Literature
Traditionally,
India has had an oral tradition. Vedic
hymns, which are poetry of a very high
order, used to be chanted and passed down
from teacher to student, generation after
generation, without their ever being written
down. Epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata,
even after they were recorded, continued to
be sung and enacted out by bards and
play-actors. Classical Sanskrit literature
blossomed around 500 AD.
Abhigyanashakuntalam, Meghadutam by Kalidasa,
are the best examples.
Urdu
literature and Urdu poetry flourished under
the patronage of Muslim rulers. Mirza
Ghalib's couplets, written around mid-19th
century, are popular even today.
India
is a vast storehouse of tales from the
Puranas, the Jatakas and the Panchatantra,
of folk tales, fairy tales and ghost stories
too. But much of it, for long was not
available in printed form. Non-Literary
work on a variety of themes like law,
health, astronomy, grammar, administration
also form a part of the Indian literary
heritage.The
British introduced the printing press in
Bengal in the early 19th century. With this, Bengali (and then other regional
languages) literature began to emerge in a
definitive form. Bankim Chandra
Chattopadhyaya, Rabindranath Tagore (a Nobel
laureate), Premchand, rank among the world's
best literary figures. In every branch of
literature, poetry, drama, novels, short
stories, literary criticism, Indian
literature has a tremendous variety to
offer. Books, magazines, journals and
newspapers are available in
departmental stores, book-shops, kiosks as
well as pavement stalls. The World Book Fair
is held every alternate year. Indians write
in English as well. Mulk Raj Anand,
Khushwant Singh, Vikram Seth, Upamanyu
Chatterji, Arundhati Roy, have made their
mark in the English reading world.

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