Literary Tradition

The literary tradition of India is rich and one of the oldest one in the world. A different variety of literature is being produced in different Indian languages. Veda – the storehouse of knowledge is considered a sacred text in India. Ramayana and Mahabharata are 2 of the Hindu epics. Vaastu Shastra is a treatise on architecture. The famous text on political science in India is the Arthashastra. Some other holy texts composed in Sanskrit are Upanishad, Vedas, Manusmriti etc. Meghdoot, Abhijanam Shakuntalam, Mricchakatika, Ratnavali are some of the famous literary works of ancient India. Tamil literature has also flourished mainly in the forms of secular, poetic and philosophical works.

Literature in India also flourished in vernacular languages. It mainly flourished in north India. Religious love poems became popular in Maithili language. Many poets composed devotional poetic works in their own dialects of which Avadhi was a noted medium.

Literature in Hindi language was initiated in Brij and Avadhi dialects. Among the writers in Hindi, mention can be made of Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, Sumitranandan Pant, Jaishankar Prasad, Maithili Sharan Gupt and others.

During the British rule in India, a revolution in the literary works were identified. The writers and poets wanted to create awareness among the common people of the country against the social ills and the foreign domination. Among the several Bengali writers, Rabindranath Tagore holds a honorary position. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913.

In the modern period, several writers of India gained prominence by writing in English. Among the English writers of India, the most popular persona are R.K. Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand, Anita Desai and others. Jhumpa Lahiri, Amitav Ghosh, Vikram Seth, Sashi Tharoor, Vikram Chandra are some of the famous Indian English writers of today.