A History of Sanskrit Literature c14.17

c14.17

The two most important Kāvyas are Kālidāsa's *Raghuvaṁça* and *Kumāra-sambhava*, both distinguished by independence of treatment as well as considerable poetical beauty. They have several stanzas in common, many others which offer but slight variations, and a large number of passages which, though differing in expression, are strikingly analogous in thought. In both poems, too, the same metre is employed to describe the same situation. In both poems each canto is, as a rule, composed in one metre, but changes with the beginning of the new canto. The prevailing metres are the classical form of the *anushṭubh* and the *upajāti*, a development of the Vedic *trishṭubh*.