raghuvatnia, or "race of Raghu," celebrates the ancestry and deeds of Rama. The work, consisting of nine teen cantos, is manifestly incomplete; but hitherto no copy has been discovered of the six additional cantos which are supposed to have completed it. (2) The Kumeira-sambhava, or "the birth of (the war-god) Kumara" (or Skanda), the son of Siva and Parvati, consists of seventeen cantos, the last ten of which are looked upon as spurious by some scholars, mainly on account of their erotic character, not a strong argument. There is no reason to doubt that the eighth canto is by Kalidasa but he cannot have written much of the other nine. (3) The Kireitdrjuniya, or corn bat between the Pandava prince Arjuna and the god Siva, in the guise of a Kirata or wild mountaineer, is a poem in eighteen cantos, by Bharavi, who is mentioned together with Kalidasa in an inscription dated A.D. (4) The giSupd/a-badha, or slaying of 8igupala, who, being a prince of Chedi, reviled Krishna, who had carried off his intended wife, and was killed by him at the inauguration sacrifice of Yudhishthira, is a poem consisting of twenty cantos, attributed to Magha (ninth cent.), whence it is also called Maghakavya. (5) The Ravanabadha, or "slaying of Ravana," more commonly called Bhattikavya, was composed for the practical purpose of illustrating the less common grammatical forms and the figures of rhetoric and poetry. Bhatti, apparently the author's name, is usually identified with the well-known gram marian Bhartrihari, whose death Professor M. Milller, from a Chinese statement, fixes at A.D. 65o, while others make him Bhartrihari's son. (6) The Naishadhiya, or Naishadha-charita, the life of Nala, king of Nishadha, is ascribed to 8ri-Harsha (son of Hira), who is supposed to have lived in the latter part of the I2th century. The Nalodaya deals with the same subject but the author's main object is to show his skill in tricks of style and metre. The long lost and recently discovered .1 amki harana of Kumdraddsa (eighth cent.) takes its subject (the rape of Sita) from the Ramayatja strongly imitative of Kalidasa; it is, however, the work of a poet of no mean ability. The stanzas of the Raghavapandaviya are so ambiguously worded that the poem may be interpreted as relating to the leading story of either the Ramayarta or the Mandbhdrata. Less ambitious in composition, though styling itself a mahakavya, is the Vikramanka-devacharita, a panegyric written about A.D. 1085 by the Kashmir poet Bilhana, in honour of his patron the Chalukya king Vikramaditya of Kalyana, regarding the history of whose dynasty it supplies some valuable information.
In this place may also be mentioned, as composed in accordance with the Hindu poetic canon, Kalhana's Reijatarangini (c. A.D.
Under the general term "kavya" Indian critics include, how ever, not only compositions in verse, but also certain kinds of prose works composed in choice diction richly embellished with flowers of rhetoric. The feature generally regarded by writers on poetics as the chief mark of excellence in this ornate prose style is the frequency and length of its compounds; whilst for metrical compositions the use of long compounds is expressly discouraged by some schools of rhetoric.
Patafijali, in his "great commentary," speaks of the actor as sing ing, and of people going "to hear the actor." Nay, he even men tions two subjects, taken from the cycle of Vishnu legends : the slaying of Kamsa (by Krishna) and the binding of Bali (by Vishnu)-which were represented on the stage both by mimic ac tion and declamation. Judging from these allusions, theatrical en tertainments in those days seem to have been very much on a level with the old religious spectacles or mysteries of Europe. It is not, however, till some centuries later that we meet with the first real dramas, which mark at the same time the very culminating point of Indian dramatic composition. Although we know the names of at least five predecessors of Kalidasa, nothing but a few quota tions from them have been preserved.
The long disputed possibility of Greek influence on the Sanskrit drama is not now maintained, although there are some superficial points of resemblance. The Hindu dramatist has little regard for the "unities" of the classical stage, though he is hardly ever guilty of extravagance in his disregard of them. Unlike the Greek dramatic theory, it is an invariable rule of Indian dramaturgy, that every play, however much of the tragic element it may con tain, must have a happy ending. A death never takes place on the stage, nor is anything indecorous allowed. The dialogue is in variably carried on in prose plentifully interspersed with those neatly turned lyrical stanzas in which the Indian poet delights to depict some aspect of nature, or some temporary physical or mental condition. The outstanding feature of the Hindu play, however, is the mixed nature of its language. While the hero and leading male characters speak Sanskrit, women and inferior male characters use various Prakrit dialects. As regards these dialectic varieties, it can hardly be doubted that at the time when they were first employed in this way they were local vernacular dialects; but in the course of the development of the scenic art they became permanently fixed for special dramatic purposes, just as the Sanskrit had, long before that time, become fixed for general literary purposes. Thus it would happen that these Prakrit dialects, having once become stationary, were soon left behind by the spoken vernaculars, until the difference between them was as great as between the Sanskrit and the Prakrits.
The Mrichchhakatika, or "little clay cart," has been considered earliest of the existing dramas because of a certain clumsiness of construction, but probably does not antedate the sixth century. According to several stanzas in the prologue, the play was com posed by a king 8adraka, but it is probably the work of a poet patronized by him. Charudatta, a Brahman merchant, reduced to poverty, and Vasantasena, an accomplished courtezan, meet and fall in love with each other. This forms the main plot, which is interwoven with a political underplot, resulting in a change of dynasty. The connection between the two plots is effected by means of the king's rascally brother-in-law, who pursues Vasan tasena with his addresses, as well as by the part of the rebel cowherd Aryaka, who, having escaped from prison, finds shelter in the hero's house. The wicked prince, on being rejected, strangles Vasantasena, and accuses Charudatta of having mur dered her; but, just as the latter is about to be executed, his lady love appears again on the scene. Meanwhile Aryaka has suc ceeded in deposing the king, and, having himself mounted the throne of Ujjain, he raises Vasantasena to the position of an honest woman, to enable her to become the wife of Charudatta. The play is one of the longest, consisting of not less than ten acts, some of which, however, are very short. The interest of the action is, on the whole, well sustained; and, altogether, the piece presents a vivid picture of the social manners of the time, whilst the author shows himself imbued with a keen sense of humour, and a master in the delineation of character.