Verses in this form consist of four eight-syllable pādas (“PAH-duhs”) grouped into two hemistichs. For 10 points each:
[10m] Name this verse form supposedly invented by Vālmīki after watching a hunter kill a mating bird.
ANSWER: shlokas [or śloka; accept anuṣṭubh or vaktra]
[10e] Edwin Arnold’s translation The Song Celestial rendered this poem’s 700 shlokas in iambic pentameter. In this poem’s first shloka, the Kuru king asks Sanjaya about his sons’ deeds on the holy field of Kurukshetra.
ANSWER: Bhagavad Gītā [prompt on Mahābhārata]
[10h] An author who used this language wrote a version of the Rāmāyana in its kakawin form, modeled directly on Sanskrit shlokas. Additions include the panakawan, four clownish stock characters from this language’s literature.
ANSWER: Old Javanese [or Kawi]
<Henry Atkins, World Literature>