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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