In the early medieval period in northern India, Sanskrit continued to be the language of literatue. This is the period of the works of two writers in Kashmir-Somadeva’s Katha-sarit-sagar which we have already mentioned and Kalhana’s Rajataringing. The later, a history of Kashmir, is a work of great importance as this is the first proper historical work in India. Another famous work of this period is the Gitagovinda by Jayadeva, which is one of the finest poems in Sanskrit literatue. As mentioned earlier, this was the period when the Apabhramaha languages had started developing into modern Indian languages. One of the earliest works in an early form of Hindi was Prithviaraj Raso by Chandbardai. This work which marks the beginning of bardic literature deals with the heroic deeds of Prithviraj Chauhan.
In the southern parts, this period saw the flourishing of Sanskrit literatue. We have already mentioned the philosophical commentaries of Shankara. Another important Sanskrit work of this period is Bilhana’s Vikramankadeva-charita, a biography of the Chalukya king Vikramaditya 6th. However, this period is more important for the growth of literature in the Dravidian languages. Nripatunga wrote a great work of poetry in Kannada called the Kavirajamarga. For a few centuries, the Kannada literature was deeply influenced by Jainism. Pampa wrote the Adipurana and the Vikramarjana-Vijaya, the former dealing with the life of the first Jain tirthankara and the latter based on the Mahabharata. Poonna wrote the Shantipurana a legendry history of the sixteenth tirthankara. Another great Kannada writer was Ranna, a contemporary of Pampa, Ponna and Ranna are known as the Three Gems of the early Kannada literature. Kamban wrote the Ramayanam in Tamil. In Tamil, this was the period of the composition of the great hymns of the Alvars and the Nayanars. The hymns of the Alvars are collected into the Nalayira-Divya Prabandham. Some of the Nayanar works are the Thiruvasagam, the Thiruttondattogai. Telugu also produced great religious and secular literature in this period. This included translations of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, works of grammar, science and other secular literature. Literature in Malayalam also started growing.
The period of the Sultanat of Delhi saw a great advance in the growth of modern Indian languages and literature. Braj Bhasha and khari Boli, forms of Hindi, began to be used in literary compositions. Many devotional songs were composed in these languages. Heroic literature was written in Gujarati. The famous ballad Alha Udal and the Vishaldeo Raso belong to this period. The literature in other modern Indian languages called Chandayana. Commentaries on ancient scriptures, however, continued to be written in Sanskrit.
Persian was the court language of the Sultanat. Because of its literature many Persian words became part of the vocabulary of Indian languages.
A very notable contribution of the Turks was in the field of historical literature in Persian. In ancient India, there was no tradition of historical writing. The Turks introduced the Arab and Persian traditions of historical writing in India and with them we get a fairly systematic account of Indian history beginning with the Sultanat of Delhi. There were many historians in this period. Ziauddin Barani wrote the Tarikh-i-Firozshahi which gives a detailed account of the reigns of the Khaljis and the Tughlaqs. He also wrote a work on political theory called the Fatawa-i-Jahandari. Perhaps the most outstanding literary figure of this period was Amir Khusrau. He was a poet, historian, mystic and composer of music. He was also a disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya. He wrote the Ashiqa, the Nuh Sipihr, the Qiranal-Sadayan, the Khazain-ul-Futuh and several works of poetry. He symbolizes the composite culture which was growing under the new impact. He took great pride in his being an Indian and praised India as the ‘Earthly Paradise’. He praised India’s fauna and flora, its beauty, its buildings, its knowledge and learning. He believed that in many respects the essence of Hinduism resembled Islam. He considered Hindawi, the Hindi spoken around the region of Delhi, his mother tongue and composed many verses in it. He composed a number of bilingual quatrains and verses in Hindi and Persian. The healthy tradition started by him continued for centuries after him.
The regional kingdoms provided a great stimulus to regional languages and literature. The Sultans of Bengal, Gujarat and other states patronized local languages and literature. Bhakti saints preached in the language of the people. Many of them like Kabir were great poets. There were two main forms of Hindi in this period Bhojpuri and Awadhi. Kabir wrote in Bhojpuri and his dohas (Dohas are two to four line melodious verses giving a social or religious message ) or couplets have become a part of the folklore. Malik Muhammad Jayasi wrote the Padmavat in Awadhi. The famous Ramacharitamanas by Tulsidas was also written in Awadhi in this period. There were many other poets of Qutban, a disciple of the Sufi Saint Shaikh Burhan, wrote the Mrigavati.
Literature in other languages also developed in this period. In Bengali the Ramayana by Krittivasa and the hundreds of lyrics by the famous poet Chandiddas were written under the patronage of the rulers. With Chaitanya, the tradition of writing devotional songs began. Narasi Mehta wrote devotional songs in Gujarati and Namdev and Eknath in Marathi. There were important developments in Kashmir under Zainul Abidin, under whose patronage many Sanskrit works like the mahabhatata and the Rajataringini were translated into Persian.
Under the Vijayangar Kingdom, Sanskrit literature continued to grow. However, this was an important period for the growth of Telugu literature.
Krishnadeva Raya, the greatest of Vijayanagar rulers, was also a Telugu and Sanskrit writer. He wrote the Vishnuchittiya. There were many poets in his court, the most famous of whom was Allasani Peddana who wrote the Manucharita. Dhurjati wrote the Kalahasti Mahatamya.
As in art and architecture the Mughal period also saw great developments in literature. Many Mughal emperors and members of the royal family were great men of letters. Babar, the first Mughal ruler, was one of the pioneers of Turkish poetry and also the author of a very valuable autobiography in Turkish, Babar Nama which was later translated into Persian. Gulbadan Begum, sister of Humayun, wrote the Humayun Nama. Jahangir, the great connoisseur of painting, wrote his autobiography, the Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri. Aurangzeb also was a prolific writer and the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah ‘Zafar’ was a notable Urdu poet.
Hindi literature made significant progress during Akbar’s reign. Tulsidas, who has already been mentioned, and the Keshavdas, a gret poet, wrote on themes of love. Rahim’s Dohas or couplets are extremely popular in many parts of the country. It was also in Akbar’s time that the great Sanskrit work on styles of writing, the Alankarashekhara by Keshava Misra, appeared.
This was a period of many notable writings in the Persian language. Abul Fazl wrote the Ain-i-Akbari and the Akbar Nama. Ain-i-Akbari gives details of Indian customs and manners, religions and philosophy, economic conditions and almost every other aspect of life. As a historical work, it is perhaps unparalleled. Abul Fazl’s brother Faizi was a great poet of Persian and was responsible for the translation of many Sanskrit works into Persian. Akbar had started a whole department for translation of works like the Mahabharata, the Ramayana the Atharva-Veda, the Bhagvad Gita and the Panchatantra.
Many important historical works were produced under the emperors after Akbar. Some of the most important historians of this period were Abdul Hamid Lahori, Khafi Khan, Muhammad Kazim and Sujan rai Bhandari. Literature in modern Indian languages also continued to grow. The famous book of Bihari Lal called the Satsai in Hindi belongs to this period.
One of the most Significant developments during the medieval period was the birth of the Urdu language. This new language soon developed one of the richest literatures as a modern Indian languages. It produced great poets like Wali, Mir Dard, Mir Taqi Mir, Nasir Akbarabadi, Asadullah Khan Ghalib and, in the twentieth century, Iqbal and others. Urdu prose also developed early in the eighteenth century when the translation of most of the historical works from Persian and Sanskrit into Urdu began. At the same time many original prose works in Urdu Azad’s Darbar-i-Akbari. The Urdu novel was one of the earliest to develop in the Indian languages. Urdu became the language of the urban people of northern India and the Deccan and is one of the best examples of the growth of a common culture.
