Gujarati, Rajasthani and Sindhi Literature

As mentioned earlier Bhakti movement was at its peak in Gujarat and that affected the literature composed there. Narsinh Mehta is a very popular name in this area as he combined devotional songs for Lord Krishna with local folk traditions. The later period saw poetry by Narmad and prose by Govardhan Ram who wrote the classic Gujarati novel, Saraswati Chandra, which has been made into a television series recently.

 The pinnacle of success in Gujarati literature was achieved by Dr K.M Munshi who has written fiction and non-fiction (historical) work too. One of his finest novels is Prithvi Vallabha.

 The medieval Rajasthani literature was ridden with several dialects and has two main forms of fictional writing called Dingal and Pingal. The most famous text in this context is Dhola Maru. The writings of Mirabai in Braj have been very famous. Several other saints composed devotional poetry in this region. The stories of Rajasthani writers were usually oral in nature and were spread by the bards who sang the virkavya (victory poetic songs).

 The literature in Sindhi has been deeply influenced by the two regions surrounding it: Rajasthan and Gujarat. As Sindh was always on the border of India, it was amongst the first to come in contact with Islamic settlers in India, which also explains the influence of Islam and Sufism on the poetry. The poetry is very lyrical and meant to be sung. Two prominent names in Sindhi Literature are Dewan Kauramal and Mirza Kalish Beg.

Bengali, Odia and Assamese Literature

In the twentieth century, the development of Bengali literature rivalled with Urdu and Hindi. The distribution of this literature was facilitated by the establishment of the Baptist Mission Press at Serampore, Bengal by the Englishman, William Carey in 1800.

Carey was also responsible for writing a book about the grammar of Bengali and also published an English-Bengali dictionary. His press inspired wealthy local Bengalis to open their own press and disseminate literature in Bengali. Although a lot of ancient and medieval literature in Bengali like the Mangal Kavyas existed, before the nineteenth century it had not been widely published.

It was with the nationalist fervour reaching Bengal that the literature took a definite turn towards the concerns of the common man’s suffering and the nation’s plight under the British rule. Raja Ram Mohan Roy was amongst the first to write in Bengali and English and his work was read widely. His contemporary writers were Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and Akshay Kumar Dutta. But the zenith of nationalist Bengali literature was achieved by the writing of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. His work Anand Math was hugely popular, so much so that Vande Mataram, our national song, is an excerpt taken from this novel.

The first Indian to win a Nobel Prize was also a writer in Bengali, Rabindranath Tagore. He got this award for his Bengali masterpiece Geetanjali in 1913. Sharat Chandra Chatterjee, Qazi Nazrul Islam and R. C Dutta made important contributions to Bengali literature.

In the medieval period, Assamese literature was dominated by buranjis (court chronicles). Apart from these official works, Shankardev composed devotional poetry in Assamese. In the context of the modern Assamese literature, two major scholars namely Padmanaba Gohain Barua and Lakshmi Nath Bezbarua, have made their mark.

From the east of India, a sizeable corpus comes from Odia literature.

The first work came from Sarala Das. In the Medieval period, one of the outstanding writers was Upendra Bhanja who wrote in 1700.

In the modern period, Radha Nath Ray and Fakirmohan Senapati have made their mark with the nationalistic tenor to their work.

Hindi

With the coming of the British, the focus of literature changed. This change occurred phenomenally in Hindi prose writing where there was a zest to go back to the classics and be inspired by Sanskrit. This zest was combined with the nationalistic fervour. Bharatendu Harishchandra wrote his most famous drama Andher Nagari (City of Darkness) in 1850s and this became a major play, which has been reproduced several times. Another very famous nationalist work is Bharat Durdasha.

 Another major writer from this period is Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi after whom an entire phase of Hindi writing has been named. In the modern period of Hindi called Adhunik kaal, there are four subsections called:

 

Bhartendu Yug 1868-1893

Dwivedi Yug 1893-1918

Chhayavad Yug 1918-1937

Contemporary period 1937-today

The movement to make Hindi the national language, which would link all regions, was spearheaded by Swami Dayanand. Although he wrote quite a lot in Gujarati, his most famous work in Hindi is Satyartha Prakash. Several Hindi authors like Munshi Prem Chand, Surya Kant Tripathi ‘Nirala’, Maithili Sharan Gupt questioned the orthodoxies in the society. Prem Chand wrote many anthologies in Hindi and Urdu and his famous works include Godan, Bade Bhhaiya, etc.

 Other notable writers in Hindi include Sumitranandan Pant, Ramdhari Singh ‘Dinkar’ and Harivansha Rai Bachchan who wrote Madhushala. One of the most famous female writers of Hindi in the twentieth century was Mahadevi Verma. She was the recipient of Padma Vibhushan in Hindi because of her writing and how it highlighted the condition of women in society.

FAMOUS UNIVERSITIES OF ANCIENT INDIA

Odantapuri: It is located in Bihar and was made under the patronage of Pala dynasty KiNg Gopala I. It was a Buddhist mahavihara. It was destroyed by Bakhtiyar Khilji.

Odantapuri

Vikramshila: It is located in present-day Bhagalpur district of Bihar. It was established by King Dharampala of Pala dynasty, primarily as a Buddhist learning centre. The scholars were invited by kings outside India to spread Buddhist teachings. The Vajrayana sect flourished here and Tantric teachings were taught. It was destroyed by Bakhtiyar Khilji. 

Vikramshila

Other subjects like logic, Vedas, astronomy, urban development, law, grammar, philosophy, etc were also taught. 

Jaggadala: A centre of learning for the Vajrayana sect of Buddhism, in Bengal. Many scholars took shelter here after Nalanda and Vikramshila declined. It was probably established by King Ramapala of Pala dynasty. Śakyaśrībhadra, a Kashmiri scholar who was the last abbot of Nalanda Mahavihara and instrumental in transmitting Buddhism to Tibet, is said to have fled to Tibet in 1204 from Jagaddala when Muslim incursions seemed imminent. Historian Sukumar Dutt tentatively placed the final destruction of Jagaddala to 1207; in any case, it seems to have been the last mahavihara to be overrun.

Jaggadala

Valabhi: It was situated in Saurashtra, Gujarat. It was an important centre of learning for the Hinayana Buddhism. Various disciplines like administration and statecraft, laws, philosophy etc were taught here. It was visited by the Chinese scholar, Hseun Tsang. It was supported by the grants of rulers of Maitraka Dynasty of Gujarat. In 775 CE, the patron kings succumbed to an attack by the Arabs.

Valabhi 

Nalanda: The most renowned university of South Asia. It is not clear as to who established it; it was in existence during Gupta period. It gained prominence under Harshavardhana’s reign and Pala kings. All three Buddhist doctrines were taught here, however, it was a major site for Mahayana Buddhist teachings. It was destroyed by Bakhtiyar Khilji.

Nalanda

Subjects like Vedas, fine arts, grammar, philosophy, logic, medicine, etc were also taught here. It had eight separate compounds and even had dormitories for students. It attracted scholars from Central Asia, South-East Asia and other parts of the world. The teachings in the university deeply influenced Tibetan Buddhism. Famous scholars of Nalanda are Nagarjuna (Madhyamika Shunyavad) and Aryabhatta the astronomer. 

Hsuan Tsang spent two years at the university. Another Chinese scholar I-Tsing, spent ten years at Nalanda in late 7th century.

Takshashila: It was located in modern-day Pakistan. It is estimated to exist around 5th century BC. It is believed that Chanakya composed the Arthashastra at this place. Both Buddhist and Hindu theologies were taught here. Subjects like Political Science, Hunting, medicine, law, military tactics were taught here. Noted teachers and students from Takshashila include Chanakya, Charaka, Panini, Jivaka, Prasenajit, etc. Destruction of Taxila is unclear as studies have shown not clear verified. It is said nomadic Huns did that. 

Takshila

Kancheepuram: It was a centre of learning for Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism from 1st century AD and achieved great name under the rule of Pallavas. Since 1865, it came under colonial rule. 

Manyakheta: now called Malkhed (Karnataka). It rose to prominence under the Rashtrakuta rule. Scholars of Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism studied here. It has a ‘matha’ of Dvaita school of thought.

Malkhed fort

Pushpagiri Vihara and Lalitagiri (Odisha): It was established by Kalinga kings around 3rd century AD near the Udayagiri hills. It was mainly a Buddhist learning centre.

Lalitagiri Odisha 

Sharada Peeth: It is located in present-day Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. It was an important place for the Sanskrit scholars and many important texts were written here. It also has a Sharda Devi temple. It is believed by Kashmiri Pandits to be the abode of Shiva

Sharada Peeth

In 1947, the Kashmiri saint Swami Nand Lal Ji moved some of the stone idols to Tikker in Kupwara. Some of those were subsequently moved to Devibal in Baramulla. The temple fell into disuse following the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948, which split the princely state of Kashmir into the Pakistani-occupied territory of Azad Kashmir, and the Indian territory of Jammu and Kashmir. 

Nagarjunakonda: It is situated 160 km from Amaravathi in Andhra Pradesh and it was a major Buddhist centre with scholars from Sri Lanka, China, etc coming for higher-education. It had many Viharas, Stupas, etc. It was named after Nagarjuna, a south Indian scholar of Mahayana Buddhism.

Nagarjunakonda

this image is for you which will tell you how bigger thoughts were off people who made it. 

Built by King Dharma Pāla Deva (770-800 AD), second king of the Pāla Dynasty, in the late 8th century AD, the monastery follows a layout perfectly adapted to its religious function.

The vast monastery at Paharpur was only possible because of the support of the wealthy Pala Dynasty that for 400 years ruled Bengal

Official Language of India

Article 343 (1) of the Constitution provides that Hindi in Devanagari script shall be the official language of the Union. Article 343 (2) also provides for continuing the use of English in official work of the Union for a period of 15 years (i.e., up to January 25, 1965) from the date of commencement of the Constitution. Article 343 (3) empowered the Parliament to provide by law for continued use of English for official purposes even after January 25, 1965. The Act also lays down under Section 3 (3) that both Hindi and English shall compulsorily be used for a certain specified purpose such as resolutions, general Orders, Rules, Notifications, Administrative and other Reports, Press Communiques; Administrative and other reports and official papers to be laid before a House or the Houses of Parliament; contracts, agreements, licences, permits, tender notices and forms of tender, etc.

With a view to ensuring compliance of the constitutional and legal provisions regarding official language and to promote the use of Hindi for the official purposes of the Union, the Department of Official Language was set up in 1975 as an independent department of the Ministry of Home Affairs. Since then, this Department has been making efforts for accelerating the progressive use of Hindi for the official purposes of the Union. In accordance with the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961, this Department has been entrusted with the following items of work that include:- co-ordination in all

matters relating to the progressive use of Hindi as the Official Language of the Union, including administrative terminology, syllabi, textbooks, training courses and equipment (with a standardised script) required therefor; matters relating to the Kendriya Hindi Samiti and the Central Translation Bureau, etc.

In 1976, Official Language Rules were framed under the provisions of Section 8 (1) of the Official Languages Act, 1963 as amended in 1967. 

Salient features of the rules are as under:

(i) They apply to all central government offices, including any office of a Commission, Committee or Tribunal appointed by the central government and corporation or company-owned or controlled by the central government except for Tamil Nadu;

(ii) Communications from a central government office to state/union territories or to any person in the region ‘A’ comprising Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Haryana and union territories of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Delhi, shall be in Hindi; 

(iii) Communications from a central government office to states/union territories in region ‘B’ comprising Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra and the union territory of Chandigarh, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli shall ordinarily be in Hindi and if any communication is issued to any of them in English, it shall be accompanied by a Hindi translation thereof; 

(iv) Communications from a central government officer to state or union territory in Region ‘C’ or to any office (not being a central government office) or person in such state shall be in English; and 

(v) Communications between central

government offices in region ‘C’ to a state or union territory of Region ‘A’ or Region ‘B’ or to any office (not being a central government office) or persons in such state may be either in Hindi or English.