Literature of Medieval India

MEDIEVAL INDIA

❖      Rise of Hindi,Urdu and regional languages.This was partly due to the influence of bhakti tradition.The rapid growth of Bhakti movement lead to creation of large volume of literature in languages other than sanskrit and Gradual loss of importance of sanskrit

❖      Better importance to recording of history than in the past through works like Rajatarangini,Ain-e-Akbari  and baburnama

Early works in sanskrit

●       Kalhana’s Rajatarangini:One of the first works on history in india with authenticity.History of kashmiri kings from ancient times.

●       Katha sarita sagara by somadeva(stories),Gita govinda by jayadeva(Poem)

●       Siddhanta siromani by bhaskaracharya deals with mathematics.’Lilavati’ is part of this book.

Persian and Urdu

●       Arabic and Persian were introduced in India with the coming of the Turks and the Mongols

●       Urdu emerged as an independent language towards the end of the 4th century AD:born out of the interaction between Hindi and Persian.

●       Amir khusrau:  He produced a volume of literature including poetry. His works include Laila Majnun, Ayina-I-Sikandari,Hasht bahisht etc

●       Mirza Ghalib (1797-1869) enriched Urdu with his ghazals compositions

●       Persian being court language was patronised.Akbar got Mahabharata translated into Persian.Faizi of his court was a major poet in Persian.

Works on Sultanate and mughal rulers (language Persian mostly)

Book	Author	Remarks
Tabaqat-e-Nasiri	Minhaj Siraj	Mainly on Ghurids and some info on early sultanate
Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi	Zia-ud-din Barani	Period of Balban to the first six years of Firuz Shah Tughluq
Kitab ur Rehla	Ibn battuta	history of Muhammad  Tughluq
Tarikh-i-Mubarak Shahi.	Yahya bin Ahmad	A detailed account of reign of Mubarak Shah of sayyid dynasty
Tuzk-e Babri/Babur nama	Babur	First written in turkic translated to persian during Akbars time
Humayun Nama	Gulbadan begum
Akbarnama and Ain-e-Akbari	Abul Fazl(1551-1602)	One of the best works of the period

Regional languages

Telugu

●       Extended patronage by Vijayanagara rulers.

●       Amukta malyada by Krishnadevaraya and manucharitam by allasani pedanna (known as Andrapitamaha) are examples

●       Tenali ramakrishna,known for his jokes produced a great poetical work called pandu ranga mahatmyam.

Kannada

●       Language Developed fully after 10th century A.D.

●       Kavirajamarga written by rashtrakuta king ‘Nrupatunga’ Amoghavarsha I is the earliest available kannada literary work(850 C.E)

●       Pampa, Ponna and Ranna are called 3 gems of kannada literature.

●       Contributions were made by Basava and Akka mahadevi , both leaders of veerashaiva bhakti movement ,through their vachanas,a type of poetry.

●       Under Hoysalas(approx 1200C.E) major names were:

○       Harishvara: wrote girija kalyana,Raghavanka:wrote Harischandra kavya

○       Rudrabhatta:wrote jagannatha vijaya

○       On Grammar:Kesirja’s Shabdamani Darpana

●       Vijayanagara period and later :

○       Translations of Epics: Kumaravyasa’s Bharatha, Kumara valmiki’s torave ramayana and Lakshmisha’s Jaïmini Bharata (1550)

○       Sarvajna,known as peoples poet wrote his tripadis.

Hindi

●       Different dialects of hindi include  Braj Bhasha,Avadhi , Bhojpuri, Magadhi etc

●       Prithviraj Raso by chand bardai(1149-1200) is the first major book in hindi

●       Bhakti movement had strong influence on hindi language in the later period

●       In Avadhi:

○       Padmavat by Malik Muhammad Jayasi(The famous allaudin khilji-chittor-rani padmini story)

○       Ramcharitmanas by Tulsi das(based on Valmiki’s Ramayana but does not mention exile of sitha after return to ayodhya)

●       In Braj bhasha:

○       Sur Sagar by Sur Das

○       Vinaya Patrika by Tulasidas

●       Kabir who belonged to Nirguna school(belief in formless god) used sadhu khadi(a mixture of dialects along with persian and urdu words)in his dohas and poetry.

●       Nandadasa was another Bhakti poet.Kavi bhushan (1613-1712) a supporter of shivaji.

Other regional languages

Language	Writer(Period)	Works	Remarks
Marathi	Jnaneshwar(1275-96) Namdev (1270-1350) Eknath(1533-1599) Tukaram (1598-1650) Ramdas (1608-81)	Amruthanubav Bhavarh deepika commentaries on Ramayana and Bhagawat Purana	Earliest marathi works Greatest Bhakti poet He was guru of Shivaji
Gujarati	Narsih Mehto (1414-1481)	Vaishnava poetry	The hymn “Vyshnava jan to” is his work
Tamil	Kambar(12th century) Azhvars Nayanmars	Kambaramayanam Bhakti songs Bhakti poets	translation of valmiki ramayanam. Vaishnava bhakti saints They were 10or12 Saiva saints About 60 in number
Malayalam (evolved by 14th century.)	Ezhuthachan Poonthanam Cherusseri ( 1375 - 1475)	AdhyatmaRamayanam  Mahabharatham Njanappana Krishnagadha	Father of malayalam language Hymns in Bhakti tradition
Oriya	Saraladasa(15th cent) Upendra Bhanja (1670 - 1720)	Translated mahabharata Baidehisha Bilasa Labanyabati	First works of oriya literature New Era of oriya