Mahakavya

Mahākāvya (lit. great kāvya, court epic), also known as "sargabandha", is a genre of Indian epic poetry in Classical Sanskrit. The genre is characterised by ornate and elaborate descriptions of scenery, love, battles and so on — in short, everything that tests a poet's skill at description. Typical examples of "mahākāvya" are the "Kumarasambhava" and the "Kiratarjuniya."
It is considered the most prestigious form in the Sanskrit literature. The genre evolved from the earlier epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Despite the length of "mahākāvya"s (15-30 cantos, a total of about 1500-3000 verses), they are still much shorter than the Ramayana (500 cantos, 24000 verses) and the Mahabharata (about 100000 verses).
The classical examples.
Tradition identifies five works as model "mahākāvya":
To this list, sometimes a sixth one is also added.
Characteristics.
In the "mahākāvya" genre, more emphasis was laid on description than on narration. Indeed, the traditional characteristics of a "mahākāvya" are listed as:
About this list, Ingalls observes:
It is composed of a varying number of short poems or cantos, that tells the story of a classical epic. Each poem is composed in a metre that is fitting to the subject matter, such as a description of the seasons, a geographical form of nature such as a mountain, and cities.
Modern "mahakavya".
In the relatively secluded world of modern Sanskrit literature, "mahakavya"s continue to be produced. Some of these have been awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award for Sanskrit. In the introduction to "Ṣoḍaśī: An Anthology of Contemporary Sanskrit Poets" (1992), Radhavallabh Tripathi writes:
On the other hand, the number of authors who appear to be very enthusiastic about writing in Sanskrit during these days is not negligible. […] In a thesis dealing with Sanskrit "mahākāvya"s written in a single decade, 1961–1970, the researcher [Dr. Ramji Upadhyaya] has noted 52 Sanskrit "mahākāvya"s (epic poems) produced in that very decade.
Some modern "mahākāvya"s do not aim to satisfy all the traditional criteria, and take as their subject historical matter (such as Rewa Prasad Dwivedi's "Svatantrya Sambhavam" on the Indian independence movement, or K.N. Ezhuthachan's "Keralodayah" on the history of Kerala), or biographies of historical characters (such as S.B. Varnekar's "Shrishivarajyodayam" on Shivaji, M. S. Aney's "Sritilakayasornavah" on Bal Gangadhar Tilak, or P. C. Devassia's "Kristubhagavatam" on Jesus Christ). Some others like the "Śrībhārgavarāghaviyam" (2002) composed by Jagadguru Rāmabhadrācārya continue to have the subject of the traditional epics.