Language And Literature North India

North India: Marathi, Gujarati and Bengali were the language that developed during this period. The Bhakti saints popularized these languages as they preached in these languages. However, most of the literary work was in Sanskrit.

Language and Literature North India: The medieval period saw the emergence of several regional languages and the associated literature. It is quite common for us to identify a region with its language. Every region is identified with a certain distinct type of food, clothing, poetry, dance, painting and music. From the 8th to the 12th century CE, in North India, Sanskrit continued to be the language of the court. Most works of literature were also written in Sanskrit, like Jayadeva's Gita Govinda with the coming of the Turks, Afghans and Persians to India, Sanskrit was replaced by Persian as the court language. Sanskrit was now used mainly during religious ceremonies. People writing in sanskrit lost the patronage of the rulers.

Literary Works:

Somadeva’s Katha-Saritsagara is a collection of stores.

Jayadeva composed Gita Govinda which highlights the selfless love between Krishna and Radha.

Kalhana’s Rajatarangini is also an important book.

Bilhana’s Vikramankadeva-charita is the biography of the chalukyan king Vikramaditya.

North India: Marathi, Gujarati and Bengali were the language that developed during this period. The Bhakti saints popularized these languages as they preached in these languages. However, most of the literary work was in Sanskrit.

Rulers and Relligious Traditions: The Jagannatha cult: In several regions, regional cultures developed around religious traditions.The local people made a wooden image of the deity which, originally a local God, came to be identified with Vishnu. Temple became the centre of pilgrimage.

The Rajputs and Traditions of Heroism: In the 19th century, the Rajasthan of today was called Rajputana by the British.

There are many groups who call themselves Rajputs in Northern and central India.

Prithviraj Chauhan was one such ruler.

Women had been given a heroic image since they committed sati or self-immolation.

Bhakti Movement and the growth of regional languages

Like Sanskrit, Prisian never reached the common people. It is in this vacuum that vernacular or regional literature grew. Vernacular literature developed with the spread of the Bhakti Movement in the 12th century CE. The Bhakti saints taught and composed poems in the local languages. The Mughal rulers patronised persian as their court language, but they encouraged vernacular languages for reasons of convince.

Bengal : Of the many regional kingdoms, Bengal has a special place in the history of Indian culture. Due to the unbroken rule of the pala and sena rulers from the 8th to the 12th century CE, not only was Bengal politically stable, it grew culturally too.

The Growth of Regional Bengali: The palas were patrons of Buddhism. So the early works of literature in Bengal were by Buddhist priests were in Prakrit. Charyyagitika is a collection of verses composed by a group of Buddhist priests under the rule of the pala kings. Under the Senas, preference was once again given to Sanskrit. Jayadeva wrote the Gita-Govinda in the 12th century CE, during the rule of Lakshmana sena. The Gita Govinda is believed to be the main source of Bengali lyric poetry.

By the end of the 13th century CE, Muslim rule was extended over the whole region of Bengal. Sanskrit gradually lost its importance. For the next 600 years, Persian was the official language in Bengal. However, the use of Bengali was encouraged. Important poets of this period were Vidyapati and Badu Chandudasj, the author of Srikrishna Kirtan, which gives an account of the Bengal of that time through a combination of folklore and fantasy.

Chapters

Tracing Changes Through Thousand Years - I

Tracing Changes Through Thousand Years - II

Kings and Kingdoms

Delhi 12th to 15th Century I

Delhi 12th to 15th Century II

The Mughals 16th-1 Century I

The Mughals 16th-1 Century II

Rulers and Buildings I

Rulers and Buildings II

Towns Traders and Craftsperson I

Towns Traders and Craftsperson II