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Sanskrit Secular Poetry
Sanskrit Secular Poetry can be dated back to the age of Bhartrihari. Many secular poems have no certainty of the writers and its date of composition.

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Sanskrit Secular Poetry has been influenced by Pali and Prakrit Literature. Poetic art was steadily developing in refinement from the earlier stage which is preserved in the Rig Veda itself and in the Atharvaveda and in Pali texts. Several secular poems have been ascribed to Kalidasa of which the €rngdratilaka is considered worth honouring. Its twenty-three stanzas picturizes love. The poet condemns while praising his beloved. The note of bitterness and pain has been the most influencing.

Ghatakarpara is a poem of the category written in twenty-two stanzas that describes the situation of a young wife. This poem is indebted for its title to the fact that the author offers to carry water in a broken jar for any one who can surpass him in Yamakas. Thereby evolved the poet Ghatakarpara. This work is earlier than Kalidasa. Ghatakarpara clearly was ranked higher by Indian taste and he was also made one of the nine jewels of Vikramaditya`s court as a contemporary of poet Kalidasa.

Mayura was a poet who flourished in the court of Harshavardhana in the seventh century and was the father-in-law of Banabhatta. Matafiga Divakara was more famous compared to both of them.

Govardhana was a poet whose aim was to raise the Yamuna River in the air in the shape of elevating love songs extant in Prakrit to the level of Sanskrit language. His medium was the Arya verse. He also composed in this metre which was borrowed by Sanskrit from Prakrit. The poetry lacks the popular flavour. The Prakrit model has been imitated that is carried to the extent of styling the sections Vrajyas. His brothers Udayana and Balabhadra brought out the corrected version of his work. A more sympathetic idea of him is given in a verse that is cited by Rupagosvamin:

pdntha Dvdravatltn prayasi yadi he tad Devakinandano vaktavyah
smaramohamantravivagd gopyo `pi ndmojjhitdk
etah kelikadambadhfdipatalair alokagunyddigak
Kalindltatabhumayo `pi tava bho ndydnti cittdspadampdntha Dvdravatltn prayasi yadi he
tad Devakinandano vaktavyah smaramohamantravivagd gopyo `pi ndmojjhitdk
etah kelikadambadhfdipatalair alokagunyddigak
Kalindltatabhumayo `pi tava bho ndydnti cittdspadam

Buddhist author Dharmakirti has many stanzas that have been ascribed, which are found also in the collections of Amaru and Bhartrihari. He was a logician of the seventh century A. D.


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