Introduction to India: Geography, Race, Language, Caste system, Religion.
1. Ancient Indian Literature
2. Medieval Indian Literature
3. Modern Indian Literature
4. Contemporary Indian Literature
5. Characteristics of Indian Literature
6. Influences on Southest Asian Literature
3. South Asia
29 states and 7 union territories
Mountains: Himalayas
Rivers: Indus, Ganges
the second most populous country
GeographyRace
- Dravia
- Arya
- Sumeria
- Naga
- Racial + Greek, Mongolia...
13. - Faith in nature: thousands of
spiritual beings
- Language structure: language
distinguishes strong and weak,
good and bad.
- People want to know the
causes of everyday events.
Origin
14. TOTEM
Before the Aryans entered
India, the Dravian people
had a system of gods.
VEDA 1500 B.C
Aryan maintained and
developed, derived from
the Veda Sutra.
The process of formation
15. MYTH SYSTEM
MYTH
God of love
Myths about
cosmic life
and time
Trimurti
The system of
creative gods
and aquatic
ancestors of
humans
16. • Kritayuga-1728000 years
• Tretayuga-1296000 years
• Dwaparayuga-864000 years
• Kaliyuga-432000 years
MYTHS ABOUT COSMIC
LIFE AND TIME
17. Visvakarma
The founder
The system of creative gods and aquatic ancestors of humans
Prajapati
Human ancestors
Purusa
The Giant
Manu
Primitive man
20. Ancient Indian Story
The story is said to have been
compiled by a scholar who was an
old guru named Visnukarman, a
Brahman, asking for compilation
at the king's request to educate the
princes, to be handed down in the
people. Around the 2nd century
AD, the reformed and compiled to
the new fifth century gradually
improved.
The story is closely
linked and uses the
frame story structure.
At the end of each story
is often the maxim,
advice, conclusion.
21. Ancient Indian Story
There are 5 books written in Sankrit,
75 (or 84) stories.
1. The split of friends: the friendship
is broken between cows and lions
2. Make friends: close friendship
between crow, mouse, turtle, deer
3. War: between crows and owls
4. Friendship between monkeys and
crocodiles
5. Unacceptable behavior.
23. Ancient Indian Story
- Conclusion: The ancient Indian
tale is the smart bag of humanity,
the content is rich, profound, witty,
rich in philosophy.
- Indian fairy tales are the subject
of later compositions in India and
Southeast Asia.
24. INDIAN EPIC
- After the era of myth, the epic continues to create the great
foundation of ancient Indian literature that formed over 1,000 BC.
- The Ganges civilization and the war between the kingdoms on
ancient India are the conditions for the epic sets to be born.
- Indian epic is the vast realistic picture of an ancient Indian society,
a great song that praises the feats and feats of mythical heroes,
noble and sacred idealists.
- Extremely magnificent, epic Indian epic, milk gourd is always
nurturing art (dance, architecture, painting, sculpture ...) India
develops nicely and brilliantly.
- Ramayana, Mahabharata, Krisna - Radha ... are the immense epic
sets of India that amaze and admire the world.
25. Ramayana
Origin
- Ramayana is said to have been composed by Vanmiki
- A Brahmin master - written in writing around the 3-
4th century BC, after the Mahabharata, but tells about
what happened before the era of Mahabharata
- This epic consists of 24,000 double verses, ie 48,000
lines of poetry, less than a quarter of the volume of
the poem of the Mahabharata, but more closely
arranged. The main theme of the work is the love
story between Prince Rama and faithful wife Sita.
- Ramayana has a profound influence on dance (Sita
dance) architecture, painting ...
- Song I: the lineage and youth of Prince Rama.
- Song II: 13 years of exile in the deep forest.
- Song III: Sita was kidnapped by the demon king Ravana
and taken to the island of Lanka.
- Song IV: Rama the monkey king Valin regained the
throne for the monkey king Sugriva. Divine alliance.
- Song V: Monkey Hanuman spies on the island of Lanka.
- Song VI: The fierce, fierce battle between Rama and
Ravana. Ravana is destroyed. Sita is saved.
- Song VII: Rama is jealous and suspects his wife. Sita
jumps into the fire. The Agni spirit illuminated her
common patience. Rama and Sita returned to Kosala
kingdom. Rama was crowned king.
- The Ramayana is a vast picture of ancient
Indian society.
- Ramayana praises the hero's deeds and
morality.
- Ramayana praised the faithful heart of
women.
26. Sita
- Sita and the model of ideal women
according to the concept of Brahmanism.
- Sensual beauty looks: “lotus eyes”,
"coral lips", "round aromatic breasts like
ripe fruits", "smooth thighs like elephant
taps", "arm tight like creepers“…
- The beauty of the soul: the creative
imagination of the Brahmin does not
imagine which character is more elegant
and sacred than Sita. Human literature
has never produced a higher ideal of
feminine love, feminine truth and
feminine devotion.
27. Rama and the four
basic stages of humanity
in view Brahmanism:
Artha
Brahmacharya: single
period, learning,
cultivating to gather
knowledge
Kama
Grahasthya: owns the
family, enjoys the
happiness of grace
and accumulates
Dharma
Vanaprastha:
renounce the family,
go to the forest to
cultivate asceticism
Moshka
Sanyasa: completely
abandon the finite tangible
world and reach the
infinite spiritual world
29. Historical
background
- The Middle Ages in India were an incessant period
of perpetual fluctuation.
- The end result is a brilliant kaleidoscope of language
and literature.
- Literature mirrored and reflected the intrusion of
Islamites and the synthesis of two dominant
religions: Hinduism and Islam.
=> Medieval Indian Literature had developed with the
advent of the Bhakti Movement and was greatly
influenced by the Hinduism and Islamic beliefs.
30. Characteristics
- Written by many languages: Hindi, Bengali, Marathi,…
and new languages - Urdu (synthesis of Hinduism and
Islam)
- The classics of ancient Indian literature was
revitalised and recreated in newly languages.
- Devotional poetry very developed. The Sanskrit prose
became a independent genre.
- Reflected the pressing national problems about social
culture and the harmony of cultures in the
complicated historical background.
- Influenced by both Hinduism and Islam.
31. Authors and works
Dandin (flourished late 6th and early 7th centuries)
Indian Sanskrit writer of prose romances and expounder on poetics
Dasakumaracarita
The Adventure of the ten Princes
Kavyadarsha
The Mirror of Poetry
32. Tulsidas (about 1532 -1623)
Ramcharitmanas
- A retelling of the
epic Ramayana in the
vernacular Awadhi
dialect of Hindi.
The reincarnation of Valmiki.
33. Kabir (about 15th century)
- Kabir suggested that God
was inside every person,
everything.
- He believed both in Allah
of Islam and Rama of
Hinduism.
- He was threatened by
Hindus and Islamites for his
opinions but when he died,
two religions had claimed
him as theirs.
34. The Songs of Kabir
His poems praised love, good, justice. They pregnant with Kabir’s
philosophy about Brahma, Atman, Maya…
The creature is in Brahma, and Brahma is in the creature:
they are ever distinct,yet ever united.
He Himself is the tree, the seed, and the germ.
He Himself is the flower, the fruit, and the shade.
He Himself is the sun, the light, and the lighted.
He Himself is Brahma, creature, and Maya.
He Himself is the manifold form, the infinite space;
He is the breath, the word, and the meaning.
He Himself is the limit and the limitless: and beyond both the
limited and the limitless is He, the Pure Being.
(Translated by Rabindranath Tagore)
36. Historical background
- India was under the domination of British colonial government.
- A series of movements for independence broke out, such as
Gandhi's Non-violent movement.
- In 1925, the Indian Communist Party was born. In 1947, the
British government declared separating India into two nations:
India and Pakistan.
37. Characteristics
- The influence of Western thoughts, with its
emphasis on democracy and self-expression. The
rising of printing industry, journalism and mass
media had shaped the new face of Indian literature.
- Indian writers was deeply engaged with social
issues. Some of them began writing in prose to
represent new realities, moving from the old era of
myth and poetry. Their works dealt with the clash
between tradition and modernity, nationalism and
internationalism.
38. Authors and works
Rabindranath Tagore: is the great Bengali
poet, philosopher, dramatist and humanist.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature
in 1913. He translated his own works into
English. His poetry is deeply spiritual, praising
love, nature and life.
Gitanjali (Song Offerings)
The collection of poems which
made Tagore internationally
well-known.
39. Munshi Premchand
The novelist who wrote in both
Hindi and Urdu.
He is less interested in aesthetics
but preoccupied with political and
social issues.
Godan (The Gift of the Cow)
Epic novel of peasant life in North India
40. Mahatma Gandhi
The Indian lawyer, politician,
social activist, and writer who
became the leader of the
nationalist movement against
the British rule of India.
The Story Of My Experiments
With The Truth
Autobiography
42. Historical background
- The revolutionary for independence reached its
climax. The British colonial government left India. In
1950, the Republic of India was born.
- The impact of globalization: India began open trade to
the world, reforming economic freedom, democracy,
transforming from tradition to modern, from rural to
urban.
1950
43. Characteristics
- New literary movements appeared: Chayavad
(Neo-romanticism), Nai kahani (New Story),
Pragativad (Progressivism, influenced by
Marxism), Diaspora literature, Dalit literature,
New Criticism, Feminism…
- Post-colonial issues.
- The voices of minorities (women, migrant…)
- The rise of English as a major language of India
=> Indian - British literature
54. Indian literature (epics, ancient stories, frame
stories,...) became the inspiration and themes for
many literary works of Southest Asia.
Ramakien of Thailand
Reamker of Cambodia
55. Buddhism was born in India and Buddhist literature in this
country also influence buddhist literature of Southest Asia.
