A Wisdom Archive on Classical Sanskrit

This refers to the poetry produced from the 3rd to approximately the 7th centuries. Kalidasa is the foremost example of a classical poet. While Kalidasa's Sanksrit usage is simple but beautiful, later Sanskrit poetry shifted towards highly stylized literary accents: stanzas that read the same backwards and forwards, words that can be split in different ways to produce different meanings, sophisticated metaphors, and so on. A classic example is the poet Bharavi a ...

Read more here: » Sanskrit literature: Encyclopedia II - Sanskrit literature - Classical Poetry

The Kavyas are highly scholarly compositions in poetry, prose or both. The greatest of poetical Kavyas are those of Kalidas (The Raghuvamsa and Kumarasambhava), Bharavi (The Kiratarjuniya), Magha (The Sisupalavadha), Sri Harsha (The Naishadha). The best prose Kavyas in the whole of Sanskrit literature were written by Bhattabana (The Kadambari and Harshacharita), the great genius in classical Sanskrit. Among those containing both poetry and prose, the Champu-Ramayana and the Champu-Bharata are most famous. These are all wonderful masterpieces which will ever remain to glorify Indias literary calibre.
 
Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda
 

Read more here: » The Kavyas : The Kavyas in the Hindu Scriptures

Sanskrit literature can be classified under six orthodox heads and four secular heads. The six orthodox sections form the authoritative scriptures of the Hindus. The four secular sections embody the later developments in classical Sanskrit literature.
 
The six scriptures are: Srutis, Smritis, Itihasas, Puranas, Agamas and Darsanas.
 
The four secular writings are: Subhashitas, Kavyas, Natakas and Alankaras.
 
Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda
 

Read more here: » Hindu Scriptures: A full overview of the Hindu and Vedic Scriptures

Read more here: » Introduction to Meditation: How to Meditate

The Subhashitas are wise sayings, instructions and stories, either in poetry or in prose. Examples are Bhartriharis three centuries of verses, the Subhashita-Ratna-Bhandagara and Somadeva Bhattas Katha-Sarit-Sagara or Kshemendras Brihat-Katha-Manjari. The Panchatantra and the Hitopadesa also belong to this category.
 
Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda
 

Read more here: » Secular Writings: Secular Writings in the Vedic Scriptures

Buddhism: Buddhist Scriptures
The Buddhist canon of scripture is known in Sanskrit as the Tripitaka and in Pali as the Tipitaka. These terms literally mean "three baskets" and refers to the three main divisions of the canon, which are:
 
1.    The Vinaya Piaaka, containing disciplinary rules for the Sangha of Buddhist monks and nuns, as well as a range of other texts which explain why and how rules were instituted, supporting material, and doctrinal clarification.
2.    The Sutta Pitaka (Pali; Sanskrit: Sutra Pitaka), containing discourses of the Buddha.
3.    The Abhidhamma or commentary Pitaka, containing a philosophical systematization of the Buddha''s teaching, including a detailed analysis of Buddhist psychology.
 

Read more here: » Buddhism: Buddhist Scriptures