A History of Sanskrit Literature c13.s2.17

c13.s2.17

In style the *Rāmāyaṇa* is already far removed from the naïve popular epic, in which the story is the chief thing, and not its form. Vālmīki is rich in similes, which he often cumulates; he not infrequently uses the cognate figure called *rūpaka* or “identification” (*e.g.* “foot-lotus”) with much skill, and also occasionally employs other ornaments familiar to the classical poets, besides approximating to them in the style of his descriptions. The *Rāmāyaṇa*, in fact, represents the dawn of the later artificial poetry (*kāvya*), which was in all probability the direct continuation and development of the art handed down by the rhapsodists who recited Vālmīki’s work. Such a relationship is distinctly recognised by the authors of the great classical epics (*mahākavis*) when they refer to him as the *ādi-kavi* or "first poet."