"The vastness and the versatility, and power of expression can be appreciated by the fact that Sanskrit has 65 words to describe various forms of earth, 67 words for water, and over 250 words to describe rainfall.
~Alain Danielou
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| Sanskrit Work | About the Work | Author |
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| Mahabharata | The largest poetic epic in the world. It is the story of a great war between two families, the Kauravas and the Pandavas. This epic has influenced the Indian culture. The Bhagavad Gita that occurs in the tenth canto of this epic is considered the Hindu Bible. | Mainly credited to Veda Vyasa |
| Ramayana | An epic dealing with the story of Lord Rama and his adventures. This epic is not as long as the Mahabharata but it is longer than the Illiad and Odyssey put together. This epic along with the Mahabharata has a profound impact on the Indian culture even to this day. | Vaalmiki |
| Abhignana Shakuntalam | The forgotten Shakuntala - It is the story of a young girl who is forgotten by her husband due to a sage's curse. Bharata, the son of Shakuntala later is responsible for uniting the couple. | Kalidasa |
| Svapnavasavadattam | The Vision of the King Vasavadatta - This is the story of a king who is pressured to marry the daughter of a powerful ruler to strengthen his reign. However, Vasavadatta is very devoted to his Queen. The story revolves around the Queen staging a sacrifice of her life for the sake of the kingdom. | Bhasa |
| Mriccha-Katika | The Clay Cart - The earliest known sanskrit play. It is a story about the love of Charudatta, a poor inhabitant of the city of Ujjaini for Vasantasena , a daughter of a rich courtesan. | Bhasa |
| Kathaa-Sarita-Saagar | An Ocean of Stories - Several stories that were were passed orally were compiled into this book. It influenced many other stories including "The Arabian Nights". | Somadeva |
| Gita-Govinda | The Song of Govinda - A lyrical poem expressing the divine love between Krishna, the cowherd boy and Radha, the cowherd girl. This soon became one of the most important religious books among the Vaishnava community. | Jayadeva |
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| Name | Field | Author | About the Work |
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| Ashtadhyayi | Sanskrit grammar and phonetics | Panini |
Encyclopedia states that: "Panini's stroke of brilliance lies in the fact that the grammar he wrote, in addition to being a descriptive grammar, is also a generative grammar. Panini used metarules, transformations, and recursion in such sophistication that his grammar has the computing power equivalent to a Turing machine." |
| Natyashastra | Dance and Drama | Bharata | The detail and depth into which this treatise dives into is amazing. It covers every aspect of the art and craft of a stage including: costumes, dance, music, architecture, setup and theater companies. |
| Yogasutras | Yoga school of Indian philosophy | Patanjali | The book consits of a set of aphorism that have influenced the world culture enormously. |
| Arthashastra | Politics and Economics | Chankya/Kautilya | This text discusses on how a virtuous king should rule, the duties of a government towards a state and how to make an economy prosperous. |
| Charaka Samhita | Medicine | Charaka | Sage Agnivesha is considered one of the foremost authors on the books of ayurveda. Sage Charaka revised this work with newer knowledge and compiled this treatise. |
| Susruta Samhita | Surgery | Susruta | This book classifies human surgery, describes surgical equipments and outlines surgical procedures. This has had a strong influence on modern medicine including plastic surgery. |
| Sangeeta Martanda | Music | Sage Narada | Discusses how to chant, how to sing, scales of singing, melodies and secular singing. |
| Aryabhattiya | Mathematics and Astronomy | Aryabhatta | Discusses astronomical and mathematical theories. He gives the close approximation for the value of PI for the first time. |
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| Author | About the Author |
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| Veda Vyasa | Writer and Sage - He is known to have composed the epic Mahabharata. He is also known to have divided the Vedas into four parts for the convinience of the people so that they can easily understand them. |
| Kalidasa | Indian dramatist and poet. He is known as the Shakespeare of India and has the title Kaviratna (the jewel among the poets). Kalidasa is known to have composed the following plays: Abhignana Shakuntalam, Malavikagnimitram, Vikramorvashiya, Meghaduta and the following epics: Kumarasambhava, Raghuvamsha. |
| Bhasa | The earliest known Sanskrit dramatist. His works have strongly influenced Kalidasa. Some of his famous works include "Svapnavasavadattam", "Pratijna-Yaugandharayaanam". Most of his plays were lost and were rediscovered only in 1919A.D. |
| Bana Bhatta | The First Sanskrit novelist. His most famous works include "Kaadambari" and "Harshacharita". Both of these works are believed to be left incomplete by him. |