SHORT NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF INDIAN LITERATURE

2nd Millennium BC Indo Iranian people migrate eastward away from Indo European people
and settle in Iran.

1000 BC Probably Indo Aryan or Indic is separated from Iranian. Indic comes into conflict
with Dravidians in southern peninsula.The history of the Indic language branch is often divided
into three main stages: (1) Old Indic, comprising Vedic and classical Sanskrit; (2) Middle Indic
(from c. 3rd century bc), which embraces the vernacular dialects of Sanskrit called Prakrits,
including Pali; and (3) New, or Modern, Indic (from c. 10th century ad), which comprises the
modern languages of the northern and central portions of the Indian subcontinent.

The Old Indic Period and Middle Indic

1500 BC to 200 BC The Vedic Period of Sanskrit Lit. The Vedas, the Brahmanas and the
Upanishads.

200 BC to 1100 AD The Period of Classical Sanskrit Literature.

During the peak of classical poetry (7th century AD) major writers such as Bhartihari. Mayura (fl.
AD c.750), and Subhandu (fl. AD c.75) emerged. Kalidasa, Bhasa (fl. AD c.200) and
Bhavbhuti. Treatises on government, law, and love include Arthashastra, Dharmashastra and
Kamasutra, the last by Vatsayana (AD c.400).

The monopoly of Sanskrit challenged. Rise of Pali with the spread of the Buddhism. The
Theravada canon, the Tripitaka (5th century BC), and The Jataka Tales and the Dhammapada
(both 1st century AD) are the major Pali texts.

By the second century AD several dialects known collectively as Prakrits were being used in
literature. By AD 1000 these languages had evolved to the point of being recognizable as the
forerunners of modern regional tongues. Sanskrit scholars of that time saw them as evidence of a
cultural decline and labeled them Apabhramsa ("decadence").

Tamil language is the only modern Indian language that predates Sanskrit.

Anthologies of secular lyrics on the themes of love and war, together with the grammatical-
stylistic work Tolkappiyam (Old Composition), were once thought to be very ancient; they are
now believed to date no earlier than from about the 1st to the 5th century AD.

2nd and 5th centuries, two long Tamil verse romances (sometimes called epics) were written:
Cilappatikaram (The Jewelled Anklet) by Ilanko Atikal, which has been translated into English
(1939 and 1965); and its sequel Manimekalai (The Girdle of Gems), a Buddhist work by Cattanar.

Tamil Alvars mystics who wrote ecstatic hymns to Vishnu between the 7th and 10th centuries.
This is the beginning of the bhakti movement.

New Indic or Modern Indic period

The Prakrits continued in everyday use until about the 12th century ad, but even by about the 10th
century, the Modern Indic vernaculars had begun to develop. Collectively, these languages are
spoken today by more than 400 million people. The number of languages is difficult to specify.
Roughly 35 are of some significance, particularly Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi,
Marathi, Bihāri, Oriya, and Rajasthani, each of which has more than 10 million speakers.Sanskrit
used only in the religious contexts.

A major figure of this period was the poet Amir Khusrou (1253-1325), who included Hindi verses
among his Persian writings.

In the south under the expanding Chola Empire (10th-13th centuries) the Kannada, Malayalam,
and Telugu languages achieved a literary status previously held only by classical literature written
in TAMIL. The best-known work of this tradition is perhaps an anthology of love lyrics,
Kuruntokai (AD c.750). Tamil and, later, Telugu writing exercised a lasting influence on
literature in the south, both through its courtly and mystical verse and through its many versions
of Sanskrit sacred texts.

The bhakti movement spread throughout India and reached its zenith in the 16th century. Major
works of the period include the Gitagouinda (c.1180) of Jayadeva (12th century) and the
Iramavataram (c.1200) by Kampan (c.1180-1250).

Rewriting of the Epics in the modern Indian languages eg. The Ramacharit Manas in Hindi and
Kamban's Ramayans.

The earliest works in many of the languages were sectarian,designed to advance or to celebrate
some unorthodox regional belief. Examples are the Caryapadas, Tantric (see Tantra) verses of the
12th century that are the earliest surviving works in Bengali, and the Lilacaritra (c. 1280), a
Marathi prose account of the words and deeds of the founder of the Mahanubhava sect. In
Kannada from the 10th century, and later in Gujarati from the 13th century, the first truly
indigenous works are Jain romances; ostensibly the lives of Jain saints, these are actually popular
tales based on Sanskrit and Pali themes.

Tales besides these sectarian works were composed; examples in Rajasthani are bardic tales of
chivalry and heroic resistance to the first Muslim invasions-such as the 12th-century epic poem
Prithiraja-raso by Chand Bardai of Lahore. Popular stories and ballads were also composed, such
as those of East Bengal.

Texts in Tamil from the 13th to the 15th century devoted to the medieval Hindu Shaiva-siddhanta
sect; the works of the Lingayats (a Hindu sect devoted to the worship of Shiva) in Kannada,
especially the vacanas, or “sayings”, of Basava, the mid-12th-century founder of the sect, and his
disciples; and the Tantric texts, especially those from north-east India, which developed later into
genres such as the mangala-kavya (poetry of an auspicious happening) of Bengal. This verse was
addressed to deities such as Manasa (a snake goddess), purely local forms of the female divine
principle called Devi .The early gurus, or founders of the Sikh religion, especially Nanak and
Arjun, wrote bhakti hymns to their concepts of deity. These are the first written documents in
Punjabi (Panjabi) and form part of the Adi Granth (First, or Original, Book), the sacred scripture
of the Sikhs, which was first compiled by Arjun in 1604. In the 16th century, in other regions,
bhakti was directed to other forms of divinity. For example, the Rajasthani princess and poet Mira
Bai addressed her lyric verse to Krishna, as did the Gujarati poet Narsinh Mehta.
The Beginnings of the Modern Indian Literature with the rise of the Western Education
System and the British Era. It is called the Indian `Renaissance'. The Rise of the Printing
Press. The East-West encounter.

The rise of printing press brought about the rise of periodicals and prose. The rise of nationalism
and reform movements. Pioneers such as Raja Rammohan Roy (1772-1833), Mahavir Prasad
Dvivedy (1864-1938), and Arunacala Kavi (fl. c.1780) developed a utilitarian prose style,
whereas Michael Madhusudan Dutt (1824-73) and Jayashankar Prasad (1889-1937) introduced
blank verse and the sonnet into Indian poetry. Madhusudan Dutt wrote the first plays modeled on
Western drama, and Sir Rabindranath Tagore introduced the short story to vernacular writing in
India. The novel was pioneered in India by such writers as Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and Hari
Narayan Apte (1864-1919). The major poets of the period include Laksminath Bezbarua (1868-
1938) and Muhammad Iqbal (c.1876-1938). Much significant writing has been published in
English. Pioneers in this field included Michael Dutt (1824-73) and Sudhindranath Dutt (1901-
60), Tagore and Sri Aurobindo. Sarojini Naidu.

Rise of Nationalism and Gandhism. Its influence on Indian literature. Jhaverchand Meghani,
Subramaniam Bharati and so on.

Emergence of Progressive Arts Movement: Emphasis on socialist realism in literature.

Politically committed literature.
Strains of early Modernism.

The Tagore Syndrome in all the Indian Languages. Sentimental, mystical, nationalistic, idealistic
and romantic literature predominates Indian writing. Largely middle class, patriarchic and
brahminical world view.

After 1940s Full fledged Modernist Movements

The reaction against The Tagore Syndrome Jibananda Das, BS Mardhekar and so on. Rise of
radical literary movements like feminists, dalit, rural, gay and so on.