Unit 33 . Language and Literature

-- - . UNIT 33 . LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE ' 33.0 Objectives 33.1 Introduction 33.2 Sanskrit Literature 33.3 . Arabic Literature 33.4 Persian Literature 33.4.1 Early Phase 33.4.2 Contribution of Amir Khusrau 33.4.3 Other Persian Po& 33.4.4 Historical Worh in Persian 33.4.5 Slln Literature in Persian 33.4.6 Sanskrit Translatiom in Persian 33.5 Literature in Rzgional Languages 33.6 Social Background of the Detelopment of Regional Languages 33.7 *Literature in the Regional &anguages of North India 33.7.1 The Development of Hindi Literature 33.7.2 The Origin and Growth of Urdu Language 33.7.3 Punjabi Literature 33.7.4 Bengali Literature 33.7.5 Assamese Lite~ture 33.7.6 Oriya Literature 33.7.7 Marathi Literature 33.7.8 Gujarati Literature 33.8 Literature in the Languages of South India 33.8.1 Tamil Literature - 33.8.2 Telegu Literature 33.8.3 Kannada Literature 33.8.4 Malaydam Literature 33.9 Let Us Sum Up 33.10 Key Words 33.11 Answers to Check Your Progress Exercises 33.0 OBJECTIVES After reading this Unit you should be able to know: .'that decadence had crept into the quality of Sanskrit works produced during the period under review, ?bout the introduction and growth of Persian language and literature in India, 0,about theorigin and growth of Urdu language, thesfactors responsible for the growth of regional languages and literature, and about the nature of cultural and literary synthesis achieved in this period. r 33.1 INTRODUCTION The Sultanate witnessed the flowering of a rich corpus of literature, This was a period when new languages were introduced with a remarkable growth in the sphere of culture and literature. This cultural and literary synthesis is manifested in the origin and growth of a synthetic language like Urdu and in the interchange between' Persian and Sanskrit. The regional languages and literature which were considerably influertced by Sanskrit and Persian mirrored the religious, social and popular ' , attitudes of the period under study. The Hindi works of Mush writers like Amir Khusrau and Jayasi as well as the Bengali Vaishnavite poems composed by Bengali :lk#uslims also highlight the process of cultural synthesis operative during this period. - P ' 33.2. SANSKRT LITERATURE Itsis generally believed that the loss of official patronage caused the decline of Sanskrit literature during the Sultanate period. While it is true that Persian replaced I I Sanskrit as the official lwguage, there was no quantitative decline in the production of Sanskrit literary workb as such. The period is remarkable for the immense production of literary wprks in different branches of Sanskrit hterature - bvya (poetical narrative), redgion and photosophy, giammar, drama, stories, medicine, astronomy, commentaries and digests on the Law Rooks (Dharamasbastras) and other classical Sanskrit Forks. Nor was the loss of official patronage to Sanskrit absent for there were sf111 many kings who patronized Sanskrit poets--especially in South India and RajastqBn. ~utwhile~anskdt works continued to be produced in large number, there see@s to be a marked decline in the quality of these works. This decline had set in befor# the establishment of the Sultanate and became more pronounced during the flultanate period. There was not much originality in most of the Sanskrit works that bppeared during this period. Much of the Sanskrit writing was wearisomely repetitive, artificial and forced. Sanskrit works on religious themes were often characterisefl by metaphysical speculations. Biographical works were mainly in the form of heroic ballads which contained hagiographical details and stories of romance. Stinkkrit lost the patronage of the new Persian speaking ruling - class but the Sultanate 4d not interfere with the independent production of Sanskrit literary works. In fact, the introduction of paper during the Sultanate period gave an impetus to the literary qctivity of reproduction and dissemination of already existing Sanskrit texts such as tlje Ramayana and the Mahabbarata. South India, Bengal, Wlaand Western India played the leading role in the production of Sanskrit 'literary works. The Vijaynagar kings patronised Sanskrit poets. The Jain scholar$ in Western India also contributed to the growth of Sanskrit literatwe. The most famous Jain scholars of Sanskrit literature in Western India was Hemachandra Suri whd belonged to the 12th century. Mithila in northern Bihar developed into yet ano&er centre of Sanskrit. Later, towards the end of the Sultanate period and d~tingthe Mughal period, the Chaitanya movement in Bengal and Orissa contributed b the production of Sanskrit works in several fields - drama, champu (a mixed form of verse and prose), grammar, etc. Many Rajput rulers pawonised Sanskrit poets. These poets wrote the family histories of their patrons in the classical form of a Sanskrit eulogy. The writings of these family histories fallowed a set formtila and became an established trend during ' this period. Some of thbe Sanskrit works such as Brithvirqjavijaya and Hammirmahakavya are well known. A number of historical poems are on Muslim rulers, e.g., Rajavlnoda I-- a biography of Sultan Mahmud Begarha of Gujarat written by his court pdt, Udayaraja. Kalhan's Rajatarangini (12th century), which presents the history of Kashrnir kings, was followed in the Sultanate period by a second Rajatwanghi b Jonaraja who wrote the history of Kashmir kings from Jayasimha to2Sultan Zp; 'nu1 Abedin (1420- 1470). A third Rqiatarangini was written by Srivara who pok the history of Kashmir down to A.D. 1486. All these works present eologistil: accounts of their patrons but they contain useful historical material, too. In additjon to these historical kavyas, a large number of semi-historical texts wdprabandhas were also written. 'Ihe prabandhas are replete with legendary d hagiogaphi~almaterial but, some of them, such as Merutunga's Oraban ha Chintamani and Rajashekhar's htbadmkosba contain material of his rical significance. On the whole, however, it must be pointed out that despite+ voluminous production, the Sanskrit literature of the Sultanate period had lqst much of its original vitality and creativity, and the bulk of this literature remained unaffected by the intellectual developments of the age. i 33.3 ARABIC &ITERATURE Arabic was the dominkt language of the Islamic World in the first few centuries after the rise of Islam. !It was the language of the Prophet as well as that of the Islamic religion and thwlogy. Although attention was paid to the cultivation of the Arabic language in India after the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate, the Turkish rulers were more influhced by the Persian language which had developed as the dominant language in the Islamic kingdoms of Central Asia from the 10th century onwards. As a consequence, the production of literary works in Arabic was restricted to a small citcle of Islamic scholars and philosophers. During the reign of Iltutmish several scholars sought reGge at Delhi after the sack of Bukhara by Changez Khan. Sultan Feroz Shah Tughluq (1351-1388) patronised many Arabic scholars and it was under his patronage that the great Arabic dictionary -the Qamus - by Majduddin Ferozabadi was produced. After the disintegration of the Delhi Sultanate, the rulers of many provincial kingdoms also patronised Arabic learning and many places came into prominence as centres of Arabic learning &ring this period. 33.4 PERSIAN LITERATURE Here we will discuss the early phase of the development of Persian language and literature as well as the contribution of Amir Khusrau and otherspts in the field of Persian literature. The historical and suli works written in Persian as well as the Persian translations of Sanskrit works have also been discussed in this section. 33.4.1 Early Phase A new language - Persian -was introduced in India during the period of Ghaznavi rule in the Punjab. There was remarkable growth in Persian literature in Iran and Central'Asia from the tenth century onwards. Some of the~greatpoets of Persian language such as Firdausi and S'adi, composed their works during this phase bf-growth of Persian literature in Iran and Central Asia. Lahore -which was the centre of Turkish political authority in India before the beginning of the 13th century - attracted many Persian poets from the Islamic countries of Iran and Central Asia. The works of only a few of the early writers of Persian literature in India have survived. One of them was a poet Masud Sad Salman d. c. A.D. 1x31) whose compositions reflect a sense of attachment for Lahore. However,hy and large, the Persian literature written in India before the establishment of the Delhi sultanate was derivative in character and adopted literary forms and imagery which were prevalent in Iran. ' It was after the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate that Indian influence began to exert itself on Persian works written in India as is evident from the literary compositions of Amir Khusrau. 33.4.2 Contribution of Amir Khusrau The reign of the Khaljis was a glorious period from the viewpoint of growth of Persian literature in India. According to Ziauddin Barani, the famous contemporary historian, "there lived at Delhi scholars of such eminence and calibre as were not to be found in Bukhara, Samarqand, Tabriz and Isfahan, and in their intellectual accomplishments they equalled Razi and Ghazali. Under every stone lay hidden a precious gem of literary excellence". The most outstanding af the Persian scholars and poets of the period was Abul Hasan, usually known by this pseudonym of Amir Khusrau. Later, in the Mughal period, the historian Badauni, and contempoqary of Akbar praised Amir Khusrau's contribution to Persian literature. He wrote "after the appearance of-the cavalcade of the king of poets, the poetry of his predecessors became bedimmed like stars at the rise of the sun".

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