Books & Authors Quiz: Hindi Literature and Its Authors

The correct answer is B, Tulsidas. He composed the Ramcharitmanas in Awadhi in the sixteenth century, retelling the story of Rama in seven books, and it remains the most widely read work of Hindi devotional poetry. His other works are the Vinay Patrika, the Kavitavali, the Gitavali and the Dohavali, and he belongs to the Rambhakti branch of the Sagun stream. Option A, Surdas, is of the Krishnabhakti branch and wrote the Sursagar, the Sur Saravali and the Sahitya Lahari; papers put him here because both poets belong to the same age. Option C, Kabir, is of the Nirgun stream, and his sayings survive in the Bijak. Option D, Malik Muhammad Jayasi, wrote the Padmavat and leads the Sufi or Premmargi branch. All four are Bhaktikal poets, which is exactly why the work, not the age, must be remembered.

The correct answer is C, Malik Muhammad Jayasi. The Padmavat, written in Awadhi, tells of Ratnasen of Chittor and Padmavati of Singhal and carries a Sufi meaning under the love story; Jayasi also wrote the Akhrawat. Option A, Keshavdas, belongs to a later age altogether, the Ritikal, and wrote the Ramchandrika, the Rasikpriya and the Kavipriya. Option B, Bihari, is also of the Ritikal and is known for the Bihari Satsai of about seven hundred couplets. Option D, Raskhan, was a Krishna devotee whose Sujan Raskhan and Prem Vatika belong to the Sagun stream of the Bhaktikal, so although he is of the right age he is of the wrong branch. Fix the branch with the name: Kabir for Gyanmargi, Jayasi for Premmargi, Tulsidas for Rambhakti and Surdas for Krishnabhakti.

The correct answer is A, Dhanpat Rai Srivastava. He first published under the name Nawab Rai and then took the pen name Premchand, under which he wrote Godan, Gaban, Nirmala, Sevasadan, Rangbhoomi and Karmabhoomi, and stories such as Kafan, Panch Parmeshwar and Bade Ghar ki Beti. Option B, Suryakant Tripathi, is the real name behind another pen name, Nirala, one of the four poets of Chhayavad. Option C, Sachchidanand Hiranand Vatsyayan, is the real name of Agyeya, who edited Tar Saptak and began the Prayogvad movement. Option D, Ayodhya Singh Upadhyay, wrote under the name Hariaudh and is remembered for Priya Pravas. All four options are genuine name-and-pen-name pairs, and papers ask any one of them, so learn the set together rather than Premchand alone.

The correct answer is D, Jaishankar Prasad. Kamayani is his long poem built on the figures of Manu, Shraddha and Ida, and it is held to be the highest achievement of Chhayavad; Prasad also wrote the plays Skandagupta and Chandragupta and the collection Ansu. The other three options are the remaining poets of the same movement, which is what makes the question worth asking. Option A, Nirala, wrote Ram ki Shakti Puja, Saroj Smriti, Anamika and Parimal. Option B, Sumitranandan Pant, wrote Pallav and Chidambara, for which he became the first Hindi writer to win the Jnanpith Award in 1968. Option C, Mahadevi Verma, called the modern Meera, wrote Yama, Neerja and Deepshikha. Remember the four names as a set, each with one work attached.

The correct answer is B, Bhartendu Harishchandra. He gave Hindi prose its modern shape through plays such as Andher Nagari and Bharat Durdasha and through journals such as Kavi Vachan Sudha, and the first age of modern Hindi literature is named the Bhartendu Yug after him. Option A, Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi, edited Saraswati and disciplined the language of the age that followed, which is called the Dwivedi Yug, but he came after Bhartendu. Option C, Acharya Ramchandra Shukla, is the historian and critic who wrote Hindi Sahitya ka Itihas and divided the literature into four periods. Option D, Munshi Premchand, is the master of the Hindi novel and short story, and his age is named after him as well, but the title in the question belongs to Bhartendu alone.

The correct answer is C, Ritikal. Bihari was a court poet of Jaipur, and his Satsai, praised for holding much meaning in few words, is the most quoted book of the Ritikal, the age of ornament and courtly love that Ramchandra Shukla placed between Samvat 1700 and 1900. Option A, Adikal, is the age of heroic Raso poetry, of Chand Bardai and Jagnik. Option B, Bhaktikal, is the devotional age of Kabir, Jayasi, Tulsidas, Surdas and Meerabai, and candidates place Bihari there because a Satsai sounds devotional. Option D, Adhunik Kal, begins with Bhartendu Harishchandra in the nineteenth century, far later than Bihari. Along with Bihari, hold the other Ritikal names — Keshavdas, Bhushan, Ghananand, Matiram, Dev and Padmakar. A second clue lies in the language: the poetry of the Ritikal is written in Braj, the dialect of the courts, while Tulsidas of the Bhaktikal wrote his Ramcharitmanas in Awadhi.

The correct answer is D, Chand Bardai. He was the court poet of Prithviraj Chauhan, and his Prithviraj Raso, in Braj mixed with Rajasthani, is the longest and most discussed work of the Adikal or Veergatha Kal. Option A, Jagnik, composed the Parmal Raso, from which the Alha ballads of Bundelkhand come, so he is of the right age but the wrong work. Option B, Vidyapati, wrote the Padavali in Maithili on the love of Radha and Krishna, and is often placed at the close of the Adikal. Option C, Amir Khusro, wrote riddles, mukariyan and dohas that are the earliest playful use of Khari Boli. All four belong to the same period, so the pairing of poet with work is the whole of the question.

The correct answer is B, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar. He is the poet of national feeling in modern Hindi, and Urvashi, Rashmirathi, Kurukshetra and Hunkar are his chief works; Urvashi brought him the Jnanpith Award in 1972. Option A, Harivansh Rai Bachchan, wrote Madhushala, the most widely recited long poem of the Halavad manner, along with Nisha Nimantran and his autobiography Kya Bhoolun Kya Yaad Karun. Option C, Mahadevi Verma, is of Chhayavad and wrote Yama, Neerja and Deepshikha. Option D, Nirala, also of Chhayavad, wrote Ram ki Shakti Puja and Saroj Smriti. Because all four are modern poets of nearly the same years, papers test the work rather than the age, so tie Urvashi and Rashmirathi firmly to Dinkar. Dinkar also sat in the Rajya Sabha and received the Padma Bhushan, and lines from Rashmirathi are still quoted in speeches, which is why his name recurs in paper after paper.

The correct answer is A, Bijak. The Bijak gathers Kabir’s verse in three parts — the Sakhi, the Sabad and the Ramaini — and it carries his Nirgun teaching, that god has no form and no image, and his attack on ritual and caste. Kabir led the Gyanmargi branch of the Nirgun stream and is said to have been a disciple of Ramanand. Option B, Padavali, is the name used for the collections of Vidyapati and of Meerabai, not of Kabir. Option C, Sur Saravali, is a work of Surdas, who also wrote the Sursagar and the Sahitya Lahari. Option D, Rasikpriya, is by Keshavdas of the Ritikal and is a book on poetics rather than devotion. The three parts of the Bijak are themselves asked in papers, so memorise them.

The correct answer is C, Phanishwar Nath Renu. Maila Anchal, set in a village of north Bihar just after independence, is counted the first major regional novel, or anchalik upanyas, of Hindi; Renu also wrote Parti Parikatha and the story Maare Gaye Gulfam, on which a well known film was based. Option A, Shrilal Shukla, wrote Raag Darbari, the satire on village politics and the officials who run it. Option B, Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, was a critic and essayist whose novel Banbhatta ki Atmakatha imagines the life of the Sanskrit writer Banabhatta. Option D, Bhisham Sahni, wrote Tamas, on the violence of Partition. Four novelists, four novels: this is the pattern the paper follows, and each pair should be learnt whole. The word anchalik is itself worth holding, because a question may ask which novel began the regional tradition in Hindi rather than who wrote Maila Anchal.

The correct answer is D, Sumitranandan Pant. He received the Jnanpith Award in 1968 for his collection Chidambara, the first Hindi writer to be honoured with it; the award itself began in 1965, when it went to the Malayalam poet G. Sankara Kurup. Option B, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, came next among Hindi writers, receiving it in 1972 for Urvashi. Option C, Agyeya, received it in 1978 for Kitni Navon Mein Kitni Baar. Option A, Mahadevi Verma, received it in 1982 for Yama. The four names in this question are therefore the first four Hindi recipients in order, and the order is what papers test. The Jnanpith is given for literature in the languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution and in English. Note also that the Jnanpith and the Sahitya Akademi Award are separate honours, so a question naming one of them must not be answered with a winner of the other.

The correct answer is B, Acharya Ramchandra Shukla. His Hindi Sahitya ka Itihas set out the division into Adikal or Veergatha Kal, Purva Madhyakal or Bhaktikal, Uttar Madhyakal or Ritikal and Adhunik Kal, and examinations still follow that scheme; he was also a critic of standing, whose essays and work on Surdas are widely read. Option A, Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, wrote criticism and the novel Banbhatta ki Atmakatha but not this history. Option C, Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi, edited the journal Saraswati and gave his name to an age of Hindi literature, without writing its history. Option D, Shyam Sundar Das, was a scholar and lexicographer associated with the Hindi Shabdsagar. When a question names the four periods, the name wanted is Ramchandra Shukla. Shukla also wrote Chintamani, a collection of critical essays, and his history remains the standard source for the period names that examinations use.