Kavya

(“related to kavis”) The most general
name for courtly poetry or poetic prose,
most often composed in the Sanskrit
language. Such kavya was usually
written and performed in a court
setting, where innovative reworking of
traditional forms was valued more highly
than originality or self-revelation. The
primary building block in such poetry
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Kavya
At an altitude of almost 12,000 feet in the Himalaya Mountains, pilgrims traveling to the
sacred site of Kedarnath must climb a steep path and contend with unpredictable weather.
was the two-line verse, which was a selfcontained unit with regard to meaning.
Verses were composed in meters
ranging from four to twenty-six syllables
per half-line, and were ornamented
with various alamkaras (“figures of
speech”) in an effort to convey the mood
(rasa) appropriate to the subject matter.
Poetic forms range from single-verse
epigrams, such as those of Bhartrhari,
to extended epic poems (mahakavyas),
most notably those of Kalidasa.
Although such poetry contains frequent
references to religious life, it was
primarily intended for entertainment
rather than moral encouragement, an
emphasis which reflects the court
atmosphere in which it was composed.
The singular exception to this trend is
the Gitagovinda of Jayadeva, a text
said to have been composed at the
Jagannath temple in Puri, which focuses on devotion to the god Krishna as
lord of the universe.