Hindi Language Blog

Hindi literature (हिन्दी साहित्य) is divided into 4 broad styles. These styles are Bhakti (भक्ति – devotional); Shringar (beauty), Veer Gatha (extolling brave warriors) and Adhunik (modern).

During Adi Kaal or Veer Gatha Kaal (आदिकाल या वीरगाथा काल) having a timeline of 1050 to 1375, saw the first account of Hindi literature. However, most of the Hindi work of this period was soon destroyed by Muhammad Ghori, who where on the military campaign to India. After this period, Bhakti Kaal period came in which, particularly Hindi poetry was developed and progressed.

Bhakti Kaal (भक्तिकाल – Devotion Period) was a period from 1375 to 1700 in which, Bhakti (devotion) movement had an remarkable influence (प्रभाव) on the development of Hindi literature. This devotion was toward God (ईश्वर).

Hindi along with its dialects such as Braj Bhasha, Bundeli, Awadhi, Kannauji, and Khariboli in Devnagari script were used during this period. Hindi literature could also be found in regional Hindi languages such as Marwari, Maithili, Magahi, Angika, Vajjika and Bhojpuri.

During this period, most of the Hindi literature was developed in the two dialects of Hindi, Avadhi and Brij Bhasha. The main works in Avadhi are Malik Muhammad Jayasi’s Padmavat and Tulsidas’s Ramacharitamanas. The major works in Braj dialect (बोली) are Tulsidas’s Vinaya Patrika and Surdas’s Sur Sagar. Sadhukaddi was also a language commonly used, especially by Kabir in his poetry and dohas. This period also witnessed much development in poetry. These included verse patterns like Doha (two-liners), Sortha, Chaupaya (four-liners) etc. Other notable writers or poets include Abdul Rahim Khan-I-Khana, Guru Nanak, Dharma Das, Maluk Das, Dadudayal, Sunder Das, Jayasi, Manjhan, Kutuban, Agra Das, Nabha Das and Pran Chand Chauhan, Nand Das, Parmananda Das and Mirabai.

A famous & very meaningful message presented in a Kabir’s Doha (two – liner) :

दुःख में सुमिरन सब करे सुख में करै न कोय।
जो सुख में सुमिरन करे दुःख काहे को होय ॥

Dukh mein sumiran sab kare sukh mein kare na koy।
Jo sukh mein sumiran kare dukh kaahe ko hoy॥

In sorrow, all remember him (God) but nobody does so in happiness.
If remembered in happiness, how could you be sad.

This period united the Hindu and Muslim elements into Hindi literature and poetry. The works show light on secular and tolerable (सहनीय) outlook (दृष्टिकोण) of the society of that time.

Let me take you to a little thematic tour on the ancient India. Hope, you will learn about the ancient India whose legacy still influence not just India but the entire world.

Civilization & Culture
The earliest records of habitation in India are over 30,000 year old. These records have been found through cave paintings. Around 3000 – 1500 BC, several cities Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Dholavira, and Kalibangan like have flourished in the northern part of India (some parts are now in Pakistan). Evidence of agriculture, irrigation tanks, and craft traditions suggest progression to sedentary life. The society was based on hierarchic structure of priests, warriors, and free peasants. In North India, Hinduism asserted patriarchal control within the family leading to increased subordination of women. The notorious caste systems also originated at that time and still linger Indian society.

Many empires were ruling India. One was Emperor Asoka, the Great (ca. 304–232 BC) from Mauryan dynasty. Under his empire, India for the first time was united and was under one rule. Other one who also influenced rest of Asia was Chola Empire from South India. Under his rule, Indian traditions and languages reached to the entire South East Asia.

Ancient India (Mauryan Dynasty - 265 BC)

Religion
India is home to some of the oldest religion of the world. You may already aware of Hinduism. It is the biggest religion in India with over 80 % population of Indian adhering to Hinduism. Not just India, there are large population of Hindus in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Guyana, Fiji, Bhutan etc. Buddhism also originated from India and now it’s the biggest religion in entire South East and Eastern Asia with over 80 % followers in China, Japan, Mongolia etc. Sikhism and Jainism have their origins in India too and a have sizable population in India. Some of the worlds oldest religious text like, Vedas belong to India.

Language
Vedic Sanskrit was the oldest language that find the records if we peek into Indian history. Classical Sanskrit came after Vedic Sanskrit were no longer used as vernacular. Some of the oldest epics in Hinduism like the Ramayana and Mahabharata were written in Classical Sanskrit.
Panini was an ancient Indian Sanskrit grammarian who gave the world’s first grammatical rules defining correct syntax and semantics for a language (Sanskrit) having an astounding 3959 rules! He had done work in the fields of phonetics, phonology and morphology.

Science & Technology
There is known evidence of knowledge of irrigation in the Indus Valley Civilization by around 4500 BC. Indus Valley Civilization is also known for its sophisticated drainage, sewerage, irrigation and water storage systems. They developed artificial reservoirs (at Girnar dated 3000 BC) as well as an early canal irrigation system (ca. 2600 BC) shows the knowledge and sophistication of people in ancient India.

The remains of early furnace has been found in Balakot (c. 2500-1900 BC) now in Pakistan. The world’s first dock (2400 BC) was excavated in Lothal in western Indian state of Gujrat which shows that civilization knew the importance of sea routes and was active in sea trade.

The ancient text Vedānga Jyotiṣa, which is an Indian Astrology text which tell us about the astronomical calculations, calendrical studies, establishes rules for empirical observation and aspects of the time and seasons, including lunar months, solar months, and their adjustment by a lunar leap month  in ancient times. Medical  treatise Sushruta Samhita (6th century BC) mention leprosy. At the same time,  knowledge of cataract surgery was known to the physician Sushruta (6th century BC). Traditional cataract surgery was performed with a special tool called the Jabamukhi Salaka, a curved needle used to loosen the lens and push the cataract out of the field of vision.

Minting and using metal currency in India before 5th century BC was also known. Coinage were made of silver and copper with animal and plant symbols on them.

It is also found that during the 1st millennium BC, the Vaisheshika School of Atomism was founded. It was known to ancient Indian that atoms can neither be created nor be destroyed.  The prominent name in this field was Kanada, an Indian philosopher who lived around 200 BC.

India is the world’s largest democracy with 1.2 billion population, and over 700 million electorate. This democratic system is in place since India got its independence from British government. The constitution (संविधान) of India came into force on 26 November 1950 with values such as trinity of justice (न्याय), liberty (स्वतंत्रता) and equality (समानता) for all citizens. Our constitution has been one of the most amended national documents in the world with more than 80 changes. This is because of disputed issues between the government and judiciary system in India.

India is a federal constitutional republic (गणतंत्र) having the President (राष्ट्रपति) of India as head of state and the Prime Minister (प्रधान मंत्री) of India as the head of government. However, the role of President is of mostly ceremonial as it has no legislative power. President and vice president are usually appointed for the period of 5 years. The President appoints the Prime Minister, who is designated by legislators of the political party (राजनीतिक दल) or coalition commanding a parliamentary majority. India has got two chambers of the Parliament of India, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. The Lok Sabha (लोकसभा) was modeled on the British House of Commons but the upper house, Rajya Sabha (राज्यसभा) is modeled from cumulative experience from United States, Australia and Canada. However, the central government in India has greater power in relation to its states, and its central government (केन्द्रीय सरकार) is patterned after the British parliamentary system. In case of certain situations, if no party was able to get the majority votes, the national government can dissolve a state government or impose direct federal rule (संघीय शासन) or central rule which is also called President’s rule.

Executive power is exercised by the President and is independent of the legislature (विधान – सभा). Federal and state elections generally take place within a multiparty system, although this is not enshrined in law. The judiciary (न्यायपालिका) is independent of the executive and the legislature, the highest national court being the Supreme Court of India.

During election (चुनाव), several political party take part in the government formation process. Several political parties exist in India. Indian National Congress (INC) and Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) are the two biggest political party in India. The first one is normally called Congress and latter BJP in short. In Eastern states, the left party having Communist philosphy have strong foothold. Congress is the oldest political party and has its origin in the late 19th Century even before the India got Independence and after independence (स्वतंत्रता), it’s has ruled India for decades.

Many people criticize and blame Congress party for India’s slow growth (विकास) in comparison to regional neighbor who also got independence around the same time, when India got it in 1947. Many scandals (घोटाले) worth of multi-billion dollars during current Congress government once again have shed light on the wide spread corruption (भ्रष्टाचार) that many Indian associate with Congress party.

Presently, many Indian have become hopeless and frustrated to solve these multiple problems in their political system which include corruptions, regionalism, religion or caste based politics, favoritism, voting booth hijacking or looting in rural areas. Many political leaders have criminal charges against them. To many Indian, it seems that the criminals are running government. For many years, people have stood against these growth hampering problems but not much is achieved. Recent agitation by Anna Hazare, a Gandhian social worker, against corruption has engulfed the entire nation (राष्ट्र) into rebellious mood. He’s advocating for a constitutional bill, an ombudsman (लोकपाल) that would hopefully get India rid off from political and official corruption.

In spite of these serious problems, India has managed to clock 2 digit growth rate for several years. Even if the growth picture could have been much better (without corruption), millions of people have lifted their living standard (स्तर) by benefiting from the economical reforms (आर्थिक सुधारों) since early 1990s.