Classical Indian Literature: Books, Authors and Patrons

Books and Authors questions from ancient India are almost always a matching exercise: a work is named and you must supply the writer, or a writer is named and you must pick the work. A few questions add a third element, the king in whose court the writer lived. This chapter arranges the classical literature of India in exactly those groups, so that each name carries a work and, where it is known, a patron.

The earliest layers: Vedic and epic literature

The four Vedas, the Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda and Atharvaveda, are called shruti, that which was heard, and each is followed by Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads. The two great epics are the Ramayana, ascribed to Valmiki, who is called the Adi Kavi or first poet, and the Mahabharata, ascribed to Vyasa. The Bhagavad Gita is a section of the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata and is not a separate book. The Puranas, eighteen in the standard count, and the Dharmashastras such as the Manusmriti belong to the later smriti tradition, that which is remembered.

Grammar, statecraft and science

Sanskrit grammar was fixed by Panini in the Ashtadhyayi, a work of eight chapters that remains the model of a scientific grammar. Patanjali wrote the Mahabhashya, the great commentary on Panini, and the Yoga Sutras are ascribed to a Patanjali as well. Kautilya, also called Chanakya or Vishnugupta, wrote the Arthashastra, the treatise on statecraft, economy and administration associated with the Mauryan court of Chandragupta Maurya.

Kalidasa and classical Sanskrit drama

Kalidasa is the greatest name in classical Sanskrit and is traditionally placed in the court of Chandragupta II Vikramaditya of the Gupta dynasty. His plays are Abhijnanashakuntalam, Vikramorvashiyam and Malavikagnimitram; his long poems are Raghuvamsha and Kumarasambhava; and his lyrics are Meghaduta, the cloud messenger, and Ritusamhara, on the seasons. Abhijnanashakuntalam is the work most often named in papers, since its early translation into European languages made it the best known Indian play abroad.

Other dramatists are examined alongside him. Bhasa wrote Swapnavasavadatta, Shudraka wrote Mrichchhakatika, the little clay cart, and Vishakhadatta wrote Mudrarakshasa, a political play about Chanakya and the rise of Chandragupta Maurya, as well as Devichandraguptam.

Court poets and their patrons

Banabhatta is doubly useful: the Harshacharita is a biography of his patron Harshavardhana and one of the earliest historical biographies in Sanskrit, while Kadambari is a romance in prose. Kalhana's Rajatarangini, the river of kings, is a chronicle of the rulers of Kashmir and is treated as the first work of Indian history writing in the modern sense. Vishnu Sharma composed the Panchatantra, animal fables written to instruct princes, and Somadeva the Kathasaritsagara, an ocean of story.

Pali, Prakrit and Tamil

Buddhist canonical literature is in Pali and is arranged in the three baskets, the Tripitaka: the Vinaya Pitaka on monastic discipline, the Sutta Pitaka of discourses and the Abhidhamma Pitaka on philosophy. The Jataka tales of the Buddha's earlier births sit within the Sutta Pitaka. The Milindapanho records a dialogue between the monk Nagasena and the Indo-Greek king Menander. The Sri Lankan chronicles Dipavamsa and Mahavamsa preserve much of the history of the Mauryan period. Jain canonical works, the Angas, are in Prakrit, and Bhadrabahu is associated with the Kalpasutra.

The Sangam literature of the Tamil country is the other great classical stream. Tolkappiyam, by Tolkappiyar, is the oldest surviving Tamil grammar; Thirukkural, by Thiruvalluvar, is a book of couplets on virtue, wealth and love. The twin Tamil epics are Silappadikaram, by Ilango Adigal, and Manimekalai, by Sattanar. Learning these six Tamil names is worth as much in an examination as a dozen Sanskrit ones, because far fewer candidates bother with them.