Who among the following classical poets is the author of the book Kiratarjuniyam ?

Correct — B, Bharavi. The Kiratarjuniya is a Sanskrit mahakavya in eighteen cantos by Bharavi, written probably in the sixth century, and it takes its subject from an episode of the Mahabharata: Arjuna's austerity in the Himalaya and his combat with Shiva, who appears disguised as a kirata, a mountain hunter, before granting him the Pashupata weapon. Bharavi is celebrated for weight of meaning and for elaborate verbal ingenuity, and Sanskrit critics traditionally rank him with Kalidasa, Magha and Sri Harsha among the authors of the great court epics. The other three names on this list belong to different languages or different genres altogether.

• (a)Thiruvalluvar — Thiruvalluvar wrote the Tirukkural, a work of Tamil ethical aphorisms in couplets, not a Sanskrit court epic.
• (c)Valmiki — Valmiki is the traditional author of the Ramayana, the adi-kavya, and stands at the beginning of the epic tradition rather than within the later mahakavya form.
• (d)Panini — Panini was a grammarian, author of the Ashtadhyayi, which is a systematic description of Sanskrit rather than a poem.

The mahakavya or great court epic is a defined Sanskrit genre with conventions of length, canto structure and descriptive set pieces. Five works are conventionally grouped as its finest examples: Kalidasa's Kumarasambhava and Raghuvamsha, Bharavi's Kiratarjuniya, Magha's Shishupalavadha and Sri Harsha's Naishadhiyacharita. Bharavi's poem is prized for artha-gaurava, the weight or density of its meaning, and contains famous displays of technical virtuosity, including a verse using a single consonant throughout.

Author-and-work items are answered by first sorting the options by category. Here one option is a Tamil didactic poet, one is a grammarian and one is the author of an epic that predates the mahakavya form by centuries; only one is a classical Sanskrit court poet. That sorting alone gives the answer without needing to recall the poem. It also helps to keep the three big mahakavya authors as a set — Bharavi, Magha and Sri Harsha, with Kalidasa above them — since the same four names are recycled through this question type with different works attached.

• The Kiratarjuniya is a Sanskrit mahakavya in eighteen cantos by Bharavi.
• Its subject is Arjuna's austerity and his combat with Shiva disguised as a kirata, a mountain hunter.
• Bharavi is ranked with Kalidasa, Magha and Sri Harsha among the great court epic poets.
• Thiruvalluvar wrote the Tamil Tirukkural, and Panini the Sanskrit grammar Ashtadhyayi.
• Valmiki's Ramayana is called the adi-kavya, the first poem, and precedes the mahakavya genre.

• Choosing Valmiki because the subject is drawn from the epics.
• Confusing Bharavi with Bhavabhuti, a dramatist of a later period.
• Assuming a poet named in a Sanskrit question must have written in Sanskrit; Thiruvalluvar did not.

Asked as a one-line author-and-work item where the distractors come from different languages and genres, so sorting by category answers it.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Kiratarjuniya draws its subject from which epic?

  • (a)The Ramayana
  • (b)The Mahabharata
  • (c)The Raghuvamsha
  • (d)The Shishupalavadha

  Answer(b) The Mahabharata — Arjuna's austerity and his encounter with Shiva in the guise of a hunter.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Shishupalavadha, another of the great Sanskrit court epics, was composed by

  • (a)Bharavi
  • (b)Magha
  • (c)Sri Harsha
  • (d)Dandin

  Answer(b) Magha — one of the four poets conventionally grouped with Kalidasa and Bharavi.