INDIAN LITERATURE

India

Worlds 7th largest country in South Asia Second most populous country 3, 000 km (1.865 mi) wide, shoreline 7000 km (4,350 mi) along the Bay of Bengal India and Bharat are both official names Derives from Indus river used by Greek India civilization grew up in the Indus Valley to 2500 BC.

Three Main Topographic Regions

Himalayan Mountain - system on the North

Northern plain – drained by the Indus, Ganges and Bramaputra rivers in North Central India.

Peninsular India – in the South

Language

More than 200 languages are spoken in India Four major languages are represented

Indo – Arab branch of the Indo – European group (the major Linguistic family in Europe)

Dravidian - language group Hindi – the fourth most widely spoken language in the world Indo – Aryan language

The People

Over thousand years, countless group have migrated into the subcontinent and many of these groups have maintained distinctive cultures down through years.

The earliest Indian may have migrated from Australia and the Pacific Island

Religion

Four major religious traditions have emerged from this area: Hinduism – 83 % Jainism – 11% Buddhism – less than 1% Sikhism

India Caste System

Major social system that groups people according to birth: Brahmins – priests, the highest caste Kshatriyas – warriors and kings Vaishyas – merchants Shudras – manual labourers

Caste System

Some people do not fall into any caste ; these are called dalits, or untouchables Untouchables also known as Harijans

Dalits have traditionally been tasked with work such as cleaning streets and working with human and animal corpses and waste

Caste- based discrimination is now illegal in India, and affirmative – action policies aim to improve standards of living in lower castes, but inequalities persist

Government

Federal System with parliamentary form of government Parliament consist of two houses

The Raiya Sabha (Council of states) The Lok Sabha (House of the people)

Elected directly by eligible voters and sit 5 years unless Parliament is dissolved Indian National Congress – party most identified remained control of the central

government November 1989 election – Discontent with India’s leadership caused Congress to

lose its parliamentary 1991 Election – P.V Narasimha Rao succeeded Ravid Gadhi as party leader became

prime minister in June 1991

Education

1950 and 1988 – Indian Literacy was doubled Literacy is higher on man than woman Free and open 8 years in primary 2 years in lower secondary 2 years in upper secondary Compulsory in 6 -14 years old University are large with cluster of affiliated colleges

A brief history of INDIA

India was a sovereign state under its own constitutional government began on August 15, 1947, when the subcontinent was partitioned into the two states of India and Pakistan.

Pakistan become an Islamic state while India opted to become a secular state.

MAHATMA GANDHI

The father of modern India He was born in Pobandan, India on October 2, 1869, his father was a chief minister for

the maharaja of Pobandan and his family came from traditional caste of grocers and moneylenders.

His mother was a devout adherent of Jainism, a religion in which ideas are non violence and vegetarianism.

He had his fixed marriage when he was 13 He went to London to study law when he was 18 He works for an Indian firm in South Africa He assumed leadership of protest campaign and gradually developed his techniques of

non violent resistance known as Satyagraha

He fought to improve the status of the lowest classes of society, the castes untouchables, whom he called Harijans

He believed in manual labor and simple living and non violence is a percept common to three faiths : Hinduism – Adherent to the prescription against violence toward living things can escape

from the cycle of rebirth and the doctrine also form a basis for vegetarian Buddhism – Non violence is manifest in the Buddha’s emphasis on compassion and is also

part of the faith’s moral codes Jainism – Non violence is a core religious duty and followed strictly that the most

Orthodox devotes cover their faces with mask to prevent accidentally harming insect

In June 1975, He persuaded president Fakhuruddin Ali Ahmed to evoke a state of emergency that gave his near – dictatorial power opposition leads were jailed without trial and many constitutional freedom were curtailed

In March 1977, He called a new election, perhaps to legitimatize the powers he had taken under the emergency. But Morarji Desai, a long time opponent of Gandhi became prime minister. President Ahmed died the same year and Nelsan Sanjavi Reddy was elected as president

In July 1979, Janai party began to break apart and Desai resigned as the prime minister

He was assassinated by the Hindu militant who believed him to be, too kind to the Muslims

Literature

Sanskrit literature – Oral tradition produced the Vedic holy text Mahabharata and Ramayana – two great books, sources for countless

literary 400 BC Panini – Produced his Sanskrit grammar Second century AD – Prakrits being used in literature Middle ages Sanskrit – used in religious context by priest Ghazal – form of lyrical folk song and notable exponents of the form Macaulay – Established English – language schooling for Indians Michael Madhusudan Dutt and Jayashankar Prasad (1889-1937)

introduced black verse in sonnet into Indian poetry

Arunacala Kavi – Developed a utilitarian prose style Madhusudan Dutt – Wrote the first plays modelled on Western

Drama Sir Rabindranath Tagore – Introduced the short story to vernacular

writing in India and he is the first novel laureate Laksminath Bezbarua and Muhammad Iqbal – Major poets of the

period History of Indian Literature falls into two periods:

The Vedic period Sanskrit period

Religious work

Poetry The Rig Veda – A book of sacred hymns The Yajur Veda – A book of knowledge and melodies for the hymns The Sama Veda – Descriptions of the materials for sacrifice The Artharva Veda – Contains magic spells and other folk knowledge

The Brahmanas The Maya The Sutras

Secular work Epics

Mahabharata Bhagavad gita Nala and Damayanti Ramayana

Dramas The toy clay cart Sakuntala or the fatal ring Jatakas Panchatantra Hitopdesa Sukasaptati

KARMA AND REINCARNATION

Reincarnation – The belief that the soul repeatedly goes through a cycle of being born into a body, dying and being reborn again in a new body

Karma – A force that determines the quality of each life , depending on how well one behaved in a past life

Hinduism says we create karma by our actions on earth. If you live a good life, you create a good karma. If you live a bad life, you create bad karma

Moksha

Each time a Hindu soul is born into a better life , it has the opportunity to improve itself further, and get closer to ultimate liberation

The liberation is called Moksha One attains Moksha when one has “overcome ignorance” and no

longer desires anything at all The one who reach this state no longer struggle with the cycle of life

and death The way to get to Moksha is to not create any karma

Sacred Writings

The Vedas Collection of Sanskrit hymns (1200-900 BCE) but based on older oral versions

The Upanishads which means the inner or mystic teaching that were passed down from guru (teacher) to disciple (student)

Mahabharata Sanskrit for great story , is one of the great epic poems of ancient India It was written between 300 BC and 300 AD The great sage Veda Vyasa, also known as Krsna Dvaipayana. The story is about the battle of one family over a kingdom in northern India The Bhagavad Gita (song of God) is contained in the Mahabharata. It is a dialogue

between Krishna and the hero Arjuna on the meaning of life With about one hundred thousand verses, long prose passages, or about 1.8 million words

in total, the Mahabharata is roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and Odyssey combined or about four times the length of the Ramayana.

It has been called Mahabharata due to the immense size and its dealing with the story of the people of the race descended from the ancient emperor Bharata, culminating in the war.

Ramayana

The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic attributed to the poet Valmiki and is an important part of the Hindu canon

The name Ramayana is a tatpurusa compound of Rama and ayana "going, advancing", translating to "the travels of Rama“

The Ramayana consists of 24,000 verses in seven cantos (karnas) and tells the story of a prince, Rama of Ayodhya, whose wife Sita is abducted by the demon (Rakshasa) king of Lanka, Ravana.

The characters of Rama, Sita, Lakshmana, Bharata, Hanumān and Ravana (the villain of the piece) are all fundamental to the cultural consciousness of India

One of the most important literary works on ancient India, the Ramayana has had a profound impact on art and culture in the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia.

Hindu Life Goals

Hinduism is about the sort of life one should lead in order to be born into a better life net time and ultimately achieve liberation

There are 4 legitimate goals in life: Dharma – Appropriate living Artha – The pursuit of material gain by lawful means Karma – Delight of the senses Moksha – Release from rebirth

Hindu Duties

Each Hindu has 4 daily duties :

Revere the deities Respect ancestors Respect all beings Honour all human kind