CONTENTS: Preface, Introduction, 1. The Rise and Fall of the Kavya Project, 2. Towns in Kalidasa's Kavyas and the thesis of Urban Decay, 3. From Bardic Epic to Court Poetry: The Kairataparvan of Mahabharata and the Kiratarjuniya of Bharavi, 4. Magha's Sisupalavadha: A Poem for the Early Medieval Indian Court, 5. A Sanskrit Prasasti of Ghiyasuddin Balban, 6. A New Sensibility? The Manipravalam Poetry from Medieval Kerala, 7. Satire as Portest: An Early Modern Sanskrit Poem, 8. Temple Festival as Carnival: The Rasasadanabhana of Yuvarajakavi, Appendix: Mahabharata-An Epic of Epochal Transition, Index.