(“related to kavis”)
is an extremely lengthy meter that lends itself well to extensive descriptions
using alliteration; the poet-saint Tulsidas utilizes this meter with great
effect to depict war scenes in his Kavitavali.
The most broad term for courtly poetry or lyrical prose,
which is usually written in Sanskrit.
Such kavya was frequently composed and presented in a court
environment, where originality and self-revelation were prized less than clever
reworkings of classic forms.
The two-line stanza, which was a self-contained unit in
terms of meaning, was the fundamental building block of such poetry.
Verses were written in a variety of meters, ranging from
four to twenty-six syllables per half-line, and were embellished with numerous
alamkaras ("figures of speech") to communicate the right mood (rasa)
for the subject matter.
Single-verse epigrams, such as those of Bhartrhari, to long
epic poems (mahakavyas), most famously those of Kalidasa, are examples of
poetic genres.
Despite many allusions to religious life, such poetry was
written largely for pleasure rather than moral exhortation, a focus that
mirrors the court culture in which it was written.
The Gitagovinda of Jayadeva, a work thought to have been
produced in the Jagannath temple in Puri and focusing on devotion to the deity
Krishna as lord of the universe, is the lone exception to this pattern.
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