Literature

HISTORY OF INDIAN LITERATURE
 * The endless legends and folklore of the Indian Literature are of great importance even today and is acknowledged as one of the oldest in the world. India has twenty-two officially accepted languages and many more regional ones. The large variety of untold stories and facts, which assimilates within the Indian literature from ancient, medieval and comparatively modern times, personifies it as a living entity. The most predominating faction has been Hinduism. The Indian literary traditions has dominated a large part of Indian culture and comprises of Vedas, Upanishads, smritis, Brahmanas and Epics. **
 * The art of writing was known in India from very early times. The people of the Harappan culture used a unique pictographic script with 250 to 400 characters. Unfortunately, this script remains undeciphered, since its use 3000 years. **
 * Hindi is the official language of India and is written in the Devanagari script. The Brahmi script of the Ashokan inscription (3rd century B. C.), was the first deciphered script used in India. In fact it is the source of many Indian scripts in use today. Gurumukhi, which literally means ‘from the mouth of the guru’, is the name given to the script devised by the Sikh guru, Angad and Brahmi was called the script of the priests (Brahmins), while Kharoshti, meaning ‘ass-lip’, was used by clerks. **
 * THE VEDIC LITERATURE **
 * The Vedic literature is the oldest form of literature in India dating back to 1200 to 500 B.C. and comprises of four Vedas. The rig veda is the oldest recorded veda, it consists of more than 100 hymns dedicated to the deities. It //is followed by yajur veda which// contains prose mantras that were recited while performing sacrifices to god or yagna. Then is the sama veda which is also known as the veda of melodies. The fourth veda is the Atharva veda containing the spell to ward off the demons and diseases. The Vedas were not written but were orally passed on. **


 * THE SANSKRIT LITERATURE **
 * An important part of the Sanskrit literature was the manusmriti. According to this the four castes arose from four body parts of manu (the first human) – The brahmanas(priests) from the head, the kshatriya (warrior) from the chest,the vaishyas (businessmen) and the shudras (clerk) from the foot. This division which was initially made for occupational purposes is now becoming the cause of caste discriminations. **** The earliest examples of written Sanskrit are inscriptions that were carved on stone pillars in the early centuries. Most of the texts were written on __strips of palm leaves or birch bark__. During the classical period (500B.C.- A.D. 1200), two great Hindu Epics were composed : __The Mahabharata by Ved Vyasa and the Ramayana by Valmiki.__ The dates of composition for the epics are usually given as 400 B.C. to A.D. 400 for the Mahabharata and 200 B.C. to A.D. 200 for the Ramayana. The Mahabharata tells of the war between two groups within one large family. It is one of the longest poems in world with 100,000 verses .Part of the poem consists of a conversation between the warrior Arjuna and hids chariot driver Krishna. This conversation, called the __Bhagavada Gita__ (“The Song of the Lord”),is considered by many to express the basic beliefs of the Hindu faith. **
 * The Ramayana is one of the most famous stories in Indian literature. It is the tale of Prince Rama and his wife Sita and of the adventures that follow Sita’s capture by Ravana, a demon with ten heds. Sita is rescued with the help of hanuman, a monkey general and his army. **
 * Puranas contained myths and legends about hindu gods and descriptions of the ways to worship them. **
 * Kavya describes a type of written literature as well as a style of writing, either prose or verse. The language of Kavya is very ornate and descriptive, with many puns and other kinds of wordplay. The most Kavya poet was Kalidasa, his best known works were the Abhijana shakuntala, Meghaduta (“ The cloud messenger “), Kadambari. **
 * Some Sanskrit prose concentrated on story telling, both to educate and entertain. The panchatantra (the five books), the kathasaritsagara (The Ocean of story) and the Jatakas (Birth Tales) were written in Pali. The Jatakas, which contain moral lessons, tell us of the earthly forms – both human and animals – assumed by the Buddha. **


 * THE TAMIL LITERATURE **
 * The Tamil language, although not as old as sanskrit, has a rich literary tradition that has continued to the present day. The poems of the tamil literature are known as sangam literature because, according to legends, they were composed in academies called sangam. One of the famous tamil epics is silappatikaram (“the jeweled anklet”) by Ilanko Atikal. **
 * THE MEDIEVIAL PERIOD **
 * During the first half of India’s Medivial period (500 A.D.- 1800 A.D.), the modern languages of India began to emerge, although Sanskrit literature continued to be composed. At the beginning of this period, a religious movement known as bhakti (“devotion”) occurred within the Hindu faith. Followers of bhakti believed that worshippers could communicate directly with their chosen god. The bhakti revolution gave rise to poetry written in all languages which were used as a mean to communicate with their god. In hindi speaking northen India poets saints included the famous Surdas, Miribai & Kabir. From the Muslim poets of Medieval India came the ghazal, a form poetry written in Urdu. Two of the finest ghazl poets were Mir & Ghalib. **
 * Poetry was also used to create a unifiying bond amongst the masses as according to kabir God was one and almighty he was neither Hindu nor Muslim. **