This book brings together two short collections of Sanskrit erotic poetry, the Śṛṅgāratilaka (“the sign of passion”), with thirty-seven epigrams, and the Ghaṭakarpara (“the broken pot”), an ode of twenty-one stanzas in which a woman expresses his longing for the beloved; its title seems to hide the name of the author, who proudly boasts of his skill with rhyme. The simplicity of his style places these works at a date before the great poet Kālidāsa (4th-5th c. AD); The fact that they are such early samples of the classical Sanskrit lyric of the kāvya type gives them special relevance. Kāvya poetry was characterized by a style of great formal elegance, with its own aesthetic and technical codes. In the classical Indian love lyric, the author does not necessarily reflect his own feelings: he gives voice to coded situations and characters, which nevertheless allows him to express a subtle range of feelings. The depth of feminine feelings is surprising, or the fineness with which the lovers' mood swings are reflected.