Exploring

Indian
Literature
A brief history of India
 India was a sovereign state under
its own constitutional government
began on August 15, 1947, when
the subcontinent was partitioned
into the two states of India and
Pakistan.
 Pakistan become an Islamic state
while India opted to become a
secular state.
INDIAN FAMOUS PERSONALITY
Mahatma Gandhi
 The father of modern
India
 He was born in
Pobandan, India on
October 2, 1869, his
father was a chief
minister for the
maharaja of Pobandan
and his family came
from traditional caste
of grocers and
His mother was a devout adherent of Jainism,
a religion in which ideas are non violence and
vegetarianism.
He had his fixed marriage when he was 13
He went to London to study law when he was
18
He works for an Indian firm in South Africa
He assumed leadership of protest campaign
and gradually developed his techniques of non
violent resistance known as Satyagraha
He fought to improve the status of the lowest
classes of society, the castes untouchables,
He believed in manual labor and simple living
and non violence is a percept common to three
faiths :

 Hinduism – Adherent to the prescription against

violence toward living things can escape from the
cycle of rebirth and the doctrine also form a basis for
vegetarian.

 Buddhism – Non violence is manifest in the

Buddha’s emphasis on compassion and is also part
of the faith’s moral codes.

 Jainism – Non violence is a core religious duty and

 In June 1975, He persuaded president Fakhuruddin
Ali Ahmed to evoke a state of emergency that gave
his near – dictatorial power opposition leads were
jailed without trial and many constitutional freedom
were curtailed.
In March 1977, He called a new election, perhaps to
legitimatize the powers he had taken under the
emergency. But Morarji Desai, a long time opponent
of Gandhi became prime minister. President Ahmed
died the same year and Nelsan Sanjavi Reddy was
elected as president.
In July 1979, Janai party began to break apart and
Desai resigned as the prime minister.
He was assassinated by the Hindu militant who

INDIAN FAMOUS PERSONALITY

MOTHER THERESA
M other Teresa founded the Order of the Missionaries
f Charity, a Roman Catholic congregation of
omen dedicated to the poor, particularlyto
hose in India, that opened numerous centres
erving the blind, the aged, andthe disabled.

champion of unselfish love.

 INDIAN FAMOUS PERSONALITY
JAWAHALRIAL
NEHRU
N ationalist, first prime minister of India.

J awaharlal Nehru helped lead India to

independence, which ended the British raj.
As India's first prime minister, he worked
to make India an important member of
the international community.
 INDIAN DRAMA
Two great indian dramatist
 Bhasa
 Kalidasa-Indian Shakespear

Rabindranath Tagore

 Was a great Indian poets and dramatist.

 Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913.

Indians contributions to civilization:

1. Four great religions
2. Yoga
3. First fable of the world (Panchatantra)
4. Invented the zero and numerals in mathematics
5. Music, arts and architecture are better known than any forms
of Oriental Culture
 LITERATUR
E
Sanskrit literature – Oral tradition produced the Vedic
holy text
Mahabharata and Ramayana – two great books, sources
for countless literary
400 BC Panini – Produced his Sanskrit grammar
Second century AD – Prakrits being used in literature
Middle ages Sanskrit – used in religious context by
priest
Ghazal – form of lyrical folk song and notable exponents
of
the form
 LITERATUR
style E
Arunacala Kavi – Developed a utilitarian prose

Madhusudan Dutt – Wrote the first plays

modelled on Western Drama
Sir Rabindranath Tagore – Introduced the short
story to vernacular writing in India and he is the
first novel laureate
Laksminath Bezbarua and Muhammad Iqbal –
Major poets of the period
History of Indian Literature falls into two
 periods:

haracteristics of Indian Literatu

 The first characteristics of Indian
Literature is that it is based on piety, s
deeply religious spirit. The Indians
believed that knowledge of God and
strong belief in Hinduism is necessary to
save humankind.
 The second characteristics of Indian
Literature is that we notice that the
Indian literary masterpieces, written in
the form of epics, correspond to great
 Religious Works
 Poetry
 The Rig Veda – A book of sacred hymns
 The Yajur Veda – A book of knowledge and
melodies for the hymns
 The Sama Veda – Descriptions of the
materials for sacrifice
 The Artharva Veda – Contains magic spells
and other folk knowledge.
 The Brahmanas
 The Maya
 The Sutras
 Secular Works
 Indian Epics
Mahabharata
Bhagavad gita
Nala and Damayanti
Ramayana
 Indian Dramas
The toy clay cart
Shakuntala or the fatal ring
Jatakas
Panchatantra
Hitopdesa
Sukasaptat
 Indian Festival

The bread Festival

The Festival of Light

The Swing Festival

 Indian Festival
 The Bread
 Many traditional festivals are held in India actually forming a yearly
Festival
cycle. This festival cycle begins with the Bread Festival which takes
place in the month of March or April. This festival marks the end of the
cold season. People now stop keeping cooked food overnight lest it
goes bad the next morning. On the evening before the celebration of
this festival the women cook wheat porridge sweetened with brown
sugar. Food is set aside uneaten early the next morning. The women
dress in their best clothes. They carry the porridge with some rice peas
and water to the shrine of Girgaon-wali Mata. They bring the youngest
children they chant as they march together. O Mata you gave us
children now protect them from disease. They move on the shrine of
Kainthi-wali Mata. This is the goddess of typhoid. The same ritual is
repeated. Brown sugar and candy are distributed to the children. A man
might bring a cock and hold it over the heads of the children making it
flutter its wings. This is supposed to ensure the long life of the children.
Sometimes the goddess is given sweets rather than porridge. This
especially true if the pilgrimage is done to fulfill a promise to the
 Indian Festival
 The Festival of
Lights
 The festival of lights is popular all over India. It is one of
the four main festivals of the village. On this festival day,
the lamps are lit all over the village. Little earthen lamps
line the tops of the houses. Others are placed on the carts
yokes and other implements used by household. More
lamps appear on the cattle sheds. Children place lamps on
the shrines of all the gods and goddesses. Children enjoy
this festival. By 9:00 p.m. everyone is at home to worship
Lakshmi , the goddess of wealth. The head of the family
puts money and ornaments in a big metal container. An
empty dish is placed beside it. The head of the family
places the two near large oil lamp. He says “Goddess
 Indian
 The Swing Festival
Festival
 After the hot summer months, the monsoon rains come and the air is cool and
everything is green. Millet has now been planted and the sugarcane
cultivated. The villagers are in very good spirits because they can look
forward to a good harvest. In the evening, before this festival, the young men
go to the village common lands (land owned by the whole village) and look for
trees on which to hang the swings. Some place marks on trees,while others
keep watch all night to ward off rival fights which sometimes develop in this
competition. Over the trees, the swings are set up very early in the morning;
this can be early as 1:00 a.m. The swinging, however, does not begin until
later in the day. The children start to use the swings early in the morning. The
men are still working in the fields and the women are at home making
cakes,rice puddings, and other festive dishes. At about noon, the men come
all the women and the children put on their best clothes. Then they are off to
the groves where the swings have been hung. They walk in family groups,
they sing as they walk. The swings are made so that two women each sitting
on a board one and a half feet long and five to six inches wide face each other.
They place their feet on the opposite swing, two other women stand behind
them and push the other group around singing songs toward evening at about
 Indian Traditional Attire
 For men, traditional clothes are
the Achkan/Sherwani,
Bandhgala, Lungi, Kurta,
Angarkha, Jama, Shalwar
Kameez and Dhoti or Kurta
Pajama.
 For women , The saree (also
sari or shari) is the most
representative traditional
clothing of the Indian
subcontinent. It consists of a
drape that can be from 4.5
meters to 8 meters long, and
about 1 meter wide. It is
usually wrapped around the
 Indian Famous Food
Traditional Indian food is renowned worldwide for its wonderful use of
herbs and spices, and its diverse range of deep-fried snacks, pastries,
curries, gravies, sauces, rice dishes, tandoor-cooked meats, vegetable
dishes, chutneys, breads and sweets. The most popular Indian Foods
are the following:
Masal
a is loosely translated as Indian Chicken Curry (Murgh
“spice” and although there
Kari)
are many varieties and
This is a really good recipe for
preferences masala is
spicy Indian chicken curry. It's
typically made up of 5
pretty easy to make and
spices. Cardamom,
tastes really good!Murgh Kari
cinnamon, coriander, cloves
makes use of a potent spice
and cumin are mixed
blend that includes garam
together to make an
masala, coriander, turmeric,
aromatic and flavour profile .
and cayenne pepper. Tomato,
yogurt, and onion are also
essential ingredients in this
 Indian Famous Food
Biryani is a mixed rice dish originating
among the 
Muslims of the Indian subcontinent as a
variety of Persian pilaf. It is made with 
Indian spices, rice, and usually some
type of meat (chicken, beef, goat, lamb, 
prawn, fish) or in some cases without
any meat, and sometimes, in addition, 
eggs and potatoes.
Tandoori chicken gets its name from the
bell-shaped tandoor clay oven which is
also used to make naan, or Indian
flatbread.
Skinless legs and thighs are marinated
in a tenderizing mixture of yogurt,
lemon juice, and spices and the meat is
slashed to the bone in several places
helping the marinade penetrate and the
 Indian Famous Food
Samosa is a potato
Naan Bread stuffed deep fried
Naan is an Indian recipe snack very popular in
; it’s a type of flat India, Middle East &
bread. Traditionally they Asian countries. They
are baked inside a very originated from the
hot clay tandoor oven, middle east and was
with charcoal or wood brought to India by
fire. the Merchants.

Daal Soup is an Indian

soup variety where lentils
are simmered with
vegetables, leafy green,
spices and herbs to make
a satiating dish.
Reincarnation & Karma
Reincarnation
– The belief that the soul repeatedly goes
through a cycle of being born into a body, dying and
being reborn again in a new body

Karma
– A force that determines the quality of each
life , depending on how well one behaved in a past
life

Hinduism says we create karma by our actions on earth. If

you live a good life, you create a good karma. If you live a bad
life, you create bad
 MOKSHA
Each time a Hindu soul is born into a better
life , it has the opportunity to improve itself
further, and get closer to ultimate liberation
The liberation is called Moksha
One attains Moksha when one has
“overcome ignorance” and no longer
desires anything at all
The one who reach this state no longer
struggle with the cycle of life and death
The way to get to Moksha is to not create
any karma
 SACRED WRITINGS
 The Vedas Collection of Sanskrit
hymns (1200-900 BCE) but based
on older oral versions

The Upanishads which means the

inner or mystic teaching that were
passed down from guru (teacher)
to disciple (student)
 MAHABHARATA
 Sanskrit for great story , is one of the great epic poems of
ancient India
 It was written between 300 BC and 300 AD
 The great sage Veda Vyasa, also known as Krsna Dvaipayana.
 The story is about the battle of one family over a kingdom in
northern India
 The Bhagavad Gita (song of God) is contained in the
Mahabharata. It is a dialogue between Krishna and the hero
Arjuna on the meaning of life
 With about one hundred thousand verses, long prose
passages, or about 1.8 million words in total, the Mahabharata
is roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and Odyssey
combined or about four times the length of the Ramayana.
 It has been called Mahabharata due to the immense size and
its dealing with the story of the people of the race descended

RAMAYANA
 The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic attributed to the
poet Valmiki and is an important part of the Hindu canon
 The name Ramayana is a tatpurusa compound of Rama and
ayana "going, advancing", translating to "the travels of
Rama“
 The Ramayana consists of 24,000 verses in seven cantos
(karnas) and tells the story of a prince, Rama of Ayodhya,
whose wife Sita is abducted by the demon (Rakshasa) king
of Lanka, Ravana.
 The characters of Rama, Sita, Lakshmana, Bharata,
Hanumān and Ravana (the villain of the piece) are all
fundamental to the cultural consciousness of India
 One of the most important literary works on ancient India,
the Ramayana has had a profound impact on art and
 HINDU LIFE GOALS
 Hinduism is about the sort of life one
should lead in order to be born into a
better life net time and ultimately
achieve liberation There are 4 legitimate
goals in life:

 Dharma – Appropriate living

Artha – The pursuit of material gain by
lawful means
Karma – Delight of the senses
Moksha – Release from rebirth
 HINDU DUTIES
 Each Hindu has 4 daily duties :

Revere the deities

Respect ancestors
Respect all beings
Honour all human kind
 
Thank you
for
Listening
!