Medieval Literature

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Persian

  • It came to India with the coming of Turks and Mongols in the 12th century
  • One of the finest poets is Amir Khusrau Dehlavi- he wrote Nuh Sipihr and Duval Rani-Khizr Khan
  • Ziauddin Birani is one of the top historians of the Delhi Sultanate period and he wrote Tarikh-e-Firoz Shahi
  • Minaj-e-Siraj was another famous historian
  • Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan traveller, wrote several accounts explaining th socio-political scenario of the period
  • Babur wrote Baburnama in Turkish which is his own biography
  • Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, from the period of Jahangir, gives various insights about the period
  • Humanyun-nama was written by Humayun’s half-sister, Gulbadan Begum
  • One of the greatest emperor was Akbar, and Ain-i-Akbari and Akbarnama written by his court historian Abul Fazl are the best examples of the literature of that period
  • One of the best examples of translations is the Mahabharata translate by Badauni inti Razmnama
  • Hamzanama depicts the story of the mythical Persian hero, Amir Hamza
  • Malik Muhammad Jayasi composed his Padmavat in 1540
  • Faizi was among the Navratnas in Akbar’s court
  • Shah Jahan- Shahjahannama of Inayat Khan, Padshahnama by Abdul Hamid Lahori
  • Aurangzeb- Jafar Zatalli wrote Kulliyat (collection of poetry). His eldest daughter Zeb-un-Nisa's poetry was compiled posthumously as ‘Diwan-i-Makhfi’
Urdu
  • The language mostly follows the grammar of Hindi and script of Persian
  • Initially, also called Dakkani (Southern)
  • Mirza Ghalib, one of the greatest poets composed Diwan (collection of poetry) in Urdu
  • Other poets- Sauda, Dard and Mir Taqi Mir
  • Iqbal wrote Bang-e-Dara. He is famous for writing Sare Jahan Se Achcha
  • Apart from the last emperors of the Mughal empire, like Bahadur Shah Zafar, who also wrote in Urdu, the Nawabs of Awadh patronised the language
  • In modern India, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan wrote several didactic and nationalist texts in Urdu
Hindi and its dialects
  • Evolved from Apabhramsa, which evolved from Prakrit
  • It got the biggest boost by the Bhakti movement which shunned the use of
  • Sanskrit as it was the language of the Brahmins
  • Prithviraj Raso, probably, wrote the first hindi book and it documents his life and struggles
  • The bulk of the work is by bhakti writers like Kabir who is famous for his dohas (couplets)
  • Tulsidas produced couplets in Braj and was peppered by Persian.
  • He wrote Ramcharitamanas, a revered Hindu text.
  • Surdas wrote Sur Sagar about Krishna’s infancy.
  • Rahim, Bhushan, Raskhan- wrote about devotion to Lord Krishna.
  • Mirabai- famous as the woman who renounced the world for Krishna and wrote Bhakti poetry.
  • Bihari’s Satsai is also famous in this regard.

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