Classical Indian Literature

1. Classical Indian Literature

2. 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 ce Gold Dinar Weight: 7.8 gm Obverse: King and queen

4. Mahayana Buddhism • Buddhism 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.

5. 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

7. 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.

8. Scene From The Jataka

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. Visnusarman’s Pancatantraca. 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

15. The Pancatantra’s5 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”

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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.

19. 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.