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Category: Literature

  •  Romila Thapar

    Romila Thapar is a renowned Indian historian and author of many historical books.  She has authored many internationally acclaimed books on history including From Lineage to State, Asoka and the Decline of the Mauryas, Early India: From Origins to AD 1300, and the popular History of India, Part I.

    Thapar is an Honorary Fellow of the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, where she also received her Ph.D. in 1958, and a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was an emeritus professor of history at jawaharlal nehru university , New Delhi.

    Thapar is a historian who believed in authenticity of historical data that is corroborated by archaeological evidences. Her historical writings delineate the origins of Hinduism as an evolving interplay between social forces.

    Romila’s book From Lineage to State analyses the formation of states in the middle Ganga valley in the first millennium BCE, tracing the process to a change, driven by the use of iron and plough agriculture, from a pastoral and mobile lineage-based society to one of settled peasant holdings, accumulation and increased urbanisation. Her book on Somnath examines the evolution of the historiographies about the legendary Gujarat temple.

     Thapar was a great critic of “communal interpretation” of Indian history, in which events in the last thousand years are interpreted solely in terms of a notional continual conflict between monolithic Hindu and Muslim communities.  According to Thapar, this communal history is “extremely selective” in choosing facts, “deliberately partisan” in interpretation and does not follow current methods of analysis using multiple, prioritised causes.

    Personal life

     Romila Thapar was born 0n 30th November 1931 in lucknow,india as the daughter of Lieutenant-General dr.Dayaram thapar,the director general of Indian armed forces medical services. Young Romila ‘s education was in different cities of India as her father had to move as a military officer. She is an alumna of the St. Mary’s School and Wadia College, Pune. After doing her graduation from Punjab university in English literature she secured a second bachelors degree and later doctorate in history from the university of London in 1958.

    Career

      she started her career journey in Indian history as a reader at Kurukshetra university between 1961 and 1962 and later at Delhi university between 1963 and 1970.  Thapar joined as professor of ancient Indian history at the Jawaharlal Nehru university, New Delhi later and continued in the university as Emeritus professor.

    She has authored many books as a historian and her major works include:

    • Asoka and the decline of the Mauryas
    •  Ancient Indian social history: some interpretations
    •  Recent perspectives of early Indian history
    •  A History of India volume one
    •  Early India: from the origins to ad 1300.
    • From lineage to state.

    Thapar’s first volume of a history of India narrates the period from its early history to the arrival of Europeans in the sixteenth century.

     Ancient Indian social history gives an account of the period from early times to the end of the first millennium, and detailing a comparative study of Hindu and Buddhist socio-religious systems. It scrutinizes the role of Buddhism in social protest and social mobility in the caste system.

    From lineage to state   is a meticulous analysis about the formation of states in the middle Ganga valley in the first millennium B C and it traces the process to a change, driven by the use of iron and plough agriculture, from a pastoral and mobile lineage-based society to one of settled peasant holdings, accumulation and increased urbanisation.

    Each book of Romila Thapar is an immersive account of historical narratives from a research-oriented perspective.  

    Honors & accolades

     Romila Thapar is an honorary fellow at lady Margaret hall, oxford, and at the school of oriental and African studies (soas), university of London.

     She holds honorary doctorates from the university of chicago, the institut national des langues et civilisations orientales in Paris, the university of oxford, the university of Edinburgh (2004), the university of Calcutta (2002) and recently (in 2009) from the university of Hyderabad.

     Thapar was elected a foreign honorary member of the American academy of arts and sciences in 2009. She was also elected an honorary fellow of st Antony’s college, oxford, in 2017.

    in 2004, the us library of congress appointed her as the first holder of the kluge chair in countries and cultures of the south.

    She has been a visiting professor at Cornell university, the university of Pennsylvania, and the college de France in Paris.

    She was elected general president of the Indian history congress in 1983 and a corresponding fellow of the British academy in 1999.

    She is co-winner with Peter Brown of the Kluge Prize for the Study of Humanity for 2008.It is a very prestigious prize received by Romila Thapar. The prize is awarded by the John W. Kluge Centre at the Library of Congress.

    in January 2005, she declined the Padma Bhushan awarded by the Indian government.  Later she wrote to the president like this “i only accept awards from academic institutions or those associated with my professional work, and not state awards”.

    Romila Thapar is considered as one of the intellectuals of Indian history who believes in doing justice to the nation’s history with a bold unyielding voice.

    written by

    Dr.Sanjana p. Souparnika

  • Mahasweta Devi

    Mahasweta Devi (1926–2016) was one of the illustrious writer and social activist of India. She is one off the widely read author of many notable novels, essays and short stories. Her outstanding literary works include Hajar Churashir Maa, Rudali, and Aranyer Adhikar.

    Personal life

    Mahasweta Devi was born on 14 January 1926 in a Brahmin family in Dacca, British India (Dhaka, Bangladesh] as the daughter of Manish Ghatak, a poet and novelist of the Kallol movement and Dharitri Devi, a writer and a social worker. Her earlier schooling was in Eden Montessori School Daka (1930) and later moved to West Bengal’s  Mission Girls’ High School, Midnapore in 1935 and to Santiniketan during the period of 1936 to 1938.

     Later she continued her studies at Beltala Girls’ School (1939-1941) where she finished her matriculation. In 1944 . She secured I.A. from Asutosh College and  completed a B.A. (Hons) in English from Rabindranath Tagore-founded Visva-Bharati University . She finished her studies of masters in English literature from Calcutta University.

    Maha Swetha Devi is married to renowned playwright Bijon Bhattacharya, who was one of the founding fathers of the Indian People’s Theatre Association movement. In 1948. Soon she gave birth to her son Nabarun Bhattacharya, who became a novelist and political critic later.

    Devi was a popular writer as well as social activist and visionary who fought against injustice towards the adivasi tribes of central India.

    She was a leftist who worked for the rights and empowerment of the tribal people (Lodha and Shabar) of West Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh states of India.

    Her book about the life of Queen of Jansi ,Rani Lakshmi bhai and her struggles was published in 1956 and it was a great milestone for Mahaswetha devi too. It was the beginning of a new journey in her literary career.

      She was honoured with many prestigious literary awards such as the Sahitya Akademi Award (in Bengali), Jnanpith Award and Ramon Magsaysay Award along with India’s civilian awards Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan. She was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1997 for her artistic as well as social activities to uphold the rights of tribes of India. She received the Jnanpith Award, India’s highest literary honour, in 1996.

    A life dedicated to Bengali literature

    Mahaswetha Devi wrote over 100 novels and over 20 collections of short stories in Bengali language and many of them were translated to other languages.

     Her first novel, titled Jhansir Rani, a biography based on the life of the Rani of Jhansi was published in 1956.

    In 1964, she began teaching at Vijaygarh Jyotish Ray College (an affiliated college of the University of Calcutta system). In those days Vijaygarh Jyotish Ray College was an institution for working-class women students. During that period she also worked—as a journalist and as a creative writer.

    Devi’s  prominent literary work Mastar Saab also known as Massaheb (The School Teacher) is based on Bihar’s communist led armed revolution for land reforms. This novel is believed to be portraying the life of naxal leader Jagdish Mahto, who was a prominent figure in Bhojpur known for his armed struggle for the poor against the landlords.

    Aranyer Adhikar  means Right to the Forest is her one of the most renowned novels  published in 1979.

    Her novel Chotti Munda Ebong Tar Tir [Chotti Munda and His Arrow] was published in 1980..

    Her short story collections include:

    Agnigarbha (1978],

    Murti (1979]

    Neerete Megh (1979]

    Stanyadayani (1980]

    Devi’s stories have been adapted into films also  and they include Sunghursh (1968)& Rudaali (1993)

    Mahasweta Devi – a close ally of Adivasi tribes

    Mahasweta Devi’s specialization lay in the studies of Adivasi, Dalit women and Marginalized citizens. Her life was very simple, but her compassion & sense of justice was peerless and unparalleled. She stayed with the Adivasi tribes in West Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh for many years, understanding the pulse of their life and and their struggles.

    For Devi ,writing was a tool for expressing her vision and giving voice to the oppressed sessions of the country. She has embodied their struggles and sacrifices in her literary works explicitly and has raised voice against the atrocities and negligence the tribes had gone through for many decades. Devi had claimed once that her stories aren’t just her creation, they are the stories of the people of her country. Her work “Chotti Mundi Ebong Tar Tir” is an embodiment for her stance and love for the people of her  country.

    Mahasweta Devi raised her voice several times against the discrimination suffered by tribal people in India.Devi’s 1977 novel Aranyer Adhikar (Right to the Forest) was about the life of Birsa Munda,a tribal indepence activist who fought against British rule,their unfair land grabbing practices that demolished tribal conventional land system.

    In June 2016, as a result of Mahaswetha Devi’s consistent and relentless efforts, the Jharkhand State Government finally sanctioned the removal of the manacles from the figure of Munda, which had been part of the commemorative sculpture of this young tribal leader. The book Aranyer adhikar won the Sahithya academy award for Bengali in 1979.

    The woes of old age didnt deter her from spearheading the Nandigram agitation which resulted in a number of intellectuals, artists, writers and theatre workers joining in protest of the controversial industrial policy and particularly its implementation in Singur and Nandigram. She raised voice fearlessly against the government and criticized the handing over of farmers’ fertile land to industrial groups at throw away prices.People of India will reminisce her name forever as a compassionate writer and human being.

    On 23 July 2016, Devi suffered a major heart attack and died of multiple organ failure on 28 July 2016, at the age of 90.

    Translations of Devi’s work

    Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak has translated Devi’s short stories into English and published three books Imaginary Maps (1995, Routledge), Old Woman (1997, Seagull), The Breast Stories (1997, Seagull)

    Awards &honours for Mahaswetha Devi’s work

    1979: Sahitya Akademi Award (Bengali): – Aranyer Adhikar (novel)

    1986: Padma Shri for Social Work

    1996: Jnanpith Award – the highest literary award from the Bharatiya Jnanpith

    1997: Ramon Magsaysay Award – Journalism, Literature, and the Creative Communication Arts for “compassionate crusade through art and activism to claim for tribal peoples a just and honorable place in India’s national life.

    2003: Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

    2006: Padma Vibhushan – the second highest civilian award from the Government of India

    2007: SAARC Literary Award

    2009: Shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize

    2010: Yashwantrao Chavan National Award

    2011: Banga Bibhushan – the highest civilian award from the Government of West Bengal

    2012: Nominated for Nobel Prize for Literature

    2014 : Mamoni Raisom Goswami National Award for Literature constituted by Asam Sahitya Sabha and sponsored by Numaligarh Refinery Ltd., Assam

    On 14 January 2018, Google honored Mahasweta Devi on her 92nd birth anniversary, celebrating her work by creating a doodle on her.

    Written by

    Dr. Sanjana p . Souparnika

    References

  • Tamil literature

      The Tamil literature encompasses a wide a collection of literary works that originated from a tradition spanning more than two thousand years in South India. It also portrays the history of Tamil Nadu, with its social, economic, political and cultural trends of various periods.

       Tamil is one of the oldest Dravidian languages of Indian subcontinent. The Tamil writing system evolved from the Brahmi script. The scriptures in Tamil are written mostly as religious texts of Sangam period and a few in post Sangam period. The contributors to the Tamil literature are mainly from Tmil speaking people of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Eelam Tamils from Sri Lanka, as well as the Tamil diaspora.

    The Sangam literature

    The early Sangam literature, dated before 300 BCE, is one of the most renowned epic poetries of Tamil literature and contains anthologies of many Tamil poets depicting various aspects of life, including love, war, social values and religion.

    Scholars consider this Tamil tradition-based chronology as ahistorical as well as mythical.  The sangam period and literature originated in South India and lasted between the period 3rd century BCE to 3rd century CE. Most scholars suggest the historical Sangam literature era, also called the Sangam period, spanned from c. 300 BCE to 300 CE, while others variously place this early classical Tamil literature period a bit later  before 300 CE.

    According to Kamil Zvelebil, a Tamil literature and history scholar, the most acceptable range for the Sangam literature is 100 BCE to 250 CE, based on the linguistic and text references. Tamil tradition holds the earliest Sangam poetry to be older than twelve millennia. Modern linguistic scholarship places the poems between the first century B.C.E. and the third century C.E. The age of Sangam is established through the correlation between the evidence on foreign trade found in the poems and the writings by ancient Greek and Romans such as Periplus.

       The sangam literature is historically known as ‘the poetry of the noble ones’.

    It is believed that Sangam literature originated in three chankams, or literary academies, in Madurai, India, from the 1st to the 4th century BCE. The Tamil tradition and legends link it to three legendary literary gatherings around Madurai and Kapaṭapuram and the first lasted over 4,440 years, the second over 3,700 years, and the third over 1,850 years.

    The Sangam age is considered by the Tamil people as the golden era of the Tamil language. During this period, the Tamil country was ruled by the Cheras, Pandyas, and the Cholas.

    Many of the original literature works of Sangam period is lost. The available literature from this period has been broadly divided in antiquity into three categories based roughly on chronology. These are: The Major Eighteen Anthology Series comprising the Ettuthokai (Eight Anthologies) and the Pattupattu (Ten Idylls) and the Five Great Epics. Tolkaappiyam, a commentary on grammar, phonetics, rhetoric, and poetics, is dated from this period.

    These were composed in three successive poetic assemblies (Sangam) that were held in ancient times on a now vanished continent far to the south of India. It is believed that a significant amount of literature could have preceded Tolkappiyam, as grammar books are usually written after a literature has existed for a long period.

    The poems of Sangam literature mostly are discussing two main topics: those of the first five collections are on love (akam), and those of the next two are on heroism (puram), including the praise of kings and their deeds. Paripatal, the eighth collection, contains poems of both types.

    Post Sangam period works of Tamil literature

    Later, at the end of Sangam period many great tamil epics were written including Cilappathikaram,Manimeghalai ,Civaka cintamani ,Valayapathi and Kundalakesi.

    Manimegalai and Kundalakesi are Buddhist religious works. Civaka cintamani and Valayapathi are Tamil Jain works. Cilappathikaram does not implicate any religious views and it is written in monologue style of Sangam literature.

    The ‘Tirukkuraḷ ‘written during this period is a collection of aphorisms depicts topics such as love, kingship, and ethics. It is a work that has had great influence on Tamil culture  and life. It is usually attributed to the poet Tiruvalluvar , who is thought to have lived  in the 6th century, though some scholars assign an earlier date (1st century bc).

    The Tirukkural consists of 133 sections of 10 couplets each are divided into three books: aram (virtue), porul (government and society), and kamam (love). The first section opens with praise of God, rain, renunciation, and a life of virtue. It then presents a world-affirming vision, the wisdom of human sympathy that expands from one’s family and friends to one’s clan, village, and country. The porul section projects a vision of an ideal state and relates good citizenship to virtuous private life. The kamam section addresses both “secret love” and married love; the section on married love is written as a dialogue between husband and wife.

    From the 6th to 12th century CE, the Tamil devotional poems written by Alvars (sages of Vaishnavism) and Nayanmars (sages of Shaivism) and, heralded the onset of  great Bhakti movement which later spread to the whole Indian subcontinent.

    In the post Sangam period the early epics and moral literature, authored by Vaishnavite, Shaivite, Ajivika; probably written by Jain and Buddhist authors and poets lasting up to the 5th century CE. Original scriptures of Ajivika seems to be lost .The Ajivika school of philosophy is known for its doctrine of fate or Niyati.That is the followers believed that every happenings of past,present and future are preordained and a function of cosmic principles. This philosophy was prominent in Mauryan empire of Bindusara in the 4th century. It reached Tamil speaking areas in 14th century CE.

    During the medieval era some of the grandest of Tamil literary classics like Kambaramayanam and Periya Puranam were authored and many poets were patronized by the imperial Chola and Pandya empires.

     The later medieval period saw many assorted minor literary works and also contributions by a few Muslim and European authors.

    References

    1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangam_literature
    2. https://www.britannica.com/art/Sangam-literature
    3. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tamil-language
    4. https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Tamil_literature
    5. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tirukkural