Sanskrit literature

The oldest surviving manuscript of a text composed in Sanskrit, in an early Bhujimol script. The Devi Māhātmya on Palm-leaf, Bihar or Nepal, 11th century.

Literature in Sanskrit begins with the spoken or sung literature of the Vedas from the mid-2nd millennium BCE, and continues with the oral tradition of the Sanskrit epics of Iron Age India; the golden age of Classical Sanskrit literature dates to Late Antiquity (roughly the 3rd to 8th centuries CE). Indian literary production saw a late bloom in the 11th century before declining after 1100 CE, hastened by the Islamic conquest of India, due to the destruction of ancient seats of learning such as the universities at Taxila and Nalanda. There are contemporary efforts towards revival, with events like the All-India Sanskrit Festival (since 2002) holding composition contests.

Given its extensive use in religious literature, primarily in Hinduism, and the fact that most modern Indian languages have been directly derived from or strongly influenced by Sanskrit, the language and its literature is of great importance in Indian culture akin to that of Latin in European culture. Some Sanskrit literature such as the Yoga-Sutras of Patanjali and the Upanishads were translated into Arabic and Persian,[1] most significantly by the emperor Akbar. The Panchatantra was also translated into Persian.[2]

The Vedas

Main article: Vedas

Composed between approximately 1500 BCE and 600 BCE (the Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age) in pre-classical Sanskrit, Vedic oral literature forms the basis for the further development of Hinduism. There are four Vedas - Rig, Yajur, Sāma and Atharva, each with a main Samhita and a number of circum-vedic genres, including Brahmanas, Aranyakas, Grhyasutras and Shrautasutras. The main period of Vedic literary activity falls into ca. the 9th to 7th centuries when the various shakhas (schools) compiled and memorized their respective corpora. The oldest surviving manuscript of a text composed in Sanskrit is the Devi Māhātmya on Palm-leaf dating from the 11th century CE.[3]

The older Upanishads (BAU, ChU, JUB, KathU, MaitrU) belong to the Vedic period, but the larger part of the Muktika canon is post-Vedic. The Aranyakas form part of both the Brahmana and Upanishad corpus.

Sutra literature

Main article: Sutra

Continuing the tradition of the late Vedic Shrautasutra literature, Late Iron Age scholarship (ca. 500 to 100 BCE) organized knowledge into Sutra treatises, including the Vedanga and the religious or philosophical Brahma Sutras, Yoga Sutras, Nyaya Sutras.

In the Vedanga disciplines of grammar and phonetics, no author had greater influence than Pāṇini with his Aṣṭādhyāyī (ca. 5th century BC). In the tradition of Sutra literature exposing the full grammar of Sanskrit in extreme brevity, Panini's brilliance lies in the nature of his work of a prescriptive generative grammar, involving metarules, transformations and recursion. Being prescriptive for all later grammatical works, such as Patanjali's Mahābhāṣya, Pāṇini's grammar effectively fixed the grammar of Classical Sanskrit. The Backus-Naur Form or BNF grammars used to describe modern programming languages have significant similarities with Panini's grammar rules.

The epics

Main article: Indian epic poetry

The period between approximately the 6th and 1st centuries BC saw the composition and redaction of the two great epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, with subsequent redaction progressing down to the 4th century CE. They are known as itihasa, or history.

The Ramayana

Main article: Ramayana

While not as long as the Mahabharata, the Ramayana is still twice as long as the Iliad and Odyssey put together. Traditionally, the authorship is attributed to the Hindu sage Valmiki, who is referred to as Adikavi, or "first poet". In the Ramayana, the shloka meter was introduced for the first time. Like the Mahabharata, the Ramayana was also handed down orally and evolved through several centuries before being transferred into writing. It includes tales that form the basis for modern Hindu festivals and even contains a description of the same marriage practice still observed in contemporary times by people of Hindu persuasion.

The story deals with Prince Rama, his exile and the abduction of his wife by the Rakshasa king Ravana, and the Lankan war. Similar to the Mahabharata, the Ramayana also has several full-fledged stories appearing as sub-plots.

The Ramayana has also played a similar and equally important role in the development of Indian and Southeast Asian culture as the Mahabharata.

The Ramayana is also extant in Southeast Asian versions.

The Mahabharata

The battle of Kurukshetra, folio from the Mahabharata.
Main article: Mahabharata

The Mahabharata (Great Bharata) is one of the longest poetic works in the world. While it is clearly a poetic epic, it contains large tracts of Hindu mythology, philosophy and religious tracts. Traditionally, authorship of the Mahabharata is attributed to the sage Vyasa. According to the Adi-parva of the Mahabharata (81, 101-102), the text was originally 8,800 verses when it was composed by Vyasa and was known as the Jaya (Victory), which later became 24,000 verses in the Bharata Samhitha recited by Vaisampayana.

The broad sweep of the story of the Mahabharata chronicles the story of the conflict between two families for control of Hastinapur, a city in ancient India.

The impact of the Mahabharata on India and Hinduism cannot be stressed enough. Having been molded by Indian culture, it has in turn molded the development of Indian culture. Thousands of later writers would draw freely from the story and sub-stories of the Mahabharata.

Buddhist and Jain works

Sanskrit Buddhist manuscript.

Sanskrit also became a major language for Indian religions such as Buddhism and Jainism. Indian Buddhists began adopting Sanskrit during the rule of the Kushan empire (CE 30-375), at first in forms called Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit which were influenced by the Prakrits. Asvaghosa wrote the Buddhacarita (acts of the Buddha) in classical Sanskrit and later Buddhists also adopted pure Sanskrit. One of the earliest Sanskrit dramas that survives (partially) is also from Asvaghosa, the Sariputra-Prakarana. Most Mahayana Buddhist texts such as the Diamond sutra were written in Sanskrit, as well as Tantric Buddhist texts. Sanskrit survives as a sacred language in the Newar Buddhism of Nepal. Jainism, though more varied in its use of local languages, also wrote many of its texts in Sanskrit.

Classical Sanskrit literature

The classical period of Sanskrit literature dates to the Gupta period and the successive pre-Islamic Middle kingdoms of India, spanning roughly the 3rd to 8th centuries CE.

Biography

The tradition of writing biographies in Sanskrit starts with the Harshacharita of Bāṇabhaṭṭa. Other biographical works include Vikramankadevacharita by Bilhana.[4]

Drama

Main article: Sanskrit drama
Shakuntala stops to look back at Dushyanta, Raja Ravi Varma (1848-1906), scene from Abhijñānaśākuntalam.

Drama as a distinct genre of Sanskrit literature emerges in the final centuries BC, influenced partly by Vedic mythology. It reaches its peak between the 4th and 7th centuries before declining together with Sanskrit literature as a whole.

Famous Sanskrit dramatists include Śhudraka, Bhasa, Asvaghosa and Kālidāsa. Though numerous plays written by these playwrights are still available, little is known about the authors themselves.

One of the earliest known Sanskrit plays is the Mrichakatika, thought to have been composed by Śhudraka in the 2nd century BC. The Natya Shastra (ca. 2nd century AD, literally "Scripture of Dance," though it sometimes translated as "Science of Theatre'") is a keystone work in Sanskrit literature on the subject of stagecraft. Bhasa and Kālidāsa are major early authors of the first centuries AD, Kālidāsa qualifying easily as the greatest poet and playwright in Sanskrit. He deals primarily with famous Hindu legends and themes; three famous plays by Kālidāsa are Vikramōrvaśīyam (Vikrama and Urvashi), Mālavikāgnimitram (Malavika and Agnimitra), and the play that he is most known for: Abhijñānaśākuntalam (The Recognition of Shakuntala).

Late (post 6th century) dramatists include Dandin and Sriharsha. Nagananda, attributed to King Harsha, is an outstanding drama that outlines the story of King Jimutavahana, who sacrifices himself to save the tribe of serpents. It is also unique in that it invokes Lord Buddha in what is a predominantly Hindu drama.

The only surviving ancient Sanskrit drama theatre tradition is Koodiyattam, which is being preserved in Kerala by the Chakyar community.

Scholarly treatises

Main articles: Tantras, Shastra, Siddhanta and Jataka
Further information: Jyotihshastra

The earliest surviving treatise on astrology is the Jyotiṣa Vedānga as the science of observing the heavens in order to correctly perform Vedic sacrifice arises after the end of the Vedic period, during ca. the 6th to 4th centuries BCE. Classical Hindu astrology is based on early medieval compilations, notably the Bṛhat Parāśara Horāśāstra and Sārāvalī (7th to 8th century).[5] The astronomy of the classical Gupta period, the centuries following Indo-Greek contact, is documented in treatises known as Siddhantas (which means "established conclusions" [6] ). Varahamihira in his Pancha-Siddhantika contrasts five of these: The Surya Siddhanta besides the Paitamaha Siddhantas (which is more similar to the "classical" Vedanga Jyotisha), the Paulisha and Romaka Siddhantas (directly based on Hellenistic astronomy) and the Vasishtha Siddhanta.

The earliest extant treatise in Indian mathematics is the Āryabhaṭīya (written ca. 500 CE), a work on astronomy and mathematics. The mathematical portion of the Āryabhaṭīya was composed of 33 sūtras (in verse form) consisting of mathematical statements or rules, but without any proofs.[7] However, according to (Hayashi 2003, p. 123), "this does not necessarily mean that their authors did not prove them. It was probably a matter of style of exposition." From the time of Bhaskara I (600 CE onwards), prose commentaries increasingly began to include some derivations (upapatti).

"Tantra" is a general term for a scientific, magical or mystical treatise and mystical texts both Hindu and Buddhist said to concern themselves with five subjects, 1. the creation, 2. the destruction of the world, 3. the worship of the gods, 4. the attainment of all objects, 5. the four modes of union with the supreme spirit by meditation. These texts date to the entire lifespan of Classical Sanskrit literature.

Stories

Main articles: Panchatantra and Hitopadesha
A 'Panchatantra' relief at the Mendut temple, Central Java, Indonesia.

Sanskrit fairy tales and fables are chiefly characterised by ethical reflections and proverbial philosophy. A peculiar style, marked by the insertion of a number of different stories within the framework of a single narrative, made its way to Persian and Arabic literatures, exerting a major influence on works such as One Thousand and One Nights.

The two most important collections are Panchatantra and Hitopadesha; originally intended as manuals for the instruction of kings in domestic and foreign policy, they belong to the class of literature which the Hindus call nīti-śāstra, or "Science of Political Ethics".

Other notable prose works include a collection of pretty and ingenious fairy tales, with a highly Oriental colouring, the Vetāla-panchaviṃśati or "Twenty-five Tales of the Vetāla" (a demon supposed to occupy corpses), the Siṃhāsana-dvātriṃçikā or "Thirty-two Stories of the Lion-seat" (i.e. throne), which also goes by the name of Vikrama-charita, or "Adventures of Vikrama" and the Śuka-saptati, or "Seventy Stories of a Parrot". These three collections of fairy tales are all written in prose and are comparatively short.

Somadeva's Kathā-sarit-sāgara or "Ocean of Rivers of Stories" is a work of special importance: composed in verse and of very considerable length, it contains more than 22,000 shlokas, equal to nearly one-fourth of the Mahābhārata. Like Kshemendra's Brhatkathamanjari and Budhasvamin's Bṛhatkathāślokasaṃgraha, it derives from Gunadhya's Brihatkatha.

Fable collections, originally serving as the handbooks of practical moral philosophy, provided an abundant reservoir of ethical maxims that become so popular that works consisting exclusively of poetical aphorisms started to appear. The most important are the two collections by the highly gifted Bhartṛhari, entitled respectively Nīti-śataka, or "Century of Conduct," and Vairāgya-śataka, or "Century of Renunciation." The keynote prevailing in this new ethical poetry style is the doctrine of the vanity of human life, which was developed before the rise of Buddhism in the sixth century B.C., and has dominated Indian thought ever since.

Classical poetry

This refers to the poetry produced from the approximately the 3rd to 8th centuries. Kālidāsa is the foremost example of a classical poet. While Kalidasa's Sanskrit usage is simple but beautiful, later Sanskrit poetry shifted towards highly stylized literary accents: stanzas that read the same backwards and forwards, words that can be split in different ways to produce different meanings, sophisticated metaphors, and so on. A classic example is the poet Bharavi and his magnum opus, the Kiratarjuniya (6th-7th century).

The greatest works of poetry in this period are the five Mahākāvyas, or "great compositions":

Some scholars include the Bhattikavya as a sixth Mahākāvya.[8]

Other major literary works from this period are Kadambari by Banabhatta, the first Sanskrit novelist (6th-7th centuries), the Kama Sutra by Vatsyayana, and the three shatakas of Bhartṛhari.

Puranas

Main article: Puranas

The corpus of the Hindu Puranas likewise falls into the classical period of Sanskrit literature, dating to between the 5th and 10th centuries, and marks the emergence of the Vaishnava and Shaiva denominations of classical Hinduism. The Puranas are classified into a Mahā- ("great") and a Upa- ("lower, additional") corpus. Traditionally[9] they are said to narrate five subjects, called pañcalakṣaṇa ("five distinguishing marks"):

Sargaśca pratisargasca vamśo manvantarāņi ca I

Vamśānucaritam caiva Purāņam pañcalakśaņam II

They are:

  1. Sarga — The creation of the universe.
  2. Pratisarga — Secondary creations, mostly re-creations after dissolution.
  3. Vaṃśa — Genealogy of royals and sages.
  4. Manvantara — Various eras.
  5. Vaṃśānucaritam — Dynastic histories.

A Purana usually gives prominence to a certain deity (Shiva, Vishnu or Krishna, Durga) and depicts the other gods as subservient.

Later Sanskrit literature

The Avadhuta Gita, an extreme nondual (Sanskrit: advaita) text, is held by Western scholarship to date in its present form from the 9th or 10th centuries.[10] Some important works from the 11th century include the Katha-sarit-sagara and the Gita Govinda of Jayadeva.

The Katha-sarita-sagara (An Ocean of Stories) by Somadeva was an 11th-century poetic adaptation in Sanskrit of Brihat-katha, written in the 5th century BC in the Paishachi dialect. One of the famous series of stories in this work is the Vikrama and Vetāla series (Sanskrit: वेतालपञ्चविंशति), known across India today. On the other side of the spectrum, of the 'Bhana' style of drama, Ubhayabhisarika is a one-person drama of an endearing lecher who knows every courtesan and her family by name.

The Gita Govinda (The song of Govinda) by the Oriya composer Jayadeva is the story of Krishna's love for Radha, and is written in spectacularly lyrical and musical Sanskrit.

Basohli painting (circa 1730 CE) depicting a scene from Jayadeva's Gita Govinda.

A central text for several Hindu sects in eastern India, the Gita Govinda is recited regularly at major Hindu pilgrimage sites such as Jagannath temple at Puri, Odisha. The Ashtapadis of the Gita Govinda also form a staple theme in Bharatanatyam and Odissi classical dance recitals.

Beyond the 11th century, the use of Sanskrit for general literature declined, most importantly because of the emergence of literature in vernacular Indian languages (notably Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, and Kannada). Sanskrit literature fueled literature in vernacular languages, and the Sanskrit language itself continued to have a profound influence over the development of Indian literature in general.

Sanskrit continued to be learned by the Brahmans, and also patronized in the courts of many Muslim rulers (notably Akbar). Many translations of Sanskrit works in Persian and Arabic were created. Sanskrit also continued to be used for philosophical literature (the Dvaita school was founded in 13th century). Notable names in Sanskrit literature for this time period are Mallinatha and Bhattoji Dikshita.

Modern Sanskrit literature

Literature in Sanskrit continues to be produced. These works, however, have a very small readership. In the introduction to Ṣoḍaśī: An Anthology of Contemporary Sanskrit Poets (1992), Radhavallabh Tripathi writes:[11]

Sanskrit is known for its classical literature, even though the creative activity in this language has continued without pause from the medieval age till today. [...] Consequently, contemporary Sanskrit writing suffers from a prevailing negligence.

Most current Sanskrit poets are employed as teachers, either pandits in pāṭhaśālas or university professors.[11] However, Tripathi also points out the abundance of contemporary Sanskrit literature:

On the other hand, the number of authors who appear to be very enthusiastic about writing in Sanskrit during these days is not negligible. [...] Dr. Ramji Upadhyaya in his treatise on modern Sanskrit drama has discussed more than 400 Sanskrit plays written and published during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In a thesis dealing with Sanskrit mahākāvyas written in a single decade, 1961–1970, the researcher has noted 52 Sanskrit mahākāvyas (epic poems) produced in that very decade.

Similarly, Prajapati (2005), in Post-Independence Sanskrit Literature: A Critical Survey, estimates that more than 3000 Sanskrit works have been composed in the period after Indian Independence (i.e., since 1947) alone. Further, much of this work is judged as being of high quality, both in comparison to classical Sanskrit literature, and to modern literature in other Indian languages.[12][13]

Since 1967, the Sahitya Akademi, India's national academy of letters, has had an award for the best creative work written that year in Sanskrit. In 2009, Satyavrat Shastri became the first Sanskrit author to win the Jnanpith Award, India's highest literary award.[14] Vidyadhar Shastri wrote two epic poems (Mahakavya), seven shorter poems, three plays and three songs of praise (stavana kavya), he received the Vidyavachaspati award in 1962. Some other modern Sanskrit composers include Abhiraj Rajendra Mishra (known as Triveṇī Kavi, composer of short stories and several other genres of Sanskrit literature), Jagadguru Rambhadracharya (known as Kavikularatna, composer of two epics, several minor works and commentaries on Prasthānatrayī).

See also

References

  1. ↑ P. 228 The Sufis of Britain: an exploration of Muslim identity
  2. ↑ P. 7 Panchatantra — Five Strategies: Collection of animal fables complied before ...
  3. ↑ Useful for comparison: One of the first documents written in the Sumerian language on a stone plaque dates to c. the 31st century BCE, found at Jemdet Nasr; the Gezer calendar written in paleo-Hebrew on limestone dates from the 10th-century BCE.
  4. ↑ Amaresh Datta (1987). Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature: A-Devo. Sahitya Akademi. p. 540. ISBN 978-81-260-1803-1.
  5. ↑ Ohashi, Yukio. "Development of Astronomical Observation in Vedic and Post-Vedic India." Indian Journal of History of Science 28(3): 185-251, 1993.
  6. ↑ Cf. Burgess, Appendix by Whitney p. 439.
  7. ↑ (Hayashi 2003, pp. 122–123)
  8. ↑ Fallon, Oliver. 2009. Bhatti’s Poem: The Death of Rávana (Bhaṭṭikāvya). New York: Clay Sanskrit Library. ISBN 978-0-8147-2778-2 | ISBN 0-8147-2778-6 |
  9. ↑ Matsya Purana 53.65
  10. ↑ Swami Abhayananda (1992, 2007). Dattatreya: Song of the Avadhut: An English Translation of the 'Avadhuta Gita' (with Sanskrit Transliteration). Classics of mystical literature series. ISBN 0-914557-15-7 (paper), Source: (accessed: Monday February 22, 2010) p.10
  11. 1 2 Radhavallabh Tripathi, ed. (1992), Ṣoḍaśī: An Anthology of Contemporary Sanskrit Poets, Sahitya Akademi, ISBN 81-7201-200-4
  12. ↑ S. Ranganath (2009), Modern Sanskrit Writings in Karnataka, ISBN 978-81-86111-21-5, p. 7:
    Contrary to popular belief, there is an astonishing quality of creative upsurge of writing in Sanskrit today. Modern Sanskrit writing is qualitatively of such high order that it can easily be treated on par with the best of Classical Sanskrit literature, It can also easily compete with the writings in other Indian languages.
  13. ↑ Adhunika Sanskrit Sahitya Pustakalaya, Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan:
    The latter half of the nineteenth century marks the beginning of a new era in Sanskrit literature. Many of the modern Sanskrit writings are qualitatively of such high order that they can easily be treated at par with the best of classical Sanskrit works, and they can also be judged in contrast to the contemporary literature in other languages.
  14. ↑ "Sanskrit’s first Jnanpith winner is a 'poet by instinct'". The Indian Express. Jan 14, 2009.

5. ^ Bhattacharji Sukumari, History of Classical Sanskrit Literature, Sangam Books, London, 1993, ISBN 0-86311-242-0, p. 148.

Further reading

External links

Sanskrit edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Sanskrit
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