Classical Indian Literature

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Classical Indian Literature
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Gupta Era 320 ce 550 ce

• Gupta dynasty was founded by Chandra Gupta I
• Development of Mahayana Buddhism
• Classical Age in north India
• Cave paintings at Ajanta
• Sakuntala, Jataka, Panchatantra and Kamasutra
  were written
• Aryabhattas Astronomy.

Kumardevi and Chandragupta I(Minted by their son
Samudragupta) 335-370 ce Gold Dinar Weight 7.8
gm Obverse King and queen
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Mahayana Buddhism

• Buddhism split into two sects, Mahayana and
  Hinayana (Theravada).
• Mahayana laid stress on the concept of the
  Bodhisattva or one destined to be the Buddha'
  and also conceived of Eternal Buddhas who
  resemble gods or deities.
• Hinayana regarded the Buddha as a man and had a
  doctrine, Theravada, stressing the salvation of
  the individual.
• The interaction of Mahayana philosophy and
  Hinduism gave rise to Tantric Buddhism or
  Vajrayana.

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AJANTA CAVES

• During the 4th century c.e. in a remote valley,
  work began on the Ajanta Caves to create a
  complex of Buddhist monasteries and prayer halls.
  
• As centuries passed, numerous Buddhist monks and
  artisans dug out a set of twenty-nine caves,
  converting some to cells, and others to
  monasteries and Buddhist temples.
• These caves are adorned with elaborate sculptures
  and paintings which have withstood the ravages of
  time

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Ajanta Caves

• The Ajanta caves depict the stories of Buddhism
  spanning from the period from 200 bce to 650 ce.
• The 29 caves were built by Buddhist monks using
  simple tools like hammer chisel.
• The elaborate and exquisite sculptures and
  paintings depict stories from Jataka tales .
• The caves also house images of nymphs and
  princesses.

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Scene From The Jataka
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SamskrtaThe Language of Classical Literature

• Samskrta Sanskrit
• perfected, classified refined
• Correct speech
• Codified and frozen in the Astadhyahi the
  rules of grammar
• Considered ideal language for classics
• Prakrta Prakrit
• original or natural
• Dialects that changed and developed with spoken
  language

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Kavya

• Kavya the poetry of the classical canon
• Permeated with the culture of the Gupta courts
• Kavi, learned poets, wrote under the patronage
  of kings for audiences of connoisseurs
• sahrdaya with heart, responsive
• rasika enjoyer of aesthetic mood
• Highly formulated norms and conventions
• Many works on poetic theory

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Kavya Genres

• Mahakavya great poem or court epic contains
  lyric stanzas with elaborate figures of speech
  and emphasizes description
• Natya drama
• employs both prose and verse
• includes Sanskrit and Prakrit
• wider range of characters
• lyrical description more than dramatic action
• Muktaka short lyric poems
• Bhartrhari pointed epigrams
• Kalidasa idyllic verses on nature
• Amaru erotic vignettes
• Katha or Akhyika narrative tales
• Pancatantra collection of animal fables
• Somadevas Kathasaritsagara (Ocean to the Rivers
  of Story) picaresque, marvelous tales, romances

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NitiAims for Human Conduct, Worldly Wisdom

• The Nagaraka gentleman, citizen, courtier
  cultivated life as art with the 4 aims for human
  conduct
• Dharma religious duty
• Artha wealth, politics, public life
• Kama erotic pleasure and the emotions
• Vitsyayanas Kamasutra
• Moksa liberation from the chain of birth and
  death in which souls are trapped because of Karma
• Karma implies fluid relationships between
  divine, human and animal worlds
• gods become human, humans may achieve
  bodhisattva status or may be reincarnated as
  animals

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Women in Classical Literature

• Courtly ideal wives like Sita chaste, loyal,
  submissive, long-suffering
• Wives in merchant-class stories chaste,
  independent, powerful
• Courtesans erotic, beautiful, intelligent,
  ruthless, rapacious, independent
• Religious contemplatives figures of authority
  and free agents

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Visnusarmans Pancatantraca. 2nd 3rd ce

• Pancatantra The Five Strategies
• Collection of folk tales and fables within frame
  tales
• Brought by Arabs into Europe model and source
  for 1001 Nights, Boccaccios The Decameron,
  Chaucers The Canterbury Tales, Grimms Fairy
  Tales, La Fontaines Fables, etc.
• Central concern is niti conduct political
  expediency and social values
• Visnusarman allegedly used the fables to teach 3
  dim-witted princes the science of politics

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The Pancatantras 5 Strategies

• Book I The Loss of Friends
• Leap and Creep
• The Blue Jackal
• Forethought, Readywit and Fatalist
• Book II The Winning of Friends
• Book III Crows and Owls
• strategies of alliance and war
• Mouse-Maid Made Mouse
• Book IV Loss of Gains
• Book V Ill-Considered Action
• The Loyal Mungoose

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Natya Drama

• Drsyakavya poetry to be seen as opposed to
  sravyakavya poetry to be heard
• Bharatas Natyasastra authoritative text on
  dramatic aesthetics and theory
• Abhinaya a symphony of languages verbal
  text, stylized gesture, facial expression, eye
  movement, music, dance
• 8 fundamental emotions, bhava, expressed in 8
  major rasas, stylized representations of the
  emotions universal rather than particular
• No tragedy in Indian drama impossible in the
  Hindu and Buddhist conception of the universe of
  karma linking humans with nature and the cosmos
  through networks of volition, action and response
  open-ended cycles of time

Video on Indian Natya
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Dramatic Conventions

• Performed at seasonal festivals and celebrations
  such as weddings, the dramas were regarded as
  rites of renewal and order
• Characters are types, not individuals
• Contrasts and complements among diverse
  elements
• lyric verse and prose dialogue
• erotic and heroic moods
• heroic king and gluttonous buffoon
• Sanskrit spoken by noblemen, Prakrit spoken by
  women, children and men of lower caste
• domestic and public worlds worlds of the court
  and of nature worlds of the human and divine
• emotional universes of men and women

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Kalidasafl. 4th 5th c. ce

• The dramatist and poet is regarded as the
  greatest figure in classical Sanskrit literature.
  
• His three surviving plays are Abhijnanasakuntala
  (Sakunatala and the Ring of Recognition),
  Vikramorvasi, and Malavikagnimitra.
• These court dramas in verse, nataka, relate
  fanciful or mythological tales of profound
  romantic love intensified and matured by
  adversity.
• In Kalidasa's two epics, Raghuvansa and
  Kumarasambhava, delicate descriptions of nature
  are mingled with battle scenes.
• The other poems of Kalidasa are shorter and
  almost purely lyrical.

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Sakuntala

• Nataka heroic romance play about love between
  a noble hero and a beautiful woman
• Dominant mood the erotic rasa tension between
  duty, dharma, and desire, kama
• King Dusyanta falls in love with Sakuntala,
  daughter of the nymph Menaka and foster daughter
  of the ascetic hermit-sage, Kanva.