This study seeks to compare the generic conventions of the Sanskrit ornate epic poem (mahākāvya) with the Longinian notion of the sublime, belonging to the literary-rhetorical tradition of the classical (Western) antiquity. It characterizes descriptions of mountains and oceans employed in the mahākāvya genre within the theoretical context of the “grand narrative” specified by Sanskrit literary theorists. The practice of Sanskrit poets characterized in this way is compared with the prerequisites of grand style, understood by Pseudo-Longinus as an actualization of the proto-aesthetic category of the sublime.
