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Indian literature

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Oral literature in the vernacular languages of India is of great antiquity, but it was not until about the 16th cent. that an extensive written literature appeared. Chief factors in this development were the intellectual and literary predominance of Sanskrit until then (except in S India, where a vast literature in Tamil was produced from ancient times) and the emergence of Hindu pietistic movements that sought to reach the people in their spoken languages. Among the Muslims classical Persian poetry was the fountainhead of a later growth in the Urdu literature produced for the Mughal court, and elaborate Urdu verse on set themes was produced in abundance. In the early 19th cent., with the establishment of vernacular schools and the importation of printing presses, a great impetus was given to popular prose, with Bengali writers perhaps taking the lead. Foreign, particularly English, literature was eagerly studied and to some extent assimilated to classical Indian modes and themes. …
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Full text Article Indian literature

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Literature of the Indian subcontinent, written in Sanskrit, in the Dravidian languages such as Tamil, in the vernacular languages derived from Sanskrit, such as Urdu and Hindi, and, largely in the 20th century, English. Sanskrit The oldest surviving examples of Indian literature are the sacred Hindu…
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Full text Article Indian literature

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Oral literature in the vernacular languages of India is of great antiquity, but it was not until about the 16th cent. that an extensive written literature appeared. Chief factors in this development were the intellectual and literary predominance of Sanskrit until then (except in S India, where a…
| 342 words
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Full text Article Indian literature In English

From Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature
Historically and psychologically, the history of Indian literature in English is situated in two interrelated fantasies: the fantasy of the British colonial governance of India that got dissolved with the independence of the country; and later the reinstituted fantasy of the new sovereign nation…
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Full text Article Indian literature

From Philip's Encyclopedia
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Full text Article Caribbean literature in English

From Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature
Exploration in the late 15th c. by European navigators led to the discovery by Christopher Columbus of the islands he christened the West Indies, and in the early decades of the 16th c. conquest and settlement of the islands was followed by economic exploitation and cultural dominance by European…
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Full text Article Mahabharata

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
One of the two major Sanskrit epics of India, valued for its literary merit and its religious inspiration. It tells of the struggle for supremacy between two groups of cousins, the Kauravas and the Pandavas. Many myths and legends are woven into the poem, along with didactic material on topics such…
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The criticism of American Indian literature began earlier and has a longer history of theoretical engagement than is ordinarily recognized. Before European writing systems reached what are now known as the Americas, the people now known as Indians or Native Americans had their own writing systems of…
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Full text Article Jin, Kemu (1912-2000)

From Biographical Dictionary of the People's Republic of China
A respected Indologist, grammarian, poet, scholar, translator, and essay writer, Jin Kemu was one of the founders and promoters of the studies of India in China in the 20th century. Jin was a native of Shouxian City in Anhui Province. He received a classical education at private schools. In 1935 he…
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Full text Article Ezekiel, Nissim (1924–2004)

From The Oxford Companion to Modern Poetry
Born into a Jewish (Bene-Israel) family in Bombay (now Mumbai). He studied philosophy at Birkbeck College, London and had a distinguished academic career teaching English literature at Bombay University. As an undergraduate he was a member of the Radical Democratic Party and an intense concern for…
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Full text Article Desai, Anita

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
(born June 24, 1937, Mussoorie, India) Indian novelist and author of children’s books. Considered India’s premier imagist writer, she excels in evoking character and mood through visual images. Her works include Fire on the Mountain (1977), Clear Light of Day (1980), Baumgartner’s Bombay (1988), …
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