A Survey of Indian Literature

1
A Survey of Indian Literature

• Antiquity Through the Middle Ages

2
Overview

• Early
• Epics
• Vedas
• Upanishads
• Poetry
• Middle Ages
• Puranas
• Poetry

3
Sanskrit

• Introduced by Aryans
• Classic language of India

4
Epics

• Mahabharata
• (Great Deeds of the Bharata Clan)
• Ramayana
• (Song of Prince Rama)

• Oral poems
• Depicted tribal wars between Aryan families
• Written down in 8th century BCE
• Comparable to Iliad and Odyssey

5
Vedas

• Translates to Sacred Knowledge
• Collection of
• Prayers
• Sacrificial formulae
• Hymns
• 1500-500 BCE
• Oral, then written
• Blends Indus and Aryan folk lore
• Mark beginning of scientific inquiry in India
• Teach worship through prayer and sacrifice

6
Upanishads

• 250 prose commentaries on the Vedas
• Reach enlightenment through meditation
• Instruct individual on death and rebirth
• No guidelines, dogma, or deity
• Laying ground for Hinduism.

7
Upanishads

• Establishes the concept of Brahman Atman (self)
• Atman
• soundless, formless, intangible, undying,
  tasteless, odorless, without beginning, without
  end, eternal, immutable, and beyond nature
• Seeks to be one with Brahman
• Achieve Nirvana when unit

8
Early poetry

• Bhagavad-Gita (Song of God)
• Conversation between Arjuna (warrior hero)
  Krishna (incarnation of Vishnu Divine
  manifestation of Brahman)
• Look for
• Statement of resignation
• Hindu thought

9
Medieval Literature
10
Puranas

• Translates to Old Stories
• Preserved myths of Hindu Gods
• Oral until 5th Century

• Vishnu Purana
• In the embrace of his beloved a man forgets the
  whole worldeverything both within and without
• Different than Western literature of the time?

11
Medieval Indian Poetry

• Reading 2.24 The Treasury of Well-Turned Verse
• List five characteristics of the poetry
• Compare this poetry to
• Egyptian
• Greek
• Roman

12
Medieval Indian Poetry

• Secular
• Spoken, not sung
• No rhyme
• Word play
• 50 different Sanskrit words for Lotus
• Literature devices
• Alliteration
• Repetition of initial sounds in successive words
• Assonance
• Similarity between vowel sounds

13
Medieval Indian Poetry

• Rules
• Describe general and universal conditions
• Exhibit a single characteristic sentiment anger,
  courage, etc
• Grief cannot dominate poem

14
Medieval Indian Poetry

• Oh yeah, highly erotic
• Buddhist monk Vidyakara wrote down poems in 11th
  Century
• The Treasury of Well-Turned Verse