Works not meant as literary efforts have also come to form part of the Indian literary heritage.

(i) About 300 BC, Bharata had brought  the principles of literary criticism together and used  the term  rasa or flavour to indicate different types of  enjoyment to be had from literary works. Around 9th century AD, poetic art was dealt with in the book Dhanva loka.

(ii) Sutras or tenets  are available in respect of all the schools of Indian philosophy. Bhashyas or commentaries on the Sutras are also available. Of them Shankara's Bhashya is in almost elegant style.

(iii) As for Law, there are codes or Smritis by Manu, Yajnavalkya, Parasahara and so on. Manusmriti is also good literature.

(iv) There are seminal works on Astronomy as well, in which the Indian heritage is particularly rich. For example, Brihaj-jataka by Varahamihira,  and Siddhanta-shiromani by Bhaskaraacharya.

(v) There is a wealth of information on herbal medicines in the Ayurveda. Principles of health are dealt with in the works of Charaka and Sushruta.

(vi) Apart from epics and royal chronicles, Kautilya's Arthashastra gave an idea of political life and principles, and the administrative structure of the State.

(vii) Material is available on love-making in the Kamasutra by Vatsyayana, with its commentary Jayamangala attributed to Shankaracharya.

(viii) Not later than about 500 BC, Panini, a great grammarian, brought together ancient and prevalent grammatical tenets. A scholar named Katyayana explained the text of Panini in his own way. Later another great scholar named Patanjali gave his own interpretations of Panini. Nagesha Bhatta further developed the rules for the interpretation of a text. The Nirukta of Yaska is in the form of explanations of words, and is the basis for later lexicons and dictionaries. 

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