Classical Indian Literature

Gupta Era 320 ce — 550 ce

Gupta dynasty was founded by Chandra Gupta I

Development of Mahayana Buddhism

Classical Age in north India

Cave paintings at Ajanta

Sakuntala, Jataka, Panchatantra and Kamasutra were written

Aryabhatta’s Astronomy.

Kumardevi and Chandragupta I(Minted by their son Samudragupta)

335-370 ceGold Dinar

Weight: 7.8 gm Obverse: King and queen

Mahayana BuddhismBuddhism split into two sects, Mahayana and

Hinayana (Theravada).Mahayana laid stress on the concept of the

Bodhisattva or `one destined to be the Buddha' and also conceived of Eternal Buddhas who resemble gods or deities.

Hinayana regarded the Buddha as a man and had a doctrine, Theravada, stressing the salvation of the individual.

The interaction of Mahayana philosophy and Hinduism gave rise to Tantric Buddhism or Vajrayana.

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AJANTA CAVES

During the 4th century c.e. in a remote valley, work began on the Ajanta Caves to create a complex of Buddhist monasteries and prayer halls.

As centuries passed, numerous Buddhist monks and artisans dug out a set of twenty-nine caves, converting some to cells, and others to monasteries and Buddhist temples.

These caves are adorned with elaborate sculptures and paintings which have withstood the ravages of time

Ajanta Caves The Ajanta caves depict

the stories of Buddhism spanning from the period from 200 bce to 650 ce.

The 29 caves were built by Buddhist monks using simple tools like hammer & chisel.

The elaborate and exquisite sculptures and paintings depict stories from Jataka tales .

The caves also house images of nymphs and princesses.

Scene FromThe Jataka

SamskrtaThe Language of Classical Literature

Samskrta: Sanskrit “perfected, classified refined” “Correct speech” Codified and frozen in the Astadhyahi : the rules of

grammar Considered ideal language for classics

Prakrta: Prakrit “original or natural” Dialects that changed and developed with spoken

language

Kavya Kavya – the “poetry” of the classical

canon Permeated with the culture of the Gupta

courts Kavi, learned poets, wrote under the

patronage of kings for audiences of connoisseurs sahrdaya – “with heart, responsive” rasika – “enjoyer of aesthetic mood”

Highly formulated norms and conventions

Many works on poetic theory

Kavya Genres Mahakavya: great poem or court epic – contains lyric stanzas with elaborate figures of

speech and emphasizes description Natya: drama

employs both prose and verse includes Sanskrit and Prakrit wider range of characters lyrical description more than dramatic action

Muktaka: short lyric poems Bhartrhari: pointed epigrams Kalidasa: idyllic verses on nature Amaru: erotic vignettes

Katha or Akhyika: narrative tales Pancatantra: collection of animal fables Somadeva’s Kathasaritsagara (Ocean to the Rivers of Story): picaresque, marvelous tales,

romances

NitiAims for Human Conduct, Worldly Wisdom

The Nagaraka – gentleman, citizen, courtier – cultivated life as art with the 4 aims for human conduct:

Dharma: religious duty Artha: wealth, politics, public life Kama: erotic pleasure and the emotions

Vitsyayana’s Kamasutra Moksa: liberation from the chain of birth and death in which souls

are trapped because of Karma Karma implies fluid relationships between divine, human and animal

worlds gods become human, humans may achieve bodhisattva status or may be

reincarnated as animals

Women in Classical Literature Courtly ideal wives like Sita –

chaste, loyal, submissive, long-suffering

Wives in merchant-class stories – chaste, independent, powerful

Courtesans – erotic, beautiful, intelligent, ruthless, rapacious, independent

Religious contemplatives – figures of authority and free agents

Visnusarman’s Pancatantra

ca. 2nd – 3rd ce

Pancatantra: The Five Strategies Collection of folk tales and fables within

frame tales Brought by Arabs into Europe – model

and source for 1001 Nights, Boccaccio’s The Decameron, Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, Grimms’ Fairy Tales, La Fontaine’s Fables, etc.

Central concern is niti – conduct – political expediency and social values

Visnusarman allegedly used the fables to teach 3 dim-witted princes the science of politics

The Pancatantra’s 5 Strategies

Book I : “The Loss of Friends” “Leap and Creep” “ The Blue Jackal” “Forethought, Readywit and Fatalist”

Book II : “The Winning of Friends” Book III: “Crows and Owls”

strategies of alliance and war “Mouse-Maid Made Mouse”

Book IV: “Loss of Gains” Book V: “Ill-Considered Action”

“The Loyal Mungoose”

Natya: Drama

Drsyakavya: poetry to be seen as opposed to sravyakavya: poetry to be heard

Bharata’s Natyasastra – authoritative text on dramatic aesthetics and theory

Abhinaya: “a symphony of languages” – verbal text, stylized gesture, facial expression, eye movement, music, dance

8 fundamental emotions, bhava, expressed in 8 major rasas, stylized representations of the emotions – universal rather than particular

No tragedy in Indian drama – impossible in the Hindu and Buddhist conception of the universe of karma linking humans with nature and the cosmos through networks of volition, action and response – open-ended cycles of time

Video on Indian Natya

Dramatic Conventions

Performed at seasonal festivals and celebrations such as weddings, the dramas were regarded as rites of renewal and order

Characters are types, not individuals Contrasts and complements among diverse elements:

lyric verse and prose dialogue erotic and heroic moods heroic king and gluttonous buffoon Sanskrit spoken by noblemen, Prakrit spoken by women, children

and men of lower caste domestic and public worlds; worlds of the court and of nature;

worlds of the human and divine emotional universes of men and women

Kalidasafl. 4th –5th c. ce

The dramatist and poet is regarded as the greatest figure in classical Sanskrit literature.

His three surviving plays are Abhijnanasakuntala (Sakunatala and the Ring of Recognition), Vikramorvasi, and Malavikagnimitra.

These court dramas in verse, nataka, relate fanciful or mythological tales of profound romantic love intensified and matured by adversity.

In Kalidasa's two epics, Raghuvansa and Kumarasambhava, delicate descriptions of nature are mingled with battle scenes.

The other poems of Kalidasa are shorter and almost purely lyrical.

Sakuntala

Nataka: heroic romance – play about love between a noble hero and a beautiful woman

Dominant mood: the erotic rasa: tension between duty, dharma, and desire, kama

King Dusyanta falls in love with Sakuntala, daughter of the nymph Menaka and foster daughter of the ascetic hermit-sage, Kanva.