Hindi Literature and Its Authors: Periods and Works

Hindi literature is a standing favourite of the General Knowledge paper, and of the state examinations of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in particular. What is asked is not criticism but pairs: which poet wrote which work, which period he or she belongs to, and which title carries a nickname such as Rashtrakavi. This note gathers those pairs in the order in which the literature itself developed.

The four periods of Hindi literature

Acharya Ramchandra Shukla, in his Hindi Sahitya ka Itihas, divided the literature into four periods, and his division is the one examinations follow: Adikal or Veergatha Kal (Samvat 1050–1375), Purva Madhyakal or Bhaktikal (Samvat 1375–1700), Uttar Madhyakal or Ritikal (Samvat 1700–1900) and Adhunik Kal, the modern age, from Samvat 1900 onwards. Each period carries its own temper: heroic tales in the first, devotion in the second, ornament and courtly love in the third, and the nation and the ordinary person in the fourth.

Adikal: the age of heroic poetry

The first period is remembered for its Raso literature, long verse chronicles of kings and their battles. Chand Bardai’s Prithviraj Raso, on Prithviraj Chauhan, is its best known work and is written in Braj mixed with Rajasthani. Jagnik composed the Parmal Raso, from which the Alha ballads come; Narpati Nalha wrote the Bisaldev Raso. Beside them stand Amir Khusro, whose riddles and mukariyan are the earliest playful Khari Boli, and Vidyapati, whose Padavali in Maithili sings of Radha and Krishna.

Bhaktikal: the golden age

The devotional age is divided into two streams. The Nirgun stream worships a formless god, and it has a Gyanmargi branch led by Kabir, whose sayings are collected in the Bijak, made of the Sakhi, the Sabad and the Ramaini, and a Premmargi or Sufi branch whose master is Malik Muhammad Jayasi, author of the Padmavat. The Sagun stream worships god with form, and it divides again between Rambhakti and Krishnabhakti.

Ritikal: ornament and courtly love

In the third period poetry moved to the courts and to the craft of verse. Keshavdas, counted among the first of the age, wrote the Ramchandrika, the Rasikpriya and the Kavipriya. Bihari’s Bihari Satsai, a collection of about seven hundred couplets, is the period’s most quoted book, and the phrase used for it, much meaning in few words, is itself an examination line. Bhushan turned away from love poetry to praise Shivaji in the Shivraj Bhushan and the Shivabavani, while Ghananand, Matiram, Dev and Padmakar completed the age.

Adhunik Kal: prose, the nation and the new poetry

Bhartendu Harishchandra is called the father of modern Hindi literature; his plays Andher Nagari and Bharat Durdasha and his paper Kavi Vachan Sudha made Khari Boli the language of Hindi prose. Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi, editing Saraswati, gave the next age its discipline. Maithili Sharan Gupt, honoured as Rashtrakavi, wrote Saket, Bharat Bharati and Jaydrath Vadh.

Then came Chhayavad, the romantic movement of four poets: Jaishankar Prasad, whose Kamayani is its highest work; Suryakant Tripathi ‘Nirala’, of Ram ki Shakti Puja and Saroj Smriti; Sumitranandan Pant, of Pallav and Chidambara; and Mahadevi Verma, of Yama, Neerja and Deepshikha, called the modern Meera. In prose, Munshi Premchand, born Dhanpat Rai Srivastava, wrote Godan, Gaban, Nirmala, Sevasadan, Rangbhoomi and Karmabhoomi, and stories such as Kafan and Panch Parmeshwar, and turned the Hindi novel towards the village and the poor.

Two landmarks of prose are asked often. Lala Srinivas Das’s Pariksha Guru, of 1882, is generally counted the first Hindi novel, while Insha Allah Khan’s Rani Ketki ki Kahani is an early experiment in pure Khari Boli prose. Among honours, Sumitranandan Pant was the first Hindi writer to receive the Jnanpith Award, in 1968, for Chidambara.