Indian Literature
Asia is known to be the most populous and largest continent on the planet.
Asia is a cradle of the human race, world religions and civilization which is composed of a
widespread variety of ethnic groups, diverse cultures, environments, and varied governmental
systems making it rich in written literature.
Indian literature - writings of the Indian subcontinent, produced there in a variety
of vernacular languages including:
1. Sanskrit 8. Telugu 15. Kannada
9. Bihari
2. Punjabi 10. Urdu 16. Sindhi
3. Prakrit 11. Gujarati 17. Kashmiri
4. Rajasthani
5. Pali 12. Lahnda 18. Malayalam
13. Hindi 19. Oriya
6. Tamil
7. Bengali 14. Siraika
Sanskrit is the primary sacred language of Hinduism, and has been used as a philosophical
language in the religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Sanskrit is a standardized dialect
of Old Indo-Aryan, originating as Vedic Sanskrit as early as 1700-1200 BCE.
One of the oldest Indo-European languages for which substantial documentation exists, Sanskrit
is believed to have been the general language of the greater Indian Subcontinent in ancient
times. It is still used today in Hindu religious rituals, Buddhist hymns and chants, and Jain texts.
The earliest Indian literature took the form of the canonical Hindu sacred writings, known as
the Veda, which were written in Sanskrit. To the Veda were added prose commentaries such as
the Brahmanas and the Upanishads.
Brahmana, any of a number of prose commentaries attached to the Vedas, the earliest writings
of Hinduism, explaining their significance as used in ritual sacrifices and the symbolic import of
the priests’ actions. The word brahmana may mean either the utterance of a Brahman (priest) or
an exposition on the meaning of the sacred word; the latter is more commonly accepted by
scholars.
Veda, (Sanskrit: “Knowledge”) a collection of poems or hymns composed in archaic Sanskrit by
Indo-European-speaking peoples who lived in northwest India during the 2nd millennium BCE.
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