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Evolution of Indian Literature 

The history of Indian literature may conveniently be divided into two main stages or phases, the old and the modern. The old is also capable of being sub-divided into ancient and medieval, and the lower limit of this old period has been put down roughly at 1000 A.D. Round about 1000 A.D., in different parts of North India and the Deccan, the Modern Indo-Aryan languages took shape. Languages like Bengali, Assamese, Oriya, Maithili, Magahi and Bhojpuri, Kosali (Eastern Hindi), Brajbhasha and other connected dialects belonging to the Western Hindi speech; the Pahari or Himalayan dialects; and dialects of Rajasthan and Malwa with Gujarati, Marathi and Konkani; the speeches of Eastern Punjab, Western Punjab and Sindh; and Kashmiri, all these first carne into being about this time.

                               

 
The scholarly and scientific literature of India continued to be written in Sanskrit even after the development t of the Prakrit or Middle Indo-Aryan dialects and the Bhasa or Modern Indo-Aryan speeches. The older literary tradition was t partly religious and partly secular, such as, we find in both Sanskrit and the Prakrits. The religious literature consisted of philosophical disquisitions and narrative poems describing the legends and stories of the ancient heroes as preserved in the great epics and the Puranas, and in the case of the Jainas, in the stories of religious edification on the lives of the Jaina saints. The atmosphere of Brahmanism, Buddhism and Jainism was carried over from Middle Indo- Aryan to New Indo-Aryan. On the secular side, the literature consisted of little lyrics of love and life, and the habit of composing long narrative poems on romantic legends, which was prevalent in Sanskrit also, received a new form in the New Indo-Aryan languages. Modern Indian literature thus started with inheritances from Prakrit and its later phase the Apabhransa, and from Sanskrit, in Northern India, and in South India, in the case of Dravidian languages, there was a profound influence of Sanskrit all through. Although certain types of literature appeared to have developed independently in the various Dravidian languages, particularly Tamil, the Sanskrit influence became predominant.

Apart from a slender stream of secular literature, the inherited religious literature of the Modern Indian languages presents a common factor for all the Indian languages of the present day, The great Sanskrit epics, the Mahabharata andthe Ramayana, the story of Krishna as in the Bhagavata Purana and other Puranic stories, were like the Bible and the Golden legends of the Saints in Medieval Christian Europe, supplying the basic material for literatures in Modern Indian languages.  
 

The movement to translate or adapt in the language of the people the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the Puranas and other texts of Brahmanical Hinduism, was accompanied also by a resuscitation or renaissance of Sanskrit studies which was specially noticeable from the 15th century and was operative in full force in the 16th and 17th century. Akbar consciously fell in line with this movement and he made Persian-knowing scholars in his court adapt the Mahabharata and a few other great Sanskrit works into Persian, to bring it all before his Muslim nobility of Turkish and Iranian origin and to propagate its study among Muslim scholars whether in India or outside India. Emperor Jahangir patronized

Hindu astrologers and Shah Jahan supported Sanskrit scholars. Shah Jahan’s son Dara Shikoh is well-known for his study of Sanskrit philosophy. This caused Upanishads to be translated into Persian.

The matter of medieval India in Modern Indian literature consists of different cycles of romantic or heroic stories which had their origin from the time of the rise of the New Indo-Aryan languages and later. 

Thus in Bengal, we have the cycle of stories related to the hero Lau Sen and his adventures (as in the Dharma-Mangala romances), to the young merchant prince Lakhindra and his devoted wife Bewula and the snake goddess Manasa (as in the Manasa Mangal and Padma Purana poems). We have a number of romantic tales which treated largely by the early Muslim writers of Awadhi and one such story, that of Padmini of Chittor, was treated in a novel way by the Sufi poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi in 1540; in Rajasthan and the North Indian Rajput world, we have a number of noble stories of    Rajput romance and chivalry which were treated in poems in early Rajasthani and in Brajbhasha as well as in the Bundeli forms of Western Hindi (e.g. the romance of Allah and Udal), Punjab had also its romantic stories (e.g., those relating to Raja Risalu and Bhartihari); and the Maratha country has its ballads relating to the Maratha heroes from Shivaji onwards (17th to 19th centuries).  

Certain literary genres were well-established in the North Indian languages. One is the Barah-Masiya poems, poems describing in a series of pictures, so to say, for the 12 months of the year, the sufferings of lovers pining through separation of their joys in union. Another is the Chautisa or poems with initials of the lines consisting of the 34 consonants successively in the Indian alphabet, similarly describing the pangs of separation or praise of the Divinity.  

The real Renaissance in India came through the contact with English literature and European culture from the early part of the 19th century and from this time we have a new orientation and a totally new development of modern Indian literatures.  

English literature itself and the literatures of ancient Greece and Rome, of Italy, France and Germany, and later on of Russia and Scandinavia (from 20th century) which were brought to the door of English knowing Indians, revolutionised the attitude to literature and inaugurated the current or modern phase in Indian literature. This contact with the European mind first began in Bengal and by the middle of the 19th century, the emancipation or modernisation of Bengali literature had already begun.

The essay, the drama, the novel and the short story were born; prose flourished and gradually an expressive and nervous Bengali prose style became established during the sixties of the 19th century. The European type of blank verse and verse forms like the Italian sonnet were introduced. Rabindranath Tagore, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, became the symbol of this new spirit in Indian literature.

Forms of Indian Music

Musicians in India can invent numerous musical structures with a raga and tala. These structures can either be closed or open. Closed ones are called nibaddha. Open ones are called Anibaddha. Nibaddha being closed structures follow tala and has words, meaningful or meaningless and definite parts with preset beginning and end or in other words one can call it a "composition". Anibaddha on the contrary may not follow tala and may be devoid of words.
Anibaddha Forms:
Alapa: Alapa is the most important Anibaddha music. Whether a musician is adroit in his art or not is tested through his alapa. Alapa, the most elaborate and the most delicate presentation of raga, demands much patience and sensitivity in rendering. it is a free rendering. Alapa precedes a composition in the same raga, which follows. In Karnataka music, alapa always precedes the composition. In case of Hindustani music, it may or may not precede the composition.
 
Tans: Tans like alapa is anibaddha, as they are not pre-composed. In Hindustani music, particularly in instrumental music they are termed as paltas. If it is with libretto, they are bole tans. It may be without libretto.

Neraval: In Karnataka music, the bole tan has its equivalent- the Neraval. The difference between the two being: a bole tan can be placed anywhere in a composition whereas Neraval is placed at a certain recognized section of the song.

Sangati: It resembles with Neraval. Tyagaraja is the inventor of this technique. The Sangati is slight variation of a phrase of song which is preconceived. Neraval or the bole tan is extensive and is to an extent there and then raga elaboration. As for the ‘name’ goes it doesn’t exist in the north.

Sargam: The Sargam is a word formed of syllables Sa-Re-Ga-Ma in Hindustani Music.   In Karnataka music, it is Kalpana Svara. It is also free rendering and practiced more often in Karnataka music. Only the note-signatures are used in the raga elaboration and not the meaningful words or nonsense syllables or merely vowels.

Tanam: It is found in Karnataka music and is similar to jode. It is not as wider in its melodic range and movement as jode.

Jode and Jhala: These are confined to instrumental music. The Jode is a rendetion, without tala, of the raga in a medium tempo. It always follows the alapa Jhala faster. Alapa, Jode and Tanam always precedes the closed form or composition. Tan, Neraval and bole tan etc. form the parts of melodic improvisation of a composition. These are not independent like the former group, as they are associated with the variations of the raga theme in a song. One may then argue, they are closed forms. But being not pre-composed nor set to tala we place them in the category of ‘free’ or ‘open’ class.

Nibaddha Forms
Prabandha: It is one of the earliest formal structures. This form of ‘composition’ was popular till about the Middle Ages. But today, the word Prabandha means any song and not a particular type. Jayadeva is famous for his Prabandha. Jayadeva was a mystic poet and the court-poet of Raja Lakshamana Sena. He wrote Geet Govinda, a musical rendering of the love play of Lord Krishna.

Geeta Govinda: It is an ‘opera’ with twenty and four asta padis and connecting verses (slokas). The astapadi has eight (asta) sections or feet (pada). Each section is set in a raga and a tala, perhaps the first work where these are mentioned. From the 15th century onwards the Geeta Govinda was the only music performed in Jagannath temple at Puri, it became popular all over India and caught fancy of dancers and painters. The literary structure is simple. It is amenable to any style of music. It was one of the finest products of bhakti movements.

Dhrupad: It is one of the early types that are still surviving. The older ones were known as dhruva prabandhas. Raja Man Singh Tomar of Gwalior and Akbar were great patrons. The 15th and 16th centuries witnessed the finest singers of dhrupad.

Dhamar is always associated with dhrupad. Approach and technique are same; the two differ on the use of gamaka. There is greater freedom in gamaka in Dhamar. It derives its name from dhamar tal of fourteen matras on which Prabandha is necessarily set.
The most famous exponents are Swami Haridas and Tansen. Swami Haridas lived at the end of the fifteenth century. He was basically a bhakti singer and sang of Kunj Bihari (one who wanders amongst bowers), the Lord of Brindavan and his love, Radha. He has hundred compositions in his credit. Baiju and Tansen are believed to be his shishyas (students). Tansen lived in Gwalior in 16th century. His original name was Tanna Misra. He is credited with new ragas such as Darbari Kanada, Miyanki Malhar, and Miyanki Todi. He wrote three books: Sri Ganesh-stotra, Sangeet Sar and Raga mala. Gopal Nayak is one of the earliest musicians of this tradition during the reign of Alauddin Khilji. Other well known exponents were Baiju and Bashu in the court of Raja Man Singh and later on in the court of Bahadur Shah Gujerati. Major gharanas associated with dhrupad are Udaipur, Gwalior and Banaras. Ustad Aminuddin Dagar was the legendry dhrupadiya of this century. Pandit Siyaram Tiwary has carved a place of his own representing Darbhanga style of dhrupad singing.
 
Kheyal: The word ‘Kheyal’ is Persian. Its meaning is ‘imagination’. Amir Khusro (13th century) is said to be the inventor of Kheyal. It is the most popular form of vocal music in north India. Two types of Kheyal are in vogue the bada (large) and the chota (small). A Kheyal can be divided into two sections: the asthayi (sthayi) and antara. Kheyal is romantic and delicate. In technique and structure it has certain freedom not found in the dhrupad. It is due to the efforts of Sultan Mohammad Sharqui (18th century) that Kheyal came in prominence and became accepted as ‘classical’ from the time of Sadarang Nyamat Khan (18th century). There are, then, gharanas of Kheyal. The most prominent are four: Gwalior, Agra, Jaipur and Kirana. The first is the oldest and is also considered as the ‘mother’ of all other gharanas.

Thumri: It is a closed form and a way of singing, very popular in the north. It is a very light form, extremely lyrical. The sentiment is usually erotic, often bordering on the vulgarly sensuous. The word of the song and how it is expressed through musical modulations are more important than the grammar of the raga.

Ragas like Kagi, Khamaj, Peelu and Bhairavi are the common favourites of Thumri singers. Poorab style of singing is popular in Varanasi and Lucknow and is staid; Punjab style of singing is more mercurial and can be heard in and around Punjab. This form is associated with Radha Krishna bhakti cult; it forms an important form of Kathak dance. Thumri was extremely popular in 19th century at Lucknow. Wajid Ali Shah was a composer of fine thumris. The song Babul mora in Bhairavi raga said to have been created by him on the eve of his departure from Lucknow. The other school of Varanasi borrows much from folk forms like Chaiti and Kajri.

Tappa: It is a type of singing supposed to have, grown from the songs of the camel drivers of North-West India. It is romantic in content with very quick cascades and cadences. The ragas are of lighter type-Kafi, Bhairavi and such others.

Tarana: It is a form which has no meaningful words. Sthayi and antara are there. Its libretto is made of syllables like naddir, tome, Tarana, yalai without any semantic references. It is generally accepted that these syllables are mnemonics of tabla and sitar strokes.