English India

• Vedic Period (1500 B.C. - 500 B.C.) is named for the Vedas, a set of hymns that formed the cornerstone of Aryan culture
• Rigveda

  Meaning "hymns of supreme sacred knowledge, the foremost collection or Samhita made up of 1,028 hymns
• Epic and Buddhist Age (500 B.C. - A.D.) was the period of composition of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, growth of later Vedic literature, new Sanskrit literature, and Buddhist literature in Pali. Hinduism reached full flowering evident in culture and the arts
• The Mahabharata consists of a mass legendary and didactic material that tells of the struggle for supremacy between two groups of cousins, the Kauravas and the Pandavas set sometime in 3012 BC. It is composed of almost 100,000 couplets divided into 18 parvans or sections
• The Bhagavad Gita (The Blessed Lord's Song) is one of the greatest and most beautiful
• The Ramayana was composed in Sanskrit, probably not before 300 BC, by the poet Valmiki and consists of some 24,000 couplets divided into seven books. It reflects Hindu values and forms of social organization, the theory of karma, the ideals of wifehood, and feelings about caste, honor, and promises
• Classical Period (A.D. - 1000 A.D.) was characterized by Sanskrit as the main literary language of northern India, poetry and drama peaked, and beast fables like the Panchatantra were popular
• Beast fables


  • Panchatantra
• Sanskrit drama


  • Sakuntala
• Sanskrit drama


  • The Little Clay Cart (Mrcchakatika)
• Medieval and Modern Age (A.D. 1000 - present) saw considerable Persian influence on literature, with Persian as the court language of the Moslem rulers. In the 18th century, India was directly under the British Crown until its Independence in 1947
• Poem


  • The Taj Mahal by Sahir Ludhianvi
• Hinduism is the predominant faith of India, deeply absorbed with God and the creation of the universe
• Purusarthas


  • Dharma (virtue, duty, righteousness, moral law)
  • Artha (wealth)
  • Kama (love or pleasure)
  • Moksha (renunciation of duty)
• Life stages


  1. Student stage - rite of initiation into the study of the Vedas

  2. Householder stage - marries, fulfills duties as head of the family, begets sons, and earns a living

  3. Stage of the forest dweller - departs from home, renounces the social world

  4. Ascetic - stops performing any rituals or social duties of life
• Stages of life in Hinduism

  1. Study of the Vedas

  2. Householder stage - marries, fulfills duties as head of the family, begets sons, and earns a living

  3. Stage of the forest dweller - departs from home and renounces the social world

  4. Ascetic - stops performing rituals or social duties and devotes
• The Hindus regard Purusha, the Universal Spirit, as the soul and original source of the universe
• Roles in Hinduism


  • Brahman (priest)
  • Ksatriyas (warriors)
  • Vaisyas (peasants)
  • Sudras (serfs)
• Buddhism originated in India in the 6th century B.C. based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, called Buddha, or the 'Enlightened One'
• According to Buddhist beliefs, human beings are bound to the wheel of life, a continual cycle of birth, death, and suffering
• Buddhist scriptures


  • Four Noble Truths
  • Noble Eightfold Path
• Four Noble Truths


  • Life is suffering
  • Cause of suffering is desire
  • Removal of desire is the removal of suffering
  • Noble Eightfold Path leads to the end of suffering
• Noble Eightfold Path


  • Right understanding
  • Right thought
  • Right speech
  • Right action
  • Right means of livelihood
  • Right effort
  • Right concentration
  • Right meditation
• Buddhist truth states that bad actions and feelings such as selfishness, greed, hostility, hate are evil not because they harm others but because of their negative influence on the mental state of the doer
• Evil actions and feelings

  Return to punish the doer
• The Dhammapada (Way of Truth) is an anthology of basic Buddhist teaching in a simple aphoristic style, containing 423 stanzas arranged in 26 chapters
• Kalidasa, a Sanskrit poet and dramatist, is probably the greatest Indian writer of all time
• Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), a Bengali poet and mystic, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913
• Prem Chand (pseudonym of Dhanpat Rai Srivastava, 1880-1936) was an Indian author of numerous novels and short stories in Hindi and Urdu
• Written works of Prem Chand

  • Sevasadana (House of Service)
  • Manasarovar (The Holy Lake)
  • Godan (The Gift of a Cow)
• Moral corruption among the Indian middle class
• Works by Prem Chand

  • Manasarovar (The Holy Lake)
  • Godan (The Gift of a Cow)
• Godan (The Gift of a Cow) is Prem Chand's masterpiece and it deals with the hard and unrewarding life of the village peasant
• Kamala Markandaya's works concern the struggles of contemporary Indians with conflicting Eastern and Western values
• In Kamala Markandaya's fiction, Western values are typically viewed as modern and materialistic, and Indian values as spiritual and traditional
• Nectar in a Sieve is Kamala Markandaya's first novel and most popular work, narrating an Indian peasant's difficult life
• R.K. Narayan is one of the finest Indian authors of his generation writing in English
• All of R.K. Narayan's works are set in the fictitious South Indian town of Malgudi
• R.K. Narayan's works typically portray the peculiarities of human relationships and the ironies of Indian daily life, where modern urban existence clashes with ancient tradition
• R.K. Narayan's style is graceful, marked by genial humor, elegance, and simplicity