Post Vedic Literature of India: Know In Art & Culture With Devdutt Pattanaik EP18 | UPSC Essentials
Summary
TLDRThe video script offers an insightful exploration into the realms of Indian literature and culture, highlighting the significance of various literary forms such as Tamil's Sangam literature, Jain and Buddhist literature, and Persian influences. It emphasizes the importance of travelogues in understanding India's social and economic conditions, and how literature, including the great epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata, has shaped and transmitted cultural values across the country.
Takeaways
- 📚 The distinction between biography and hagiography is highlighted, with the former being realistic and rational, and the latter being exaggerated and dramatic, often portraying historical figures or events with religious motivations.
- 🏛 The significance of Sangam literature in understanding the social and economic conditions of ancient Tamil Nadu, including its three phases: early phase with no strong religious connotation, the rise of Buddhism and Jainism, and the shift towards Hinduism with the emergence of the Alvars and Nayanars.
- 🌏 The importance of geography in cultural transmission is emphasized, with the spread of Jain and Buddhist literature from the Magadha region to other parts of India, influencing regional languages and literature.
- 📖 The introduction of Persian literature to India through Central Asian Turks, and its impact on local languages, leading to the emergence of new literary forms such as Urdu and the influence on regional languages like Gujarati and Marathi.
- 📜 The role of travelogues as important sources for understanding Indian culture, as they provide insights into the observations and experiences of foreign travelers, despite potential biases in their accounts.
- 🎭 The discussion of various forms of literature in India, including religious, secular, romantic, and legal and political literature, and how they reflect the cultural landscape of the time.
- 🌐 The impact of foreign invasions and trade on the cultural and literary development of India, with the example of the Greeks, Chinese, Arabs, Persians, and Europeans contributing to the diversity of Indian literature.
- 📝 The mention of the scarcity of Indian-authored historical accounts, with significant insights often coming from foreign travelogues and local literature like Sangam poetry.
- 📑 The importance of having a systematic approach to studying literature and culture, including understanding timelines, key figures, and the impact of different literary forms on society.
- 🌳 The portrayal of landscape in Sangam literature, where different landscapes are associated with different gods and goddesses, reflecting the emotional connection between people and their environment.
- 🏰 The role of literature in reflecting social conditions, such as the depiction of various roles of women, the importance of music and dance, and the prevalence of agriculture and hunting in ancient Tamil society.
Q & A
What is the main difference between biography and hagiography as described in the script?
-Biography tends to be more realistic and rational, focusing on factual accounts of a person's life. Hagiography, on the other hand, is exaggerated and dramatic, often portraying figures with a strong religious motivation or as heroes fighting for a cause.
Why is studying literature across different cultures and time periods important for understanding our own culture?
-Studying literature from various cultures and time periods provides better insights into our own culture by showing how societies have evolved, how ideas have been transmitted, and how different cultures have influenced each other.
What is 'Suum' literature and what does it reveal about the social and economic conditions of its time?
-Suum literature is old Tamil poetry written between 100 CE and 1000 CE. It portrays the social and economic conditions of its time with remarkable vividness, including aspects of love, war, religious beliefs, and the daily life of people in Tamil Nadu.
How did the rise of Buddhism and Jainism influence the second phase of Suum literature?
-In the second phase of Suum literature, Buddhist and Jain stories started to manifest as epics, with women playing a central role. This shows a shift in the cultural and religious landscape of the time, reflecting the growing influence of these religions.
What is the significance of the three phases of Suum poetry and how do they reflect the cultural shifts in South India?
-The three phases of Suum poetry reflect the cultural shifts in South India. The early phase had no particular religious connotation, the second phase saw the rise of Buddhism and Jainism, and the third phase marked a shift towards Hinduism and the devotion towards Shiva and Vishnu.
Why is it said that Suum literature is not of much political significance in terms of connected political history of South India?
-Suum literature is not considered politically significant because it does not refer to any great empires or detailed political structures. Instead, it focuses on the lives of common people, their social conditions, and local chieftains.
How did the Persian literature that came into India with the Central Asian Turks influence local languages and cultures?
-Persian literature influenced local languages by introducing new ways of presenting ideas, forms of literature, and the Persian language itself. It led to the emergence of new languages like Urdu and Hindi, which were influenced by the mingling of Persian with local Indian languages.
What role did travel literature play in documenting and understanding Indian culture and society?
-Travel literature played a crucial role in documenting Indian culture and society, especially since Indians did not extensively write their own histories. Travelogues by Greeks, Chinese, Persians, Arabs, and Europeans provided valuable insights into the social, economic, and cultural conditions of the time.
Why is it important for students to understand the various forms of literature such as religious, secular, romantic, and legal and political literature when studying Persian literature?
-Understanding the various forms of literature helps students to classify and organize their knowledge, showing an organized thought process. It also provides a comprehensive view of how literature reflects different aspects of culture and society.
How did the travels of Chinese writers to India, particularly to Nalanda, contribute to the understanding of Indian culture?
-Chinese writers who traveled to India, especially to the educational center of Nalanda, provided detailed accounts of the conditions in India. Their writings offer insights into the educational systems, religious practices, and cultural aspects of the time.
What is the significance of the two great Indian epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata, in understanding Indian culture?
-The Ramayana and Mahabharata are significant in understanding Indian culture as they have been widely transmitted across India and have deeply influenced the moral, ethical, and social values of the society. They are also important in studying how literature has been preserved and passed down through generations.
Outlines
📚 Literature's Role in Understanding Culture
This paragraph discusses the distinction between biography and hagiography, highlighting how literature, particularly the former, can provide a realistic portrayal of historical figures and events. It uses the example of the Afan and Turkish King's invasions of India, which were motivated by material wealth but were depicted in hagiographies as religiously motivated. The paragraph emphasizes the importance of studying literature across different cultures and times to gain insights into social and economic conditions, as illustrated by the Tamil poetry of the Sangam literature, which vividly portrays the life of people in ancient Tamil Nadu. It also introduces the episode's theme of discussing art and culture with DD Patnayak, focusing on literature's significance in examinations and broader life understanding.
🏛️ The Social and Economic Insights from Sangam Literature
This paragraph delves into the Sangam literature of South India, which is a collection of old Tamil poems dating from around 100 CE to 1000 CE. It outlines the three phases of this poetry: early phase with love and war themes, the middle phase with Buddhist and Jain stories, and the later phase showing a shift towards Hinduism and devotion to Shiva and Vishnu. The paragraph explains that Sangam literature is not politically significant due to its lack of reference to great empires, but it provides a rich understanding of the social and economic conditions of the time, including agriculture, hunting, gathering, music, and dance. It also touches on the cultural references to various landscapes and gods, indicating a relatively secular society with a deep connection to nature.
🌏 The Geographical Impact on Indian Literature
This paragraph explores the influence of geography on Indian literature, particularly the emergence of Jain and Buddhist literature in the Magadha region around 2,500 years ago. It discusses the oral transmission of these teachings and their eventual written form in the Prakrit language, which later influenced regional languages and Sanskrit. The paragraph also addresses the significance of Persian literature in India, brought by Central Asian Turks, and how it led to the development of new languages and literature forms, such as Urdu and the emergence of romantic poetry and legal documentation. The discussion highlights the importance of understanding the movement of ideas and cultural elements across regions and their impact on local literature and culture.
📜 The Influence of Persian Literature on Indian Culture
This paragraph examines the contributions of Persian literature to Indian culture, which began with the arrival of Central Asian Turks about a thousand years ago. It describes how Persian culture and language influenced local languages, leading to the creation of new literary forms and the emergence of Urdu as a mixture of Indian and Persian languages. The paragraph also discusses the rise of legal documentation and the importance of history writing, chronicles, and the translation of Indian epics into Persian. It emphasizes the variety of literature that emerged, including religious, secular, romantic, and legal and political literature, showcasing the rich cultural landscape shaped by Persian influences.
🛤️ Travelogues as Cultural Mirrors
This paragraph discusses the importance of travelogues in understanding Indian culture, as they provide accounts of foreign travelers who visited India and documented their experiences. It notes the lack of indigenous historical writings by Indians, with the exception of a few works like the Rajatarangini and the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. The paragraph outlines the contributions of Greek, Chinese, Arab, Persian, and European travelers, whose writings offer insights into India's social conditions, trade, and cultural practices. It emphasizes the systematic study of travelogues to understand their relevance and the biases present in them, as well as the need to organize knowledge about these topics for better comprehension and application in exams or interviews.
🌐 The Significance of Indian Epics in Literature and Culture
In this concluding paragraph, the speaker invites the audience to ponder the importance of the Indian epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata, to Indian culture. The paragraph suggests that these epics have played a significant role in the transmission of literature across India and have deeply influenced the cultural fabric of the country. The speaker promises to discuss this topic further in future episodes, encouraging viewers to stay tuned for more insights into literature and culture, and to join live sessions on Instagram and YouTube for interactive Q&A. The paragraph ends with a reminder to subscribe to the Indian Express YouTube channel for updates on such important content.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Biography
💡Hagiography
💡Suum Literature
💡Akam and Puram
💡Nambar and Alvars
💡Travelogues
💡Cultural Transmission
💡Persian Literature
💡Urdu Literature
💡Sufi Poetry
💡Legal Documentation
Highlights
Biography and hagiography are distinguished by their realism and rationality versus exaggeration and dramatic storytelling, respectively.
Suum literature, an ancient Tamil poetry, vividly portrays the social and economic conditions of South India around 1500 years ago.
Suum literature is divided into three phases: early love and war poems, Buddhist and Jain stories, and the rise of Hindu devotion towards Shiva and Vishnu.
The political significance of Suum literature is limited as it focuses more on social and economic aspects rather than on great empires.
Suum literature provides insights into the daily life, culture, and religious practices of ancient Tamil Nadu.
Jain and Buddhist literature introduced new monastic ideals and a different perspective on life, significantly impacting Indian culture.
The geographic spread of Jain and Buddhist literature from Bihar to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka highlights the cultural diffusion across regions.
Persian literature, introduced by Central Asian Turks, brought new narrative styles and contributed to the development of regional languages in India.
The emergence of Urdu literature is attributed to the fusion of Persian and local Indian languages, influencing various aspects of Indian culture.
Travelogues by foreigners visiting India offer valuable outsider perspectives on Indian culture and society, despite potential biases.
The lack of indigenous Indian historical writings makes travelogues a crucial source for understanding the country's past.
Travelogues from Greeks, Chinese, Persians, Arabs, and Europeans provide diverse accounts of Indian life and trade over centuries.
The importance of systematic study of travelogues for a comprehensive understanding of Indian culture and history.
The influence of Persian language on Indian languages, particularly the emergence of the 'G' suffix in many Indian words.
The role of geography in shaping cultural and literary expressions, as seen in the spread of religious ideas and literature.
The significance of organizing knowledge about literature and culture for effective learning and application in exams and interviews.
The upcoming discussion on the importance of the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata in understanding Indian culture.
Transcripts
biography tends to be more realistic and
rational while hagiography is
exaggerated um and they will write
things very dramatically so for example
we know that the afan and the Turkish
King came to India for material reasons
they came to raid the wealth of India
but in the hagiographies they will keep
telling how these kings came to India to
spread Islam it was a religious
motivation these were holy gazi fighting
for the cause so this is the PR
department at work studying literature
across time and space provide us better
insights about our culture in this light
let us understand today's suum
literature J and bu text and personal
literature in our today's episode of art
and culture with DD patnayak
[Applause]
[Music]
hello everyone I am mana sastav and you
are watching upsc Essentials of the
Indian Express where we are in
conversation with d that
who talks on art and culture and talks
on those relevant topics which are very
important for your examination and life
in general so in the last episode we've
talked about literature we have covered
you know the time up to uh Gupta period
today let's uh shift our Focus to other
areas let's talk about South India the
suum literature and they that I would
like to start with a question the last
year upsc question which was on suum
literature and it goes like this though
not very useful from the point of view
of a connected political history of
South India the suum literature portrays
the social and economic condition of its
time with remarkable
vividness so I think this question
covers a lot of issues related to suum
literature which students should know so
they that if you can Enlighten our
students with answer on this question so
suum literature is Tamil poetry old
Tamil poetry that was written about
2,000 years ago and it goes from till
about thousand years ago so from um
around 100 CE some people say even 200
BC we are not very sure but roughly
2,000 years ago to up to 1,000 years ago
so for a, year period we have this
poetry um written in Old Tamil um which
speaks
of uh local conditions that existed in
Tamil Nadu about 1500 years ago so
that's a rough way to remember it and we
find three phases of this poetry we find
the early phase where there is no
reference to any particular religion
there are gods and there's Landscapes
but there's no it's there is no strong
religious connotation that you find and
these are poems of Love and War the
internal feminine poetry of love love
known as akam poetries and the external
violent poetry of Heroes in battle
called puram poetries for the first 300
years the next 300 years you have got uh
Buddhist and Jin uh stories manifesting
as epics again women play a very Central
role in this and the following 300 years
youve see the rise the shift from
Buddhism and Jainism towards what we
call Hinduism and the rise of the
devotion towards Shiva and Vishnu so the
Namar and the alvars this is all
happening before the rise of the great
chora Empire maybe even roughly ending
at the time when the palavas take over
now why are we saying that we it is not
of much political significance because
they really do not refer to any great
Empires they're referring to Chieftain
small people who live in small
territories uh remember when Asoka when
we talk about Ashoka referring to the
South India he speaks of cheras pandas
and cholas who exist beyond the
tungabhadra nothing else we know that
there is a culture that exists there
2,300 years ago there's reference to
them for the first time but we don't
know much about them the first
information that we get is this suam
poetry now of course in kaladi in Tamil
Nadu uh we have some excavations but we
have Pottery we have instruments we have
bricks but really not much information
still again about political conditions
but we do get a sense of the people who
lived at that time and we get to know
that they loved music they love to sing
they love to dance they were involved in
basic agriculture because they talk of
rice they talk of maze they were Hunters
gatherers um they talk of flowers fruits
different kinds of meat that they
consumed so social conditions we know
that they were familiar with brahmins
they were familiar with the Raman
there's reference to the ramayan um
especially the episode of monkeys
finding saa's uh jewelry there reference
to the Mahabharat of a king from South
India feeding the pandavas and the kavas
during the battle so there's some
references to North Indians they you
refer to them as Aras there's references
to uh brahans Buddhists Janes um but
they seem to be a relatively secular
society there's description of landscape
and gods are linked to landscape so on
top of the mountain there is um SEO in
the forest there is perumal in the
pasture in the pasture land there is
perumal in the uh forests um there is
Mayo um there in the fields there is
Indra in the ocean there is varuna in
the wilderness there is cravi or the
wild goddess so five Landscapes are
described
mountains uh forests and pasture lands
Fields Ocean or seash Shores and dry
Barren land each associated with
different gods and goddesses um it's the
first time that landscape is evoking
emotions and you find this emotionality
in this poetry that's why we we are
talking about it talks about social
conditions we know they're talking about
war they are talking about drummers and
musicians who praise their he uh
chieftain in exchange they get rewards
they're talking about traveling through
South Indian lands so we have a social
sense we know that women we have
different kinds of women in the Tamil
epics women who are faithful to a
husband so the patini we have the nuns
Buddhist nuns the Jin nuns who choose
not to marry there's reference to
corisan women who were entertainers
dancers singers and had many lovers like
madavi and her daughter mani magal and
the grandmother who wants the
granddaughter to follow the family
profession the granddaughter Mani megala
who wants to be a nun we are we have
conflicts between Jin nuns and Buddhist
nuns um so we have these poetries uh
there's love eroticism monast mysticism
uh violent confrontations and battles
and uh demands for generosity so we get
a sense of the economic and social
conditions we do not get much
information about political conditions
about who are the kings how did they do
the territory we know that there were
Wars and one very interesting features
during the war Kings would claim the
totems of the Rival Kings the TOs are
usually plants so plants like the
kadamba tree uh was for the kadamba
dynasty so there is some kind of
reference with plants uh we have
reference to the early kinds of
settlements small settlements uh
agrarian economy emerging hering economy
emerging uh so the these are the social
and economic conditions that we come up
in the sanum literature so I think
students will understand as D also
mentioned that it's not about always
about political history which you would
uh get to know from these literary text
like sanum literature but how Society
the economical aspects how these things
are also relevant not forgetting the
cultural elements uh which this these
literature tell us about the other point
is that please note such kind of
questions uh demand examples okay so you
have to support your arguments with
relevant evidences and examples from
history and from culture so that is a
point which should be noted now let's
move on to the second question and D if
you allow me to ask you about Jen and
Buddhist literatures so what are they or
how are they relevant uh from the
perspective of culture so why is Jane
and Buddhist literature important uh to
understand Indian culture now the oldest
Indian literature that we have is The
Vic literature piure and here you have
people worshiping ancestors and gods who
located in Celestial regions offering
them praise offering them uh the S Jews
in exchange expecting um Good Luck
Fortune children success in battle wives
all material things and then suddenly
you have about 2,500 years ago new wave
of thinking which is more monastic and
it appears in the Bihar region and this
manifests in ideal that are first
transmitted orally and then finally
written down this is the Jane and the
Buddhist literature coming from the
magad regions the language is not
Sanskrit now it is magadii Aram magadii
together called uh prit magadii is more
popularly known as piali it's a very
formal Buddhist language that is later
put down in writing in Sri Lanka uh by
budag goosha in 500 CE so much later but
the the transmission takes place and
it's orally transmitted the Jin stories
are transmitted they're transmitted to
different parts of India um so we have
in New so why is it significant one it's
a new idea it's about monastic ideals um
it's talking a lot about Karma
Liberation uh moving away from the
householders life so the content is
different the language is different so
it's magadii Aram magadii the geography
is also different while the Vic
landscape is more gtic the Jan and the
Buddhist landscape moves to from Bihar
and moves southwards towards Tamil Nadu
and Karnataka so South starts getting
important so there is this is another
reason it's important um it manifests
later into Tamil literature so you have
Tamil literature Canada literature and
even Sanskrit literature so later Jin
and Buddhist literature shows Regional
languages emerging um there is Tamil
there is Canada and Sanskrit uh becomes
important so these are the reasons why
jism and Buddhism are important
contributors to Indian culture to
understand Indian culture so D I'm also
reminded of uh your last episode where
you have mentioned a little bit about
Buddhist and Jan literature so students
should also go and watch that episode if
you haven't watched yet uh also remember
that how geography is playing such an
important role as the religion is moving
from one state to another the impact is
seen on literature also so that is
another important thing because sometime
the questions are asked and how
geography impacts culture and so on now
let's move on to the next question and
my next question is related to the
Persian literature so D if you can tell
us that how Persian literature
contributed to Indian
culture so so Persian literature comes
into India from a thousand years ago
when when the uh Central Asian Turks
start entering India and they carry with
them the Persian culture and a religion
that started in Arabia so you must look
at the map and be clear where is you
know if you go westwards from India you
will first come to the Hindu Kush
mountains you cross it you see the
Afghanistan then you see Iran which is
Persia and to the south of Persia as you
travel you see the Arab lands now India
was connected with the Arab lands
through trade especially Southern IND
India uh Northern India through Persia
you have this culture coming into India
through the Warlords from Central Asia
so that's how you should understand that
a little bit and they bring the Farsi
culture or the Persian literature Now
courot language is very important origin
oldest quote language that we have is
prakrit Ashoka uses a form of magadii
language later this prakrit language
shifts towards sanscrit so you have
rudra Daman the Shaka King from Gujarat
Rajasthan side near gar writing in
Sanskrit prases his declarations are in
Sanskrit so prakrit becomes Sanskrit and
Sanskrit Cosmopolis emerges all the
kings start using uh Sanskrit from 300
CE to 1300 CE from Afghanistan to
Vietnam this becomes a very important
language then you have the slow rise of
regional Literature Like Tamil Canada uh
Telugu and that's when the Persian
literature comes to North India in Delhi
it parks itself in Delhi and that's when
Persian literature emerges and these
people are writing stories tars or
histories of their kings of course their
hagiographies hagiography is different
from a biography biography tends to be
more realistic and rational while
hagiography is exaggerated um and they
will write things very dramatically so
for example we know that the afan and
the Turkish kin came to India for
material reasons they came to raid the
wealth of India but in the hagiographies
they will keep telling how these kings
came to India to spread Islam it was a
religious motivation these were holy
gazis fighting for the cause so this is
the PR department at work so when the PR
department works you have the
hagiographies so the Persian literature
comes into India it influences the local
languages so while the court language is
persan the local language people start
talking in hindavi which mingles with
Farsi and a new language of the Barack
emerges the soldiers emerges called uru
U or the language of the Barack or
language of the
of the of the street of the of the
soldiers and this gives rise to a new
form of literature called Udu Udu
literature emerges Hindi literature
emerges hind emerges we have these
languages emerging if you look at
languages Gujarat you look at languages
in Maharashtra you see this slight
influence of Persian languages emerging
you know the suffix G starts to appear
at this time uh you have shahaji shivaji
chhatrapati Shiva so this G suffix
starts to appear even today we say jiha
jiha where did this word g come from
because it emerges only after the
Persians came to India it probably has
roots in usbekistan that's one of the
nobody is 100% sure where it comes from
but ask yourself where did this word g
come from it's not there in Sanskrit it
um so suddenly you see this influence
coming in the Parsi uh the not Pari well
Pari word we use for different reasons
we use for The zoroastrians Who migrated
to India and carry the zoroastrian
Traditions but fary language comes Udu
emerges Udu is a mixture of Indian
languages and Persian languages uh
during 1857 when Mah galib is writing
Udu he uses a lot of Persian words so it
almost feels that it's a Persian
language but really the older uh um Udu
language has more Indian words uh during
the partition of India of course Udu
started being associated with Islam and
Hindi started being associated with
Hinduism and there it played a very uh
complicated political role but Persian
literature contributes to India because
it brings new ways of presenting ideas
history writing becomes important quote
chronicals become important legal
documents become important uh so you
have the rise of legal documentation
being written later they written by the
maratas in the Modi script you have
legal documentation rajput quotes being
written so legal documentation becomes
important and of course literature new
forms of literature emerges romance
poetry emerges you have poetries like
padmawat happening romance literature
based like Lea maju and you have in syn
you have the stories of Love uh poetries
emerging uh around this time uh
passionate love poetries of unrequited
love uh emerging guzzles emerging new
forms of poetry so when we're talking
about literature we should talk about
religious literature secular literature
romantic literature legal and political
literature so when you classify it you
will get an understanding of how to
write the answer and that's important it
shows your mind is very organized as I
said with Pary literature you have quote
literature you have legal quot
literature describing the life of the
king you have legal documents that is
starts being put down then you have
these uh monuments where the king's
declarations fans uh start emerging at
this time and of course you have
storytelling translations like Titi Nama
which is a translation of shti Sanskrit
literature is translated Ram Nama the
book of War which is Mahabharat and
ramayan being translated
by the quote Poets of the abbar uh time
we have
um the rise of Sufi poetry emerging
along with bti poetry uh you have uh
epics being written in the language the
local languages so you find these form
of literature
emerging well that's very beautifully
summarized that how Persian language or
Persian literature brought change in the
cultural
landscape U I'm also uh you
know interested in telling students that
when you know D that says that you know
look at the map and keep the map open
it's very important when you studying
such topics where geography is also
involved it's important to have your
Atlas or the world map or India map in
front of you it helps in two ways it
helps you to prepare for the top which
you're doing in current but also help
you in uh consolidating over your
geography part so that is one thing also
when you're talking about Udu as a
language we've covered it in the
previous episode when we talking about
language and culture so do revise to
revisit those episodes if you have any
doubt uh there is another important
thing which I felt that I should mention
that uh there are many things while if
the talk talking about we all know
somewhere in our minds or somewhere
we've read or somewhere we've listened
to but it's very important to get them
organized okay and that's why these kind
of series will help get them organized
at one place okay for not only for your
answer in Mains but also for you know
whenever you're going for an interview
and everything it's important to have
these uh things which you know organized
at one place and that is important now
let's move on to the next question the
next question is about travel LS so D
can you uh tell us or help us that how
travelogs are important Source or
important sources to understand culture
travelogs you know travelogs are people
who travel to India they visit India and
they write about it and therefore
through their writings we understand
India now the funny thing about Indians
is that we really didn't write our own
histories a lot we wrote poetry and we
talked of um ramayan and Mahabharat far
more than writing about the lives of
Kings or geography or a history few
books like in there is the rajatarangini
which tells you the history of uh
Kashmir or you have scand puran which
tells you the mythological stories
associated with various geographies in
India or you have shankara written in
the 14th century which tells you about
Shankar aara who lived five centuries
earlier and how he traveled across India
and they are really more fantastic
hagiographies exaggerated stories we do
not get a accurate portrayal of India's
social conditions the only place where
we get it is a Tamil poetry which is the
suum Poetry has some understanding of
what social life was in the Tamil lands
um and there are poetries there is a
travelog there about these professional
drummers traveling in the Chola
countrysides they're traveling to places
and they talking about the food so you
do have some travel writing in Tamil
literature but main uh uh travel writing
comes from those who tra came to India
now who came to India first it was the
Greeks um then it was the Chinese then
it was the Persian Arabs and the
Persians and finally the Europeans and
therefore you have travelogs of the
Greeks so you have meanus is famous Inda
when he visited the court of Chandra
Gupta Maia we don't have the original
but we have rep people writing about it
the Herodotus writes something about
India based on what he hears from people
he doesn't travel to India megas travels
to India and writes about it so we have
that information we have a during Roman
times periplus of the arthan sea he is a
merchant who writes about the um the
trade which is happening uh uh through
the monsoon trade which is happening
along the coasts and of India so we have
that information uh periplus of the
athian sea he talks about sopara and the
coasts and the ports of India so we have
that information on what is being
imported and exported Indian cotton
pearls um we we have with the Chinese we
have uh the roughly the period of haraan
the 7th century when Islam is rising in
the world you have uh when haraan is
King in India and tesar just before him
you have some Chinese writers after
hindra Chinese writers so you get this
period uh between the fifth apos Gupta
period uh you have writings of Chinese
uh Travelers who are entering India
they're going to nalanda which is in
Bihar how are they coming they're coming
some of them are coming by the Eastern
route some of them are coming via
Central Asia some of them are coming via
ship and so you have the Chinese writers
writing about conditions in India and
that's very important and then you have
the Arab writers like alboni IB batuta
who traveled to India in the Islamic
period and write from a very Islamic
perspective of how they see India
alberuni tells about the conditions just
before um the entry of Delhi saltanat uh
IB batuta lives with d Sultans the toak
period and he writes about that um then
you have the Europeans coming to India
they remember horse trade was very big
and therefore trading of horses was very
big and this is what brings a lot and
spice trade was big and cotton trade was
big luxury goods from India travel to
Europe and therefore you have the
Europeans coming by the sea route so you
have Italians writing you have the
French writing you have the British
writing the Dutch writing you have
different writers the details of course
you can get in the books um so please
check the book for all the technical
details but I wanted to think
systematically and how these writings
help us um figure out um the Indian
culture so they come to India and they
write about India in their own languages
and we get to understand India better of
course there is bias in their writings a
lot of bias but you get a sense of what
is happening in India so just like
literature is a vast topic similarly a
topic like travelog the subtopic is also
very vast because it goes across time so
then what is important important
important part here is to understand
such Standalone topics in a more
systematic manner you know go with
timeline uh take up important travel
logs understand their uh relevance know
a few examples here and there and that's
how this topic should be covered of
course for prelims you should know
important factual um uh you know factual
aspects of travel outs as well but I
think students would have got a broader
view about these
subtopics uh which are a part of
literature and culture before going
ahead let's take Dad's important point
to
[Music]
ponder so I want you to think about the
two great epics of India ramayan and
Mahabharat why are they so important to
Indian culture why is it so important uh
and you'll find a lot to do with
literature and its transmission across
India so we'll discuss that in the
future episode so that's all for today
but the topic of literature and culture
is a vast topic so there are going to be
more subtopics coming up in the next few
episodes so stay tuned and keep watching
upsc Essentials of the Indian Express
join us for live at 8:00 pm on Instagram
and YouTube where you ask and I answer
so uh subscribe for the Indian Express
YouTube channel and stay updated with
such important videos bye-bye Mana
Shasta signing
off
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