Rabindranath Tagore

	Rabindranath Tagore “CCXIII,” recited by an actor, is an excerpt from Stray Birds by Rabindranath Tagore, an Indian writer and philosopher best known for his poetry. Winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize in literature, Tagore was born in 1861, during the British colonial era in India. He wrote mostly in Bengali, but translated many of his own works into English. Encarta Encyclopedia UPI/BETTMANN/(p) 1992 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved./(p) 1992 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
	Full Size

Indian literature has a long, rich history. Major literary influences flow from northern Sanskrit and southern Tamil origins. India’s classic literature is written in Sanskrit (see Sanskrit Literature). These literary works—mainly religious poems, epics, and prose—date to the Vedic period (about 1500 bc to 200 bc). Sanskrit literature entered a secular period beginning about 200 bc until about ad 1100. One great development for Indian literature during this period was drama. Most early dramas were based on historical epic tales. In south India, during a period lasting from the 1st to 5th centuries ad, literary works were composed in the Tamil language. These works were generally secular in nature and based on themes of love and war. By the 6th and 7th centuries the bhakti (devotional) tradition began in Tamil Nādu in southern India. This literary tradition greatly influenced Indian literature, moving north from its origin over the next five centuries.

Sidebars

SIDEBAR

Profile of Arundhati Roy

In 1997 Indian novelist Arundhati Roy won the Booker Prize, Britain’s most prestigious literary award, for her first novel, The God of Small Things. Michael Dirda, a Pulitzer Prize-winning critic, interviewed Roy for this July 1998 Encarta Yearbook article.

open sidebar

Modern literature in north Indian languages, as they developed from Prakrits (medieval dialects of Sanskrit), dates from around ad 1200. Themes and characters of Indian literature from this period are based on Hindu religious texts, although the texts contain secular content. The work of recent centuries has brought in more secular subjects, influenced first by Persian and Urdu literature and then British literature, especially of the 19th century. In 1913 poet Rabindrinath Tagore became the first Indian to win a Nobel Prize for literature. Some present-day Indian authors write in English. Salman Rushdie, an Indian-born writer who now lives in Britain, is one of the more famous of a number of fine