ANCIENT LITERATURE IN INDIA Literature of India has an ancient history and considered as the oldest in the world.

The most flowery yet profound literature were composed in the Vedic period and written as a realization thoughts of seers and monks. The earliest work are the Vedas, which are sacred form of knowledge believed to be neither any beginning nor end, an eternal quest to realize Self or Brahman. The earlier text were composed in Sanskrit and to be sung or recited, and were so transmitted for many generations before being written down. In the later Vedic period the epics of Indian literature Ramayana and Mahabharata were composed. Before Puranas, the most famous Sanskrit works are the Vedas, Upanishads and Manusmriti. Another popular literature, Tamil literature has a rich literacy tradition spanning over 2000 years and earned recognition among scholars for its poetic nature, philosophical and secular thoughts. Sanskrit literature has a profound effect on Indian literature or in another words we can say it formed the base of literature in India. The great literary works, which marked the golden era of Indian literature, include 'Abhijanam Shankuntalam' and Meghdoot' by Kalidasa. 'Mricchakatika' by Shudraka, 'Svapna Vasavadattam' by Bhaasa, and 'Ratnavali' by Sri Harsha are some other notable books written in Sanskrit. Some other famous ancient literature are Chanakya's 'Arthashastra' and Vatsyayana's 'Kamasutra'. - See more at: http://www.wackywanderlust.com/2013/04/indian-literature-past-and-presentstudy.html#sthash.zRpc8R7m.dpuf

Indian Literature

Providing useful and comprehensive links to Modern Indian literature is a formidable task. First of we have to define the boundaries of the word modern... do we mean specifically 20 and the nascent 21st century? We also have to take in to account the number of official languages: Whilst English enjoys an important status, Hindi is the national language and primary tongue of 30% of the people; there are 14 other official languages: Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Konkani, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, and Sindhi. Sanskrit is not a spoken language any longer, although historically has one of the richest archives of what could be

considered literature; Hindustani, whilst not being a State language is a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu spoken widely throughout northern India. We must consider the important role writing in English by both Indians and those who do not live in India but make a significant contribution to poetry, fiction and general criticism. Beginning of article

SAIL has now celebrated its thirtieth anniversary publishing scholars and creative writers in the

field of American Indian literary studies. The celebration and reflection in which many of us

participated at the 2007 MLA annual convention in Chicago was part of a recent, much broader

discussion of where we have been, where we are now, and where we are going. In her 2005 PMLA

article "Literature and the Politics of Native American Studies," Shari Huhndorf takes the occasion

of a panel with Robert Warrior, Philip Deloria, and Jean O'Brien at the 2002 American Studies

Association conference to reflect on the field since the 19605 and to assess its current state.

Huhndorf traces the history