The body of secular and courtly Sanskrit writing (kavya, drama and prose) that flourished mainly from the Gupta age onward, distinct from the earlier Vedic and epic literature, and a marker of the so-called classical golden age.
- Kalidasa (Gupta court): the greatest poet-dramatist; plays Abhijnana-Shakuntalam, Vikramorvashiyam and Malavikagnimitram; poems Raghuvamsha, Kumarasambhava, Meghaduta and Ritusamhara.
- Other dramatists: Bhasa (early plays such as Svapnavasavadatta), Shudraka (Mrichchhakatika) and Vishakhadatta (Mudrarakshasa, on Chandragupta Maurya and Chanakya, and Devichandraguptam).
- Prose and tales: Banabhatta in Harsha's court wrote the Harshacharita (a biography) and Kadambari; the Panchatantra (Vishnu Sharma) and the later Hitopadesha are fable collections.
- Science and craft in Sanskrit: Aryabhata (Aryabhatiya, mathematics and astronomy), Varahamihira (Brihat Samhita), Brahmagupta and the medical texts of Charaka and Sushruta.
- Sanskrit drama followed rules from the Natya Shastra and conventionally ended happily, with high characters speaking Sanskrit and others Prakrit.
Author-to-work matching (Kalidasa-Shakuntalam and Meghaduta, Vishakhadatta-Mudrarakshasa, Banabhatta-Harshacharita, Vishnu Sharma-Panchatantra) and the Gupta golden-age context are standard literature questions.
Kalidasa wrote Abhijnana-Shakuntalam (drama) and Meghaduta (poem); Vishakhadatta wrote Mudrarakshasa (a political play on Chanakya), not Kalidasa; the Harshacharita (by Banabhatta) is a biography, distinct from the play Nagananda attributed to King Harsha himself.
Classical Sanskrit kavya and drama: Kalidasa (Shakuntalam), Vishakhadatta (Mudrarakshasa), Banabhatta (Harshacharita), Vishnu Sharma (Panchatantra).