5th-century poems

thumb|upright=1.35|King looking at a cloud in a night sky. Meghadūta illustration. Guler State|Guler School of [[Pahari painting, c. 1800. Lahore Museum]] thumb|A Sanskrit manuscript of मेघदूतम् (Meghadūtam), the celebrated long poem by Kālidāsa, fl. ca. 5th century AD, India. thumb|upright|A scene from Meghaduta with the yaksha and the cloud messenger, with the first verse of the poem - on an Indian stamp (1960) thumb|upright|Artist's impression of Kalidasa composing the Meghaduta Meghadūta (, Sanskrit: मेघदूतम्, literally Cloud Messenger) is a lyric poem written by Kālidāsa (c. 4th–5th centu

right|thumb|350px|The triumph of Dionysus, depicted on a 2nd-century Roman sarcophagus. Dionysus rides in a chariot drawn by panthers; his procession includes elephants and other exotic animals. The Dionysiaca (, Dionysiaká) is an ancient Greek epic poem and the principal work of Nonnus. It is an epic in 48 books, the longest surviving poem from Greco-Roman antiquity at 20,426 lines, composed in Homeric dialect and dactylic hexameters, the main subject of which is the life of Dionysus, his expedition to India, and his triumphant return to the west.

thumb|British Library, Add MS 24199, part 1, 10th century thumb|Psychomachia, as the "battle between good and evil", on a Romanesque capital, Monastery of Sant Cugat, Catalonia, Spain The Psychomachia (Battle of Spirits or Soul War) is a Latin poem by Prudentius (348 CE - after 405 CE). Its precise date of composition is unknown. In roughly a thousand lines, the poet describes the conflict of vices and virtues as a battle in the style of Virgil's Aeneid. Christian faith is attacked by and defeats pagan idolatry to be cheered by a thousand Christian martyrs.

The Śatakatraya (), (also known as '''', ) refers to three Indian collections of Sanskrit poetry, containing a hundred verses each. The three śataka's'' are known as the , , and , and are attributed to Bhartṛhari c. 5th century CE.

Latin hymn, written in the first half of the fifth century by the early Christian poet Sedulius

Oldest known Kadamba Kannada inscription