Mahakavya
Mahākāvya, also known as sargabandha, is a genre of Indian epic poetry in Classical Sanskrit. The genre is characterised by ornate and elaborate descriptions of phenomena such as scenery, love, and battles. Typical examples of mahākāvya are the Kumarasambhava and the Kiratarjuniya.
The genre evolved from earlier epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Despite the length of mahākāvyas, they are still much shorter than the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
Classical examples
The Buddhist poet and philosopher Aśvaghoṣa is one of the earliest Sanskrit poets with surviving Kāvya literature. His Buddhacarita calls itself a mahākāvya and was influential enough to be translated into both Tibetan and Chinese. Another kāvya by Aśvaghoṣa is the Saundarananda, which focuses on the conversion of Nanda, Buddha's half-brother.Tradition identifies five works as model mahākāvya:
- Kumārasambhava by Kālidāsa in 5th century CE: the wedding of Shiva and Parvati, and the birth of Kumara, in 17 cantos
- Raghuvaṃśa by Kālidāsa: the Raghu dynasty, in 19 cantos
- Kiratarjuniya by Bharavi in 6th century CE: Arjuna's encounter with a Kirata 18 cantos
- Naiśadha-carita by Shriharsha in 1174 AD: on the life of King Nala and Queen Damayanti, 22 cantos
- Śiśupāla-vadha by Māgha in 7th century CE: the slaying of Shishupala by Krishna, 22 cantos
- Bhaṭṭikāvya, by Bhaṭṭi in 7th century CE: describes the events of the Ramayana and simultaneously illustrates the principles of Sanskrit grammar, 22 cantos
Characteristics
- It must take its subject matter from the epics, or from history,
- It must help further the four goals of man,
- It must contain descriptions of cities, seas, mountains, moonrise and sunrise, and "accounts of merrymaking in gardens, of bathing parties, drinking bouts, and love-making. It should tell the sorrow of separated lovers and should describe a wedding and the birth of a son. It should describe a king's council, an embassy, the marching forth of an army, a battle, and the victory of a hero".
It is composed of a varying number of short poems or cantos, that tells the story of a classical epic. Each poem is composed in a metre that is fitting to the subject matter, such as a description of the seasons, a geographical form of nature such as a mountain, and cities.
Modern ''mahakavya''
In the relatively secluded world of modern Sanskrit literature, mahakavyas continue to be produced. Some of these have been awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award for Sanskrit. In the introduction to Ṣoḍaśī: An Anthology of Contemporary Sanskrit Poets, Radhavallabh Tripathi writes:On the other hand, the number of authors who appear to be very enthusiastic about writing in Sanskrit during these days is not negligible. In a thesis dealing with Sanskrit mahākāvyas written in a single decade, 1961–1970, the researcher has noted 52 Sanskrit mahākāvyas produced in that very decade.
Some modern mahākāvyas do not aim to satisfy all the traditional criteria, and take as their subject historical matter, or biographies of historical characters. Some others like the Śrībhārgavarāghaviyam composed by Jagadguru Rāmabhadrācārya continue to have the subject of the traditional epics.