Literature of Indus

Valley; Subcontinent
WL
 Ancient Literature of Subcontinent
• Literature of Subcontinent includes everything which is included in the
word ‘literature’ in its broadest, sense: religious and mundane, epic and
lyric, dramatic and didactic poetry, narrative and scientific prose, as well
as oral poetry and song.
• Not very correct to say that ancient Literature of Subcontinent includes
only the religious classics of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Jain
narrative literature in the Prakrit language is full of erotic stories and
realism.
 Brian storming? Analyze…
• In the Vedas (3000 BC-1000 BC), “I am standing in water but I am very
thirsty”.
 Vedas are what?
• The Vedas are essentially archetypal poetry of high literary value.
• They are mythical in nature and their language is symbolic.
• They have multiple meanings: theology; the preacher seeks his belief, the
philosopher finds the clues for his intellectual speculation and the law-
makers work out the social and political life-style in accordance with the
archetypal truths of the Vedas.
 Vedic poets are called what?
• Vedic poets are called the rishis, the seers who visualized the archetypal
truths of cosmic functioning at all levels of existence.
• Devatas of the Vedic poetry symbolize the manifestations of the divine force
of the One Supreme. Vedas give importance to yajna (sacrifice).
• Purusa sukta of the Rigveda (10.90) describes the whole creation as a yajna
extended by the divine forces of nature.
• Etymologically yajna means the worship of the divine, coordination and
giving (sacrifice).
 What are the three elements of ancient
Literature of Subcontinent?
• These three elements together, vision, coordination and giving provide a
basic paradigm for any creative act.
 The great epics
• The great epics (Mahakavya), the Ramayana (1500 BC) and the Mahabharata (1000 BC) are the,
repositories of the ethnic memory of the Indian people.
• Valmiki, the poet of the Ramayana, is known as Adikavi (first among the poets), and the story of Rama is
occasionally referred to in the Mahabharata.
• But both these epics were composed over a long passage of time, not by one poet, but by many poets, for
the purpose of oral transmission by singers and story tellers. Both are epics of the people, and as such,
reflect the ethos and the psyche of a group of people, not only in a given temporal frame, but have a
universal human context.
• The Ramayana tells us about how a man can achieve divineness, as Rama achieves divinity through
righteous action. It also tells us about how to achieve the fourfold objectives (Purushartha) of human life,
Dharma (righteousness, or loosely, religion), Artha (worldly achievement, mainly wealth and prosperity),
Kama (fulfilment of all desires), and Moksha (liberation). Inwardly it is a quest to know oneself.
Ramayana
 The Ramayana
• The Ramayana consists of 24,000 verses and is divided into seven books,
called Kandas, and known as Kavya (poetry), which means that it instructs
while it entertains.
• The three main causes of destruction are as follows: theft of others’
wealth, evil eye on another’s wife, and doubting the character and
integrity of one’s own friends.
• “When a man’s destruction comes, his own intellect gets corrupted”
The Mahabharata
 The Mahabharata
• consists of a 1,00,000 verses divided into 10 books, parvas, with many
interpolations, known an Itihasa Purana (mythical history).
• Both are long, continuous narratives and deal with war. The king Rama fights a
battle with the demon king Ravana, who steals his wife, Sita, and holds her captive
in his palace at Lanka (now Sri Lanka). Rama, with the help of the monkey army
and Hanuman, rescues Sita. His triumph over Ravana symbolises the victory of
virtue over evil. This pattern, at the individual level, is a fight going on within the
self between vice and virtue.
 The Mahabharata
• “Men of immature understanding begin an act without having an eye
to what may happen in future.”
• “Anger is in this world, the root of the destruction of mankind, The
angry man commits a sin; the angry man murders his preceptor; the
angry man insults his ciders with harsh words. The angry man cannot
distinguish what should be and should not be said by him. there is
nothing which cannot be said or done by an angry man. ”
 The Purana
• The word Purana means ‘that which renews the old’ and is almost always mentioned
alongwith Itihasa.
• The Puranas were written to illustrate and expound the truth of the Vedas. The
fundamental abstruse philosophical and religious truths are expounded through popular
legends or mythological stories.
• Nothing can exert grater credence on the human mind than when it is described as
having happened. Thus, Itihasa combined with narration makes a story seem credible.
• Together with the two epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, they are the origins of
many of the stories and anecdotes of the social, religious and cultural history of India.
 The Purana
• The main Puranas are 18 encyclopedic collections of legend and myth.
Though the archaic form of the genre might have existed as early as the
fourth or the fifty century B.C., the famous names of the 18 Mahapuranas
were not discovered earlier than the third century A.D.
• The phenomenal popularity of these Mahapuranas gave rise to yet another
sub-genre known as the Upapuranas or minor Puranas. They are also 19 in
number.
 The Mahapuranas have five subjects.
• (1) Sarga, the original creation of the universe
• (2) Pratisarga, the periodical process of destruction and recreation
• (3) Manvantara, the different eras or cosmic cycles
• (4) Surya Vamsha and Chandra Vamsa, the histories of the solar and lunar dynasties of Gods and sages
• (5) Vamshanucharita, the genealogies of kings. Around this core skeleton of the five subjects any
Purana adds other diverse materials like matters of religious concern, customs, ceremonies, sacrifices,
festivals, the duties of various castes, different types of donations, details of the construction of
temples and images, and descriptions of places of pilgrimage. The Puranas are the meeting point of
diverse religious and social beliefs, are linked with the vital spiritual and social needs and urges of the
people, and are a unique outcome of the ever-continuing synthesis based on an understanding between
various groups of vedic Aryans and non-Aryans.
 Classical Sanskrit Literature
• The Sanskrit language is divided into the Vedic and the classical.
• The great epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and the Puranas are part of the classical
period, but are discussed separately because of their enormity and importance, and are
undoubtedly the precursors of Sanskrit Kavya (epic poetry), nataka (drama) and other literature.
• Classical Sanskrit literature includes the Kavyas (epic poetry), the Nataka (drama), lyric poetry
romance, popular tales, didactic fables, gnomic poetry, scientific literature on grammar,
medicine, law, astronomy, mathematics, etc. Classical Sanskrit literature is on the whole secular
in character.
• During the classical period, language was regulated by the rigid rules of Panini, one of the
greatest Sanskrit grammarians.
 Plays
• The 13 plays of Bhasa (4th century B.C.-2nd century A.D.), which were
discovered at the beginning of the 20th century, are accepted as the most stagable
plays of Sanskrit theatre.
• The most popular is Swapnavasavadatta (Vasavadatta in dream) where the
playwright has displayed his skill of characterization and a fine manipulation of the
plot.
• Bhavabhuti (700 A.D.), another great dramatist, is well known for his play Uttara-
Ramacharitam (the later life of Rama), which contains a play within it in the last
act of a love of exquisite tenderness.
 Lyrical Poetry
• Sanskrit literature is replete with lyrical poetry of great merit. This poetry
constitutes a fusion of erotic and religious sentiments.
• Division between art and religion in Indian culture seems to be less sharp
than in Europe and China. In Kalidasa’s narrative lyric poem, Meghaduta
(the cloud messenger), the poet makes a cloud a messenger to tell the
story of two lovers who are separated.
 Literature in Pali and Prakrit
• Pali and Prakrit were the spoken languages of Indians after the Vedic
period. Prakrit in the widest sense of the term, was indicative of any
language that in any manner deviated from the standard one, i.e. Sanskrit.
• Pali is archaic Prakrit. In fact, Pali is a combination of various dialects.
These were adopted by Buddhist and Jain sects in ancient India as their
sacred languages.
• Lord Buddha (500 B.C.) used Pali to give his sermons. All the Buddhist
canonical literature is in Pali which includes Tipitaka (threefold basket).
 Baskets of Buddhist Literature:
• The first basket, Vinaya Pitaka, contains the monastic rules of the Order of
Buddhist monks.
• The second basket, Sutta Pitaka, is the collection of the speeches and
dialogues of the Buddha.
• The third basket, the Abhidhamma Pitaka, elucidates the various topics
dealing with ethics, psychology or theory of knowledge.
 Early Dravidian Literature
• The Indo-Pakistani people speak languages belonging to major four
distinct speech families: the Austric, Dravidian, Sino-Tibetan and Indo-
European. In spite of these four different language groups, there is an
Indian characteristic running through these language groups, which forms
one of the bases of that certain underlying uniformity of life described by
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru as unity in the midst of diversity.
 Medieval Literature and Languages
• Around 1000 A.D. local differences in Prakrit grew more and more pronounced,
which later came to be known as Apabhramsa, and this led to the modern Indian
languages taking shape and being born. These languages, conditioned by the
regional, linguistic and ethnic environment, assumed different linguistic
characteristics. Constitutionally recognised modern Indian languages and Konkani,
Marathi, Sindhi, Gujarati (Western); Manipuri, Bengali, Oriya and Assamese
(Eastern); Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada (Southern) and Hindi, Urdu,
Kashmiri, Dogri, Punjabi, Maithali, Nepali and Sanskrit (Northern). Two tribal
languages, Bodo and Santhali are also recognised by the Constitution.
 22 main languages
• Out of these 22 languages, Tamil is the oldest modern Indian language
maintaining its linguistic character with little change for about 2000 years.
• Urdu is the youngest of the modern Indian languages, taking its shape in
the 14th century A.D., deriving its script from an Arabic-Persian origin,
but vocabulary from Indo-Oriental sources, i.e. Persian and Hindi.
• Sanskrit, though the oldest classical language, is still very much in use,
and hence is included in the list of modern Indian languages by the
Constitution of India.
 Evolved Literature
• The most powerful trend of medieval Literature of Subcontinent between
1000 and 1800 A.D. is devotional (bhakti) poetry which dominates almost
all the major languages of the country.
• Unlike the dark middle ages of Europe, India’s middle ages brought about
a very rich tradition of devotional literature of remarkable merit which
dispels the superstitious assumption of a dark period of India’s history.
 Bhakti literature
• Bhakti literature is the most important development of the medieval period. It is love
poetry.
• Love for one’s Lord, Krishna or Rama, the two main incarnations of the great God
Vishnu. This love is depicted as love between husband and wife, or between lovers, or
between servant and master, or between parents and child. This is personalization of the
godhood, which means a truthful perception of God residing in you, and also harmony in
life which only love can bring.
• Worldly love is Kama (Eros) and divine love is Prema (mystic Eros). The dominating
note in bhakti is ecstasy and total identity with God. It is poetry of connections –
connecting the worldly with the divine, and as a result, the old form of secular love
poetry began to have a new meaning in all languages.
 Other Trends in Medieval Literature
• Love ballads and heroic poetry in Punjabi, known as Kissa and Var, were popular
Punjabi medieval forms.
• The most famous Punjabi love ballad is Hir Ranjha, an immortal book by a Muslim
poet called Warris Shah. A popular Punjabi heroic ballad, sung by village bards
orally, is Najabat’s Var of Nadir Shah. Var is the most popular form of Punjabi
poetry, music and drama, all rolled into one, and has been in vogue since the earliest
times. In Hindi, between 1700 and 1800 A.D., many poets like Bihari Lal and
Keshav Das created secular poetry of Sringara (erotic sentiment), and a large number
of other poets, wrote academic accounts of the entire range of poetry, in verse form.
 Urdu Literature, its rise and contributor
• During the medieval period, Urdu, as a language, came into being. It was Amir Khusro
(1253 A.D.), an early architect of India’s composite culture, and a great Sufi poet, who first
experimented with Persian and Hindi (then known as Hindavi) mixed poetry, which was the
genesis of a new language, subsequently recognised as Urdu.
• Urdu has largely followed Persian forms and metres in poetry, but it has adopted some of the
purely Indian forms also.
• Ghazals (lyrical couplets), marsia (elegy) and qasidah (ode of praise) are of Iranian origin.
Sauda (1706-1781) was the first among the late medieval poets who gave vigour and
versatility to Urdu poetry, which his predecessors had been struggling to accomplish.
• Then, it was Dard (1720-1785) and Mir Taqi Mir (1722-1810) who gave Urdu maturity and
class, and ushered it into the modern period.
 BORN February 01, 1725 Agra
DIED September 21, 1810 Lucknow

Mir Taqi Mir (sometimes also spelt Meer Taqi Meer), whose pen name was Mir, was the leading Urdu poet of the 18th
century, and one of the pioneers who gave shape to the Urdu poetry and Urdu language itself. He was one of the
principal poets of the Delhi School of the Urdu ghazal and remains arguably the foremost name in Urdu poetry often
remembered as Xudā-e suxan (god of poetry). His philosophy of life was formed primarily by his father, a religious
man with a large following, whose emphasis on the importance of love and the value of compassion remained with
Mir throughout his life and imbued his love poetry. Mir's father died while the poet was in his teens. He left Agra for
Delhi a few years after his
father's death, to finish his education and also to find patrons who offered him financial support. Mir Taqi Mir lived
much of his life in Mughal Delhi. However, after Ahmad Shah Abdali's sack of Delhi each year starting 1748, he
eventually moved to the court of Asaf-ud-Daulah in Lucknow, at the king's invitation. Mir migrated to Lucknow in
1782 and remained there for the remainder of his life.
• In My Own Way
• In my presence when there was mention of you,
• my tormented heart I closely cleaved unto.
• If one swears, should be upon Zulekha's fate,
• her slave was superior to the head of state.
• Ruined once, compared with mosques, had taverns been,
• then Saaqi's heady eyes avenged, reversed the scene.
• In the street, the crooked one, evaded me,
• nor to greetings did respond, straightforwardly.
• Captor, you heartlessness I will make you regret,
• when zest for being ensnared traps me in your net.
• In my own way I have dealt with love you see,
• all my life I made my failures work for me.
• In a corner, Miir, although amongst poets I be,
• yet my voice does not eclipse the earth entirely.
 Modern Literature of Subcontinent
The 19th Century Indian Renaissance
• The most important literary event that revolutionaries literature was the emergence of
literary prose in all the modern Indian languages, and the advent of the printing press, under
the patronage of an Englishman, William Carey (1761-1834), at Serampore, Bengal.
• It is true that Sanskrit and Persian had a vast body of prose, but the necessity for prose in
modern Indian languages, for use in administration and higher education, led to the
emergence of prose in different languages at the beginning of the modern period.
• The birth of newspapers and periodicals in Indian languages between 1800 and 1850 was
extremely important for the development of prose. and the missionaries of Serampore
started off Bengali Journalism on its career.
• The emergence of prose as a powerful medium brought a kind of change that coincided with
the process of modernization.
 The Emergence of Nationalism
• You are required to conduct research on the rise of nationalism in both
India and Pakistan, in other terms, rise of nationalism against Britain and
then Pakistani nationalism against India