Indian literature
Indian literature refers to the literature produced on the Indian subcontinent until 1947 and in the Republic of India thereafter.
India has a rich literary heritage spanning over centuries. The ancient Indian literature has contributed immensely to the world as sources of inspiration spiritual ,philosophical and historical realms.
The earliest works of Indian literature were orally transmitted. Sanskrit literature begins with the oral literature of the Rig Veda, a collection of literature dating to the period 1500–1200 BCE. Sanskrit literature developed rapidly during the first few centuries of the first millennium BCE. The epic period is estimated to be roughly from 1000 to 600 B.C. The epics that were created during this time were the Ramayana, Mahabharata and Upanishads.
Sanskrit was identified with the Brahminical religion of the Vedas, Buddhism and Jainism adopted other literary languages (Pali and Ardhamagadhi, respectively). From these and other related languages emerged the modern languages of northern India. The literature of those languages depended largely on the ancient Indian background, which includes two Sanskrit epic poems, the Mahabharata and Ramayana, as well as the Bhagavata-purana and the other Puranas.
Indian literature, writings of the Indian subcontinent, produced there in a variety of vernacular languages, including Sanskrit, Prakrit, Pali, Bengali, Bihari, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Oriya, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Lahnda, Siraiki, and Sindhi, among others, as well as in English.
The Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India has 22 officially recognized languages. Sahitya Academy, India’s highest literary body, also has 24 recognized literary languages.