Innovations And Turning Points: Toward A History Of Kavya Literaure

With a panoramic overview of South Asian classical literature, this book identifies critical moments of breakthrough and innovation in Sanskrit literature—moments when the basic rules of composition and the aesthetic and poetic goals underwent dramatic change. It contests the still prevalent notion that Sanskrit poetry was impervious to change and that it underwent decline after a supposed acme in the period of Kalidasa. The essays in this volume focus on extended moments of brilliant innovation within the kavya tradition, including the new poetic models put in place by Bharavi and Magha, the revolutionary period in Kannauj linked to Ba?a, his predecessors and his great successors, and the transformative work of poets of genius such as Bilha?a, Srihar?a, Rajasekhara, and Murari. It also examines the origins of kavya and the creative experiments with its forms and practices in early modern Hindi and, beyond the subcontinent, in Java and Tibet.