Lesson – 4 : LiteraryHeritage of India

Q-1 : Describe the Vedic literature of India.

Vedic literature:

Vedas means knowledge. There are 1) Rigveda 2) Samveda

3)Yajurveda 4) Atharvaveda.

is the most ancient book of Indian literature.

It consists of . It is divided into 10 divisions.

Most of the verses are the of god which were used during the Yagnas.

The verses worshipping are most fascinating.

Rigveda political, social and religious matters of Aryans residing in the

Saptsindhu region.

describe the process of recitation of the verses of the Rigveda along

with music so it is known as the ‘Gangotri of Music’.

is the veda of yagnas. It is in both prose and verse form. It describes

the hymns recited at the yagnas.

describes various type rituals and sanskars.

are known as the philosophical literature. It describes the beginning

of the Universe, the mysteries of life and death, materialistic and spiritual world,
etc. Chhandogya and Brihdaranya are the earlist of Upanishads. As mentioned in
Muktiko Upanishad they are 108 in total.

Many epics were composed to understand the meaning of Vedas in

form of poetic manner. In this literature vedic literature and directive principles

regarding behavior have been explained.

Aryans were used to spend their last phase of life in forest, where they composed
many books related to philosophy is known as the .

The literature describes religious practice, rituals, grammar, astrology

and astronomy.

Epic literature:

The are the two great Indian epics.

The of these epics were formed in the second century.

The Ramayana is the of India.

It of 7 kands and 24000 verses.

It describes the of lord Rama the ruler of Ayodhya.

There are many attractive stories of adventure and the between

Rama and Ravana.

The Mahabharata is the world’s epic.

It of 18 parvas and 100000 verses.

It the war between Kauravas and Pandavas.

The is the part of Mahabharata.

It describes the and three ways of getting salvation 1)

Gyan marg 2) Bhakti Marg and 3) Karma Marg.

Worldly literature:

During this period many granthas were written.

The Smruthi granthas dealt with .

The Smruthi granthas the religious teaching, laws and customs.

More over many like Kautilya’s Arthshastra the book of management

was written.

Buddhist literature:

The earlier Buddhist literature was written in .

It is divided into three sections so it is known as . 1) Sukta Pitika 2)
Vinay Pitika 3) Abhidhamma Pitika.

Gupta literature:

Gupta period was known as the of Sanskrit poems and dramas.

The great like Kalidas, Bhavbhuti, Bharvi, Bhartihari, Banabhatt, Magha, etc.
were happened during this time.

wrote ‘Kumarsambhava’, ‘Raghuvansham’, ‘Mghdoot’, ‘Abhigyan

Shakuntalam’ and ‘Rutusamhar’.

wrote the ‘Kadambari’ and ‘Harshcharit’.

Bhavbhuti’s ‘UttarRamcharit’, Bharvi’s ‘Kirtarjuniyam’, Vishakhdatta’s

‘Mudaraksha’, Shudrak’s ‘Mrichchhkatikam’ and Dandi’s ‘Dashkumarcharita’ were

the other books written during this time.

The of these books were romances, allegories, comedies and

philosophy.

Gujarati Literaure:

In ancient time the were composed in earlier form of Gujarati.

Narsinh Mehata, Mirabai, Dayaram, Akho, Premanand, Pritam, were the

of Gujarati literature.

They verses, songs, garba, narrative poems, chhapas, etc.

After that Narmad, Navalram, Kishorlal Mashruwala, Mahipatram, Pannalal Patel,

Umashankar Joshi, Govardhanram Tripathi, etc. have made the Gujarati literature

Tamil Literature:

Tami, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam are the four main

Many were written in these languages.

 Among them is the most ancient language. It’s literature is as old as the
beginning of Christian era.

The was composed in Tamil language. The subjects of the

Sangam literature were politics, war and love.

The of Sangam literature are ‘Ethutokoi’ (composition of eight

poems), ‘Tolkappiyam’ (Grammar) and ‘Patthuppattu’ (10 songs).

Famous poet wrote the book named ‘Kural’ which describes many

aspects of life and religion.

‘Shilppadikaram and ‘Manimekhalai’ are the work of Tamil literature.

Q-2 : Describe the medieval literature of India.

Sanskrit Literature:

In the of medieval period Sanskrit became the language of literature in

North India.

In two great books were written 1) Somdeva’s ‘Kathasaritsagar’ 2)

Kalhana’s ‘Rajtarangini’. Among which ‘Rajtarangini’ was the first historical book
of India.

Poet wrote the famous Sanskrit poetry book named ‘Geetgovind’.

Poet wrote ‘Prithviraj Raso’ which is the first book of Hindi literature.
It describes the heroic deeds of prithviraj Chauhan.

Dravidian Literature:

In South India influenced Kannada literature.

Poet composed ‘Adipuran’ and ‘Vikramarjun Vijayant’ in Kannada

language.
Poet wrote ‘Shantipuran’ describing the life of Shantinath the 16th Jain
Tirthankara.

Poet composed ‘Ajitnathpuran’ and ‘Gadayuddh’.

Pampa, Ponna and Ranna are considered the of the early Kannada literature.

Poet composed ‘Ramayana’ in Tamil language.

Sultanate Literature:

In this period two forms of : Khadi boli and Brij Bhasha were used
to compose literature.

Many and stories were composed in Rajasthani language like ‘Alha’,

‘Udal’ and ‘Visaldev Raso’.

wrote the book named ‘Chandrayan’ which is considered the earliest

book of Awadhi language.

was the language of court during the sultanate period. Many words of
Persian are included in Hindi also.

Many Turkish writers started writing in Persian language during this

period.

wrote ‘Tarikh-e-Firozshahi’ and ‘Fatwa-e-Jahandari’ in Persian

language.

‘Tarikh-e-Firozshai’ gives the of the reign of Khilji and Tughluq kings and
‘Fatwa-e-Jahandari is book of political theory.

During this period was the most famous poet, historian, mystic saint
and composer of music.
He ‘Ashiqua’, ‘Nuh’, ‘Sipihar’, ‘Kiratul Sadaya’ and ‘Khazain-ul-Futuh’ in
Persian language.

Regional Literature:

Bhakti saint Kabir composed his in ‘Sadhukhadi’ language.

The forms of were prevailing to compose literature in this period 1) Bhojpuri

and 2) Awadhi.

wrote ‘Padmawat’ in Awadhi language.

wrote ‘Ramcharit Manas’ in Awadhi language.

In ‘Ramayana’ by Kritivasa, lyrics by Chandidas and devotional songs by

Chaitanya were written.

In Narsinh Mehat wrote devotional songs.

In Namdev and Eknath wrote devotional songs.

In under the patronage of Zainulabidin many Sanskrit books like

Mahabharata and Rajtarangini were translated in Persian language.

The king of Vijaynagar wrote a book in Kannada language

named ‘Amukta Malyad’

Mughal Literature:

wrote autobiography named ‘Tuzuk-e-Babar’ in Turkish language. It later

translated into Persian as ‘Babarnama’.

Sister of emperor Humayun Gulbadan Begum wrote .

wrote his autobiography named ‘Tuzuk-e-Jahangiri’ in Turkish language.

was a prolific writer and Bahadur Shah Zafar was a famous Urdu poet.

During Akbar’s reign flourished. Tulsidas, Surdas, Keshavdas and

Rahim were the great Hindi writers. Keshavdas wrote on topic of love and
separation. Rahim’s dohas are sitl popular.
 Persian Literature:

wrote ‘Ain-e-Akbari’ and ‘Akbarnama’ in Persian language.

‘Ain-e-Akbari’ gives of Indian customs, manners, religions, philosophy,

economic condition and almost every aspect of life.

Abul Fazal’s brother was also a great Persian writer he translated many
Sanskrit books in Persian language.

Akbar has established an for translation of Sanskrit

works like the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Atharvaveda, the Bhagvad Geeta
and the Panchtantra.

Urdu Literature:

One of the most important developments during the medieval period was the
of the Urdu language.

It produced like Wali, Mir Dard, Mir Taqi Mir, Nazir Akbarabadi,

Abdullakhan, Galib, Iqbal and others.

Azad wrote ‘Darbar-e-Akbari’ in Urdu language.

Q-3 : Write about the Nalanda University.

Ancient Naland University was at Badgaon village of Patna district in
Bihar.

The Naland University was more famous for .

This university has also become the of Jain because Mahavir Swami

has performed fourteen chaturmas here.

In the fifth century had built a monastery here.

There were thousands of priceless in this university.

Students from came here to study.

The great traveler from China came here in seventh century.

 Today there are only of this great university but even in the ruins one can
visualize the glory of our ancient culture.

A student who passed out from Nalanda was considered the of

India.

During century the education was the best at Nalanda University.

Nalanda had a very which had thousands of books which was known
as Dharmagunj. Students from abroad even came here for research work. Huen

Tsang had taken away 657 books to china with him.

There were in this university. There were 300 class rooms to

deliver the lectures.

Special monasteries were built for of students.

facilities were provided free of charge to students.

Q-4 : Write a note about Takshashila University.

Ancient university of Takshashila was at Rawalpindi of present Pakistan.

It was the of ancient Gandhar region.

This university imparted education in .

the disciple of Lord Buddha learnt the lessons of Ayurveda here.

The composer of ‘Arthshastra’, studied here.

According to a belief, this university was named after the name of the son
of Bharat, brother of Lord Rama.

Students were free to study the subjects of their . Inspite of the limit
allotted of 20 students per teacher, they used to teach even more if they wish.

Students from Varanasi, Rajgruha, Mithila and Ujjain came here to .

 Princes of Varanasi, Prasenjit, the king of Kaushal, the great grammarian Panini,
the expert politician Kautilya and Mauryan king Chandra Gupta

from this university.

of Vedas, military science, gajvidya, archery, grammar, philosophy,

warlore, astronomy, astrology,etc. was given here.

Chinese scholar visited this university beginning of 5th century.

Q-5 : Write a note about the Varanasi (Kashi) University.

Varanasi was as one of the place of the pilgrimage as well as education
in 7th century

It grew as the for the Aryan culture in Upanishadic period.

King of Varanasi was a great philosopher of Upanishadic age and

great supporter of education.

It is mentioned in that Maharshi Vedvyas had his ashram in

Varanasi.

chose Varanasi a suitable place for the propogation of his

preaching.

Potent philosopher had move to Kashi to adopt the new

principles of Vedant.

the pioneers of Pushti marg

attained prestige of their Vaishnav sect in Kashi.

became a famous education centre under the patronage of

Ashoka.

Q-6 : Write about the Vallabhi University.

Vallabhi university of was a very famous centre of education in 7th

century.
The rulers of and their people gave significant contribution in
making the university famous education centre.

Vallabhi was the centre of of Buddhist religion.

In the middle of 7th century Buddhist scholars like were

the leading principals of Vallabhi.

The Brahmin students from the region of used to come here for
higher education.

Chinese traveler noted that Vallabhi competed with the famous education
centre Nalanda which was located at eastern part of India.

The rulers of Vallabhi belonged to and patronized education and

university as well.

The rulers of Maitrak Dynasty were even though they were helping
the university.

In 775 AD, attacked, Maitraks were defeated and university closed down.