Malayalam, the lingua franca of the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puduchery, is one of the six Classical languages of India. Malayalam literature comprises those literary texts written in Malayalam, a South-Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala. The first travelogue in any Indian language is the Malayalam Varthamanappusthakam, written by Paremmakkal Thoma Kathanar in 1785. Malayalam literature has been presented with 6 Jnanapith awards, the second-most for any Dravidian language and the third-highest for any Indian language.
Kālidāsa was a Classical Sanskrit author who is often considered ancient India's greatest playwright and dramatist. His plays and poetry are primarily based on the Vedas, the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata and the Purāṇas. His surviving works consist of three plays, two epic poems and two shorter poems.
Meghadūta is a lyric poem written by Kālidāsa, considered to be one of the greatest Sanskrit poets. It describes how a yakṣa, who had been banished by his master to a remote region for a year, asked a cloud to take a message of love to his wife. The poem become well-known in Sanskrit literature and inspired other poets to write similar poems on similar themes. Korada Ramachandra Sastri wrote Ghanavrttam, a sequel to Meghduta.
Kerala Varma Valiya Koil Thampuran also spelt Kerala Varma Valiya Koilthampuran and known as Kerala Varma, was a Malayalam - language poet and translator who had an equal facility in writing in English and Sanskrit from the Indian state of Kerala. He was part of the royal family of erstwhile Parappanad, Malappuram district. Kerala Varma is also known as the Kalidasa of Kerala.
Bharavi was a Sanskrit poet known for his epic poem Kirātārjunīya, one of the six mahakavyas in Classical Sanskrit.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Satya Vrat Shastri was an Indian Sanskrit scholar, writer, grammarian and poet. He wrote three Mahakavyas, three Khandakavyas, one Prabandhakavyas and one Patrakavya and five works in critical writing in Sanskrit. His important works are Ramakirtimahakavyam, Brahattaram Bharatam, Sribodhisattvacharitam, Vaidika Vyakarana, Sarmanyadesah Sutram Vibhati, and "Discovery of Sanskrit Treasures" in seven volumes.
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 scenery, love, battles and so on — in short, everything that tests a poet's skill at description. Typical examples of mahākāvya are the Kumarasambhava and the Kiratarjuniya.
Dhoyin or Dhoyī was a 12th century Sanskrit-language poet from present-day India, who composed the Pavanadūta. He was a court poet of the Sena king Lakshmana Sena, who ruled Gauda in what is now Bengal.
Pavanadūta (पवनदूत) or Wind Messenger was composed by Dhoyin or Dhoyī, a poet at the court of the Sena king Lakshmana who ruled Gauda, in what is now Bengal, during the latter part of the twelfth century CE. His Pavanadūta is probably the earliest surviving example of the many messenger poems which were written in imitation of the Meghadūta or Cloud Messenger by Kālidāsa. It tells the story of Kuvalayavatī, a gandharva maiden from the south who falls in love with King Laksmana when she sees him during his victory tour of the world. She asks the south wind to take her message to the king at his court.
Hansa-Sandesha or "The message of the Swan" is a Sanskrit love poem written by Vedanta Desika in the 13th century AD. A short lyric poem of 110 verses, it describes how Rama, hero of the Ramayana epic, sends a message via a swan to his beloved wife, Sita, who has been abducted by the demon king Ravana. The poem belongs to the sandeśa kāvya "messenger poem" genre and is very closely modeled upon the Meghadūta of Kālidāsa. It has particular significance for Srivaishnavites, whose god, Vishnu, it celebrates.
Uli Sandam is among the oldest works in Malayalam language. It is a sandesa kavyam, a message written in poetry, on the lines of the famous Meghadūta of Kalidasa. In the case of this work, it is a message written by a lover to his lady-love staying at a far-off place. The message is therefore written as if it is sent through a messenger. The work was written in the 14th century AD, when transport and communications were very limited in Kerala. The messenger in the poem is, therefore, a carrier pigeon. Apart from the message proper, the poem gives detailed instructions to the messenger pigeon, including the route to be taken and the landmarks in route.
The Kokila Sandeśa or "The Message of The Koel" is a Sanskrit love poem written by Uddanda Śāstrī in the 15th century AD. A short lyric poem of 162 verses, it describes how a nameless hero, abducted from his wife’s side by mysterious women, sends a message to her via a koel. The poem belongs to the sandeśa kāvya, genre and is modelled upon the Meghadūtaof Kālidāsa. It is one of the most famous of the many sandeśa kāvya poems from Kerala.
Kumāradāsa is the author of a Sanskrit Mahākāvya called the Jānakī-haraṇa or Jānakī’s abduction. Jānakī is another name of Sita, wife of Rama. Sita was abducted by Ravana when she along with the Rama, exiled from his kingdom, and Lakshmana was living in a forest which incident is taken from Ramayana, the great Hindu epic written by Valmiki.
Līlāśuka, whose original name was Bilavamangalam, is the author of the romantic poem Kṛśṇa-karaṇāmṛta which deals with the early life of Krishna among the cow-herds, with his companions. Līlāśuka probably at King Kulaśekhara’s court wrote this popular lyric on Krishna as the sexually precocious infant loved by all women but interpreted as symbolising God attracting all souls, thus an early example of Vaishnava devotional kāvya. This work exists in two recensions, the southern and the western and is the canonical text of the Gaudiya Vaishnavas.
Chitra-kavya (picture-poetry) is an ancient Indian tradition of writing poetry in visual patterns by play of meaning (shabdalankāra). It is the device of constructing verses that can be written out in the form of a lotus or of a chariot. This tradition developed into different forms such as the Yamaka Kāvyas where the letters are the same while the meanings are different in different lines; in the Mahakavyas like the Kirātārjunīya and the Shishupala Vadha there are instances of verses with only a single letter of alphabet or only two letters, also there is the Niranunāsika, where no nasal sound appears, Rāmacarita narrates in the same set of verses the story of Rāma and of a king who patronised the poet. All these poems show the prodigious intellect of the poets and their control of the language effortlessly applied showing no obscurity in diction.
Shri-harsha was a 12th century Indian philosopher and poet. Shri Harsha's works concern Advaita Vedanta, Nyaya and other themes in Hindu Philosophy.
Mansukhlal Maganlal Jhaveri (1907–1981) was a Gujarati language poet, critic, and literary historian of the Gandhian era. He was deeply interested in classical Sanskrit poetry and authored History of Gujarati Literature (1978). Jhaveri had several pen-names including Devaki Ayodhya, Punarvasu, Madilant, Samintiyajak, and Siddhartha.
Mandākrāntā is the name of a metre commonly used in classical Sanskrit poetry. The name in Sanskrit means "slow-stepping" or "slowly advancing". It is said to have been invented by India's most famous poet Kālidāsa,, who used it in his well-known poem Meghadūta. The metre characterises the longing of lovers who are separated from each other, expressed in the Sanskrit word viraha विरह "separation, parting".
Korada Ramachandra Sastri was an Indian poet and playwright in Sanskrit and Telugu. He was the first known original Telugu playwright. His Manjarimadhukariam is the first Telugu drama with an original concept. His Sanskrit lyric poem Ghanavrttam is a sequel to Kalidasa's Meghaduta. Ramachandra Sastri authored more than thirty works in Sanskrit and Telugu but only a few books are extant. His books give us an appreciation of the advanced poetic and linguistic aspects of his literary works.
