Hindu poetry has a particular tendency to the didactic style and to embody
religious and historical knowledge; every subject is treated in the form
of verse, such as inscriptions, deeds, and dictionaries. Splendid examples
of didactic poetry may be found in the episodes of the epic poems, and
more particularly in the collections of fables and apologues in which the
Sanskrit literature abounds. Among these the Hitopadesa is the most
celebrated, in which Vishnu-saima instructs the sons of a king committed
to his care. Perhaps there is no book, except the Bible, which has been
translated into so many languages as these fables. They have spread in two
branches over nearly the whole civilized world. The one, under the
original name of the Hitopadesa, remains almost confined to India, while
the other, under the title of "Calila and Dimna," has become famous over
all western Asia and in all the countries of Europe, and has served as the
model of the fables of all languages. To this department belong also the
"Adventures of the Ten Princes," by Dandin, which, in an artistic point of
view, is far superior to any other didactic writings of Hindu literature.

The drama is the most interesting branch of Hindu literature. No other
ancient people, except the Greeks, has brought forth anything so admirable
in this department. It had its most flourishing period probably in the
third or fourth century B.C. Its origin is attributed to Brahm, and its
subjects are selected from the mythology. Whether the drama represents the
legends of the gods, or the simple circumstances of ordinary life; whether
it describes allegorical or historical subjects, it bears always the same
character of its origin and of its tendency. Simplicity of plot, unity of
episodes, and purity of language, unite in the formation of the Hindu
dramas. Prose and verse, the serious and the comic, pantomime and music
are intermingled in their representations. Only the principal characters,
the gods, the Brahmins, and the kings, speak Sanskrit; women and the less
important characters speak Prakrit, more or less refined according to