Question: Aśvaghoṣa is considered one of the greatest Indian poets before the time of which Sanskrit writer and dramatist?

Context articles: Kālidāsa
Dilip Chitre
Itihasa
Manohar Shetty
Zia Sarhadi
Harshacharita
Indian poetry
Indian poetry in English
Subrahmanya Saastri
Aśvaghoṣa

Kālidāsa was a Classical Sanskrit writer, widely regarded as the greatest poet and dramatist in the Sanskrit language.
 His plays and poetry are primarily based on the Indian Puranas.
Dilip Purushottam Chitre (17 September 1938 – 10 December 2009) was one of the foremost Indian poets and critics to emerge in the post Independence India.
 Apart from being a very important bilingual writer, writing in Marathi and English, he was also a painter and filmmaker.
Itihasa consists of the "Mahabharata" and the "Ramayana" (sometimes the Puranas too, are included).
 The "Mahabharata" includes the story of the Kurukshetra War and also preserves the traditions of the Lunar dynasty in the form of embedded tales.
 The "Puranas" narrate the universal history as perceived by the Hindus – cosmogony, myth, legend and history.
 The "Ramayana" contains the story of Rama and incidentally relates the legends of the Solar dynasty.
 The classical Indian poets usually derive the story of their poetry and drama from the Itihasas.
 In our time, these traditions have been most carefully reconstructed from the available texts and arranged in chronological order by F. E. Pargiter in his compendium "Ancient Indian Historical Tradition".
Manohar Shetty (born 1953) is a Goa-based poet, who has eight books of poems to his credit and is considered one of the prominent Indian poets writing in the English language.
Zia Sarhadi (Urdu: ضیا سرحدی‎ ; born Fazle Qadir Sethi 1914 in Peshawar, North West Frontier Province–27 January 1997 in Karachi, Sindh) was a Pakistani-Indian screenwriter and director of films in the Bombay (now Mumbai) film industry, whose career spanned what is widely considered the Golden Age of Indian Cinema.
 He was the father of TV and radio actor Khayyam Sarhadi and grandfather of actress Zhalay Sarhadi.
 As a director he was probably best known for his films "Humlog" (1951) and "Footpath" (1953).
 He was involved in writing the script as a consultant for Mother India, considered one of the greatest Indian films of all time, but is rarely credited for his contribution.
 Described as an“unaffiliated Marxist", his films were known for dealing with social issues of the period.
 His film "Footpath", for instance, dealt with issues of moral guilt in 1950s India.
The Harshacharita (Sanskrit: हर्षचरित , Harṣacarita ) ("The deeds of Harsha"), is the biography of Indian emperor Harsha by Banabhatta, also known as Bana, who was a Sanskrit writer of seventh-century CE India.
 He was the "Asthana Kavi", meaning "Court Poet", of Harsha.
 The "Harshacharita" was the first composition of Bana and is considered to be the beginning of writing of historical poetic works in Sanskrit language.
Indian poetry and Indian literature in general, has a long history dating back to Vedic times.
 They were written in various Indian languages such as Vedic Sanskrit, Classical Sanskrit, Hindi, Oriya, Tamil, Kannada, Bengali and Urdu.
 Poetry in foreign languages such as Persian and English also has a strong influence on Indian poetry.
 The poetry reflects diverse spiritual traditions within India.
 In particular, many Indian poets have been inspired by mystical experiences.Poetry is the oldest form of literature and has a rich written and oral tradition.
Indian English Poetry is the oldest form of Indian English Literature.
 Indian poets writing in English have succeeded to nativize or indianize English in order to reveal typical Indian situations.
 Henry Louis Vivian Derozio is considered the first poet in the lineage of Indian English poetry followed by Sri Aurobindo, Sarojini Naidu, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Toru Dutt among others.
 Among the contemporary Indian English Poets, Nar Deo Sharma occupies important place because of his literary achievements.
Subrahmanya Saastri, Mellacheruvu(born 22 May 1948) is a prolific scholar, poet, writer, dramatist and translator in Sanskrit and Telugu.
 Born in Tenali of Guntur district of undivided Andhra Pradesh studied at famous Oriental College Kota Lakshmaiah Naidu Sanskrit College, Tenali.
 He received his first Oriental title "Saahitya Vidyaa Praveena" from this college.
 Later he earned his first class Master's both in Sanskrit and in Telugu from Andhra University, Vizag, Andhra Pradesh.
 Spent nearly four decades in teaching and writing in Sanskrit and Telugu, he retired as Senior lecturer from Gorantla Venkkanna Sanskrit Oriental College, Timmasamudram, Andhra Pradesh.
 Well known for his multiple works in Sanskrit and Telugu; some of his most popular works are: "Sri Gurucharita Mahaakaavyam","Lalitaananda Lahari", "Saalabhanjika Sutradhaaram", "Akarmaanada Lahari","Sri Krishna Raasa Leela--Yogatrayee Hela", "Gajendra Moksham-Rishi Runam", "Vaamanudu-Vamanamu" and "Saami Saranam".
 These works deconstruct the hitherto unknown semiotics, which relate to Yoga and to different paths of Self-realization embedded in ancient Indian spiritual literature.
 These work also lay bare the phenomenology, rhetoric and psychoanalysis associated with the narrative and logic ("tarka") in the ancient Sanskrit texts.
Aśvaghoṣa or Ashvaghosha (/'əɕʋə'gʰoːʂə/ ;  80 – c. 150 CE ) was an Indian philosopher-poet, born in Saketa in northern India to a Brahmin family.
 He is believed to have been the first Sanskrit dramatist, and is considered the greatest Indian poet prior to Kālidāsa.
 He was the most famous in a group of Buddhist court writers, whose epics rivalled the contemporary Ramayana.
 Whereas much of Buddhist literature prior to the time of Aśvaghoṣa had been composed in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, Aśvaghoṣa wrote in Classical Sanskrit.