Divine Song, containing the revelation of Krishna, in the form of a
dialogue between the god and his pupil Arjuna. Schlegel calls this episode
the most beautiful, and perhaps the most truly philosophical, poem that
the whole range of literature has produced.

The Mahabharata is divided into eighteen cantos, and it contains two
hundred thousand verses. It is attributed to Vyasa, the compiler of the
Vedas, but it appears that it was the result of a period of literature
rather than the work of a single poet. Its different incidents and
episodes were probably separate poems, which from the earliest age were
sung by the people, and later, by degrees, collected in one complete work.
Of the Mahabharata we possess only a few episodes translated into English,
such as the Bhagavad-Gita, by Wilkins.

At a later period other epic poems were written, either as abridgments of
the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, or founded on episodes contained in
them. These, however, belong to a lower order of composition, and cannot
be compared with the great works of Valmiki and Vyasa.

In the development of lyric poetry the Hindu bards, particularly those of
the third period, have been eminently successful; their power is great in
the sublime and the pathetic, and manifests itself more particularly in
awakening the tender sympathies of our nature. Here we find many poems
full of grace and delicacy, and splendid for their charming descriptions
of nature. Such are the "Meghaduta" and the "Ritusanhara" of Kalidasa, the
"Madhava and Radha" of Jayadeva, and especially the "Gita-Govinda" of the
same poet, or the adventures of Krishna as a shepherd, a poem in which the
soft languors of love are depicted in enchanting colors, and which is
adorned with all the magnificence of language and sentiment.