Kāvya (Devanagari: काव्य, IAST: kāvyá) was the Sanskrit literary style used by Indian court poets flourishing between c. 200 BCE and 1200 CE.
This literary style, which includes both poetry and prose, is characterised by abundant usage of figures of speech such as metaphors, similes, and hyperbole to create its characteristic emotional effects. The result is a short lyrical work, court epic, narrative or dramatic work. Kāvya can refer to the style or the completed body of literature. Aśvaghoṣa (c. 80–150 CE), a philosopher and poet considered the father of Sanskrit drama, is attributed with first using the term.
Although very little literature in the kāvya style written before the time of Kālidāsa (5th century CE) survives, it can be assumed that it dates back to an early time from quotations in Patañjali's grammatical treatise the Mahābhāṣya (2nd century BCE), as well as from poems written on various inscriptions of the 4th to 6th centuries CE.
One early epic work in this style is the Buddhacarita ("A Life of Buddha") by Aśvaghoṣa (2nd century CE). Only the first half of this survives in Sanskrit, and the rest in a Chinese translation made c. 420 CE.
Kālidāsa is believed to have lived in the early 5th century CE. He is the author of two epics, the Raghuvaṃśa and Kumārasambhava. These two epics are traditionally known as mahākāvya "great epics".
Other writers of great epics were Bhāravi (6th century CE), author of Kirātārjunīya; Māgha (c. 7th Century CE), author of Śiśupālav-adha, an epic famous for its linguistic ingenuity; and Śrīharṣa (12th century CE), author of Naiṣadhīya-carita. Another epic, often called a mahākāvya, is Bhaṭṭikāvya, which is simultaneously a narrative and a manual of grammatical instruction. It is believed by some to have been written by the 7th-century poet and grammarian Bhartṛhari.
One prose writer was Subandhu (5th or 7th century CE?), author of Vāsavadattā, a romantic tale. Another was Bāṇabhaṭṭa, also called Bāṇa (7th century CE), author of Kādambarī, a romantic novel, and of Harṣacarita, a biography written in poetic prose.
Another well-known writer of the period was Daṇḍin (7th–8th century CE), who, in addition to poetry, wrote the Kāvyādarśa, a discussion of poetics, and the Daśakumāracarita.
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