Sanskrit was essentially in the form in which it was regulated by the grammar of Panini. In the fourth century B.C., a form of speech reserved for those who conducted sacrifices and engaged in theological speculation, in effect for the Brahmins. During the Period before and after the Christian era India was subject to u invasion from the north-west and west and to considerable movements of population, which must have excited rapid changes of speech forms in the areas affected, and driven poets and others, desirous of producing works to endure, so. seek a medium more satisfactory than a vernacular in the process of this change. As we find it in the Rigveda and the later Samhitas, the Vedic language is already poetical and hieratic, and the language of Brahmanas and Upanishads is equally a hieratic speech. In the Grammar of Panini, we find the norm laid down for the spoken language, Bhasa, of his time in the higher circles of society. Buddha or Mahavira, the founder or renovator of Jainism, in the fifth century B.C. used the form of Prakrit, possibly the precursor of Ardha-Magadhi and those were rival religions to Brahmanism. In the inscriptions of Ashoka in the second half of the third century B.C., we find Prakrit and not Sanskrit. According to the writer of his book, we have a monument in the Ramayana and v1ahabharata, neither of which is in any sense a product of, though loved by, the populace. Apart from the question of language, there is now abundant evidence to show that the epic existed in some form in Sanskrit before Panini. .and the idea of translation about the Christian era is wholly untenable. But, if the epics were composed in Sanskrit, the originality of the classical literature is assured, far from the epic a direct development leads to the Kavya. which is the highest form of classical literature apart from drama. There is a very real sense in which the Ramayana can be said to be the first Kavya; though it has been embellished in the course of redaction, it is impossible to deny to Valmiki the command of literary art which rendered the tendency to embellish a natural complement of his work. The elegance of Valmiki's handling of the meter and his skilled use of figures of speech are precursors of the daintiness and polish of Kalidasa. Sanskrit had the enormous advantage that it had a real-life in the Brahmanical schools and was always in some measure employed among the upper classes in conversation, while many who could not venture to speak it understood it adequately, it was in pre-Muhammadan times essentially the language of culture.
When going to study the predecessors of Kalidasa as being the second chapter of the book, the author writes that classical Sanskrit has its roots in the epic and that the incidental hints in Patanjali, are sufficient to show that the Kavya was already practiced in his day.
As for Kalidasa (as goes the third chapter), it is to his dramas, above all to the Abhijnana Shakuntalam, the finest work in classical Sanskrit literature that Kalidasa owes his greatest renown, but in the lyric and epic also takes the first place among Indian poets. Raghuvansha is Kalidasa's masterpiece, the last and greatest of his Kavyas. The Meghaduta is doubtless the best-known of Kalidasa's works after the Shakuntalam. Here in Kalidasa seems to owe some measure of inspiration to Valmiki: the longing of Rama for the lost Sita. The Kumarsambhavam is another great work.
In the Post-Kalidasa epic, tradition would have contemporaneous with Kalidasa, the Setubandha, a poem in Maharashtra that elicits praise from Dandin and Bana. Before Bana also we may place the date of Bharavi. Certainly, later than Kalidasa, Bharavi displays gifts of no mean order. The subject of his Kiratarjuniyam is derived from the Vanaparvan of the Mahabharata which tells us how the sage Vyasa advised Pandavas to leave the Dvaita forest and how Arjuna practices penance and after a conflict with Shiva under the guise of Kirata obtains from his conqueror the weapons he desires. Yet another Rama epic is the Janakiharana of Kumaradasa. The Shishupalavadha is based on an episode in the Mahabharata. As for the historical Kavya, none can be called historical, but the material is presented by the Kavya, inscriptions, which normally refer to some definite event, and sometimes given genealogical details of alleged descent. Kalidasa, as we have seen refers to hints at the greatness of the Gupta in the Raghuvansham rather than describing their deeds as sober history, and it may be true, that the Setubandha was written to celebrate the building a bridge of boats across the Vitasta by king Pravarasena of Kashmir. It is a natural form of historical composition. As Indian history has been falsely understood by most foreign writers, this writer has also concluded in the same fashion of writing about the Indian style of living and they have certainly failed to realize the Indian spirit when presenting their knowledge. As Indian culture was a culture of believers and not atheists, every aspect of life here was filled with spiritual behavior. No area of life can e presumed without the flavor of spirituality. You can deny any scope for non-believers in this country. The author says: the belief in the constant evolution and involution of the world, in endless periods of recurrence, in the power of transmigration, and the acceptance of the intermingling of divine and human action in the world must have served to blunt the value placed upon, and the appreciation of, the importance of history. 'The author writes that the first historic Kavya preserved to us is deliberately built on the romantic model. The Harsacharita of Ban a Bhatta belongs to the middle of the seventh century A.D. Though he died before he could finish it, he started it before Kadambari. Later historical works prefer the poetic form pure and simple. The Navasahasankacharita of Padmagupta or Pari mala, son of Mrigankagupta, is one of the earliest works of importance. More interesting is the Vikramankadevacharita of Bilhana written to celebrate the reign of the Chalukya Vikramaditya VI of Kalyana. Bilhana the author of the play Kamasundari and the Chaurapanchashika, was born in Kashmir, He studied the Vedas, grammar, and poetics there, and left his native land to Kalyana. Significantly, the greatest historian who ever wrote in Sanskrit was also a native of Kashmir, He was Kalhana in the middle of the twelfth century A.D. The poet alone has the power to present to the world the facts in such a way as to reveal that he possesses genius and insight. Kalhana can be called a chronicler and is a happy contrast to Jaina monk Hemchandra who has left among his voluminous works a Dvashravakavva. 20 cantos in Sanskrit and 8 in Prakrit celebrating his patron Kumarapala of Anhilvad.
