Skip to main content

Indian Literature

Indian Literature | by Cultural Mosaic
Written by | Gaurav Mathur , Edited By | Sneha Rajadhyaksha


Indian literature is generally believed to be the oldest in the world. With vast cultural diversities, there are around two dozen officially recognized languages in India. Over thousands of years, huge literature has been produced in various languages in India. It is to be noted that a large part of Indian literature revolves around devotion, drama, poetry and songs. Sanskrit language dominated the early Indian literary scene whereas languages like Prakrit and Pali too had fair share as they were the languages of the common people.

It is interesting to note that the Hindu literary traditions have dominated a large part of Indian culture. These traditions are well reflected in great works like Vedas and epics such as Ramayana and Mahabharata. Treatises like Vaastu Shastra (architecture), Arthashastra (political science) and Kamsutra are true reflection of the Indian literary excellence.

Early Hindi literature, in dialects like Avadhi and Brai, began around religious and philosophical poetry in medieval period. Sant Kabir and Tulsidas were the greatest exponents of the Hindi literature during this period. With the passage of time, the Khadi boli (dialect) became more prominent and saw a great upsurge, which continues to this day.

During the medieval period, Muslim literary traditions dominated a large part of Indian literature and saw flourishing of Muslim literature. Muslim rule during the medieval times saw rapid growth and development of Persian and Urdu literature in India. A huge variety of literature spanning across history, culture and politics was written in this period.

With the coming of the British in India, works started to be written in English language. As more and more Indians became well versed with the English language, the number of works in English literature began to grow. During the contemporary times, numerous Indian authors have made their mark on the world English literature scene. Some of the most noted Indian born or Indian writers are R. K. Narayan, Vikram Seth, Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Amitav Ghosh, Khushwant Singh, Anita Desai and Jhumpa Lahiri.









© Copyright Cultural Mosaic . All Rights Reserved.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Islamic architecture II

Islamic architecture  | by Cultural Mosaic Written by | Gaurav Mathur , Edited By | Sneha Rajadhyaksha Muslim is a general word referring to religious and geographical setting of Islam. Muslim architecture is the building style of the countries of Muslim religion, a term which may include modern or old architecture practised in these countries and which may not be necessarily Islamic nor display any known features of Islamic architecture such as the arch, the dome, stucco decoration, etc. Similarly, we say today Muslim city to refer to its location in a Muslim country rather than to its Islamic morphological features. The other disadvantage of using this concept is related to buildings of Muslim origin but not in the Muslim world, as in the case of Spain, Sicily, old USSR and other countries. More positively, one can define it as including the architecture that was accomplished by Muslim masons, architects, for or under Muslim patronage (government), or in a Muslim coun
1 comment
Read more

Islamic architecture

Islamic architecture  | by Cultural Mosaic Written by | Gaurav Mathur , Edited By | Sneha Rajadhyaksha Islamic architecture encompasses a wide range of both secular and religious styles from the foundation of Islam to the present day, influencing the design and construction of buildings and structures in Islamic culture and beyond. The principal Islamic architectural types are: the Mosque, the Tomb, the Palace, the Fort, the School, and urban buildings. For all these types of constructions, Islamic architecture developed a rich vocabulary that was also used for buildings of lesser importance such as public baths, fountains and domestic architecture. The following article, recalling salient aspects of the rich tradition of Islamic architecture, provides a brief discussion on the concept of Islamic architecture and reviews a number of its key theoretical issues circulating in the Western academic circles. Although Muslim architecture has been widely investigated, it sti
Post a Comment
Read more

Indian Culture

Indian Culture | by Cultural Mosaic Written by | Gaurav Mathur , Edited By | Sneha Rajadhyaksha India, in the past, witnessed successive waves of migration from various foreign forces like the Persians, Arabs, British and Turks. Though, with time, all of them retreated, they left behind their indelible mark which is still reflected in the culture and traditions of India.    From one state to another, there is so much variation in the language, attire, beliefs and other demographic aspects of the denizens that it is simply mind-boggling. However, there are some very prominent features that bind all Indians to the brand 'Hindustani'.    These traditions range from the aarti done to welcome the guests to touching the feet of the elders. The cultural traditions of India have been passed on from generation to generation and have become deeply rooted in the Indian way of li
Post a Comment
Read more