Literature written in the different languages of India, as well as those of Pakistan. For more information on literature written in the classical language, see Sanskrit Literature.
The Indian literary tradition is mainly poetic and essentially oral. Their authors are often unknown. For this reason, it becomes difficult to establish the history of Indian literature.
Much of the traditional literature is inspired by the Sanskrit tradition, as well as Buddhist and Jain texts written in Pali and other Prakrite languages (medieval dialects of Sanskrit). This is valid for both Dravidian literature and literature written in Northern Indo-European languages. The influence of the Islamic and Persian cultures is greater in the literature written in Urdu, although in other literatures Islamic tendencies can also be observed.
Between the 2nd and 5th centuries, great verse novels, also called epics, were written:Cilappatikaram (The Golden Bracelet) by Ilanko Atikal and then Manimekalai (The Gemstone Belt), a Buddhist work written by Cattanar.
Until 1500 most of the Indian literary production consisted of translations of stories taken from the Sanskrit epics, the Puranas. Many of the versions of the Ramayana - The Mahabharata and Bhagavata-Purana - date from this period.
Medieval literature also addresses other themes, such as the Caryapadas, 12th-century tantric verses (see Tantra) that relate the teaching and prowess of the founder of the mahanubhava sect. The earliest works in Kannada (from the 10th century) and in Gujarati (from the 13th century) are Jain novels.
Other literary examples removed from these sectarian tendencies are the heroic and chivalric accounts in the Rajasthani language, such as the 12th century epic poem Prithviraja-râsau by Chand Bardâi of Lahore.
Later, other religious literatures associated with regional philosophies and sects developed:the tantric texts that later gave rise to genres such as the mangala-kavya (poetry of a resagiated event) from Bengal. This poetry was addressed to deities such as Manasa (the serpent goddess), the local form of the main female deity called Devi.
The main influence for later Indian literature was the worship of Krishna and Rama written in the national languages. Krishna's story developed in Sanskrit from the Mahabharata and through the Bhagavata-Purana to the poem composed in the twelfth century by Jaydev, Gitagovinda (The Cowboy's Song). Around 1400, a series of love poems appeared, written by the poet Viyapati, which decisively influenced the cult of Radha-Krishna practiced in Bengal, as well as all the erotic-religious literature associated with it.
The tradition of bhakti is found in the work of the mystical Tamil Alvars who, between the 7th and 10th centuries, wrote hymns in praise of Vishnu. These hymns are especially manifest in the works written in Avadhi (Eastern Hindi) by Tulsi Das, whose Ramcaritmanas (Lake of the Acts of Rama 1574-1577) they turned into the canonical version of the Ramayana. The first gurus, or founders of the sij religion, particularly Nanak and Arjuna, wrote bhakti hymns that form part of the Adi Granth (First Book or Original Book), the sacred book of the sijs, compiled in 1604 by Arjuna.
During the 16th century the bhakti tradition turned to other forms of divinity. So, for example, Princess Rajasthani and poet Mira Bai wrote their verses to praise Krishna, as did the Gujarati poet Narsimh Mehta.
In Urdu, a new language, Wali's lyrical poetry was written. The ghazals of Mir y Ghalib can be considered the pinnacle of lyrical poetry in Urdu.
Outstanding poets such as Ghalib lived and worked during the period of British domination, having provoked an authentic literary revolution as a result of contact with Western thought. In the mid-19th century, a prose literary tradition emerged that absorbed all traditional poetic genres except that of the Urdu poets.
In the last 150 years, Indian literature has been recorded in the main fifteen languages of the country, including English and Bengali, the latter offering some of the richest literature in India. One of its main representatives is Rabindranath Tagore, the first Indian writer to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature (1913).
In poetry, the Islamic leader and philosopher Sir Muhammad Iqbal stands out, originally written in Urdu and Persian. Mohandas K. Gandhi's autobiography, My Experiences with Truth, originally written in Gujarati between 1927 and 1929, is now considered a classic.
Among English-language writers, Mulk Raj Anand, author of social protest novels, and R.K. Narayan, who wrote novels and accounts of rural life. Among the younger writers of modern India are Anita Desai and Ved Mehta.
The Aryans were Indo-Europeans who settled at the end of the third millennium on the Iranian plateau and who, around 1500 BC. J.-C., began to penetrate into Punjab, where they founded Indian civilization, and gave themselves the name of ârya, which, in Sanskrit, means “excellent”, “honorable”, “nobl