Indian poetry
Encyclopedia
Indian poetry, and Indian literature
Indian literature
Indian literature refers to the literature produced on the Indian subcontinent until 1947 and in the Republic of India thereafter. The Republic of India has 22 officially recognized languages....

 in general, has a long history dating back to Vedic
Vedic period
The Vedic period was a period in history during which the Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, were composed. The time span of the period is uncertain. Philological and linguistic evidence indicates that the Rigveda, the oldest of the Vedas, was composed roughly between 1700–1100 BCE, also...

 times. They were written in various Indian languages
Languages of India
The languages of India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-European languages—Indo-Aryan and the Dravidian languages...

 such as Vedic Sanskrit
Vedic Sanskrit
Vedic Sanskrit is an old Indo-Aryan language. It is an archaic form of Sanskrit, an early descendant of Proto-Indo-Iranian. It is closely related to Avestan, the oldest preserved Iranian language...

, Classical Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

, Oriya
Oriya language
Oriya , officially Odia from November, 2011, is an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It is mainly spoken in the Indian states of Orissa and West Bengal...

, Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

, Kannada
Kannada language
Kannada or , is a language spoken in India predominantly in the state of Karnataka. Kannada, whose native speakers are called Kannadigas and number roughly 50 million, is one of the 30 most spoken languages in the world...

, Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...

 and Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...

. Poetry in foreign languages such as Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...

 and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 also have a strong influence on Indian poetry. The poetry reflects diverse spiritual traditions within India. In particular, many Indian poets have been inspired by mystical experiences.

Forms of Indian poetry

  • Assamese poetry
    Assamese Poetry
    Assamese poetry, poetry in Assamese language.-History:Sanskrit literature, the fountain head of most of the Indian literature, supplied not only the themes of medieval Assamese literature, but also has inspired many a writer of modern Assamese literature to undertake creative writings in context of...

  • Bengali poetry
    Bengali poetry
    Bengali poetry is a form that originated in Pāli and other Prakrit socio-cultural traditions. It is antagonistic towards Vedic rituals and laws as opposed to the shramanic traditions such as Buddhism and Jainism...

  • Bhojpuri poetry
  • Bishnupriya Manipuri poetry
  • Gujarati poetry
    Gujarati literature
    The history of Gujarati literature may be traced to 1000 AD, and this literature has flourished since then to the present. It is unique in having almost no patronage from a ruling dynasty, other than its composers...

  • Hindi poetry
    Hindi literature
    Hindi literature , is broadly divided into four prominent forms or styles, being Bhakti ; Shringar ; Veer-Gatha ; and Adhunik...

  • Kannada poetry
    Kannada poetry
    Kannada poetry is poetry written in the Kannada language spoken in Karnataka. Karnataka is the land that gave birth to eight Jnanapeeth award winners, the highest honour bestowed for Indian literature...

  • Kashmiri poetry
  • Konkani poetry
  • Maithili poetry
  • Malayalam poetry
  • Marathi poetry
    Marathi poetry
    -Earliest Prominent Marathi Poetry:The two poets, Namadev and Dnyaneshwar , wrote the earliest significant poetry in Marathi. They were respectively born in 1270 and 1275 CE in Maharashtra, India, and both wrote religious poetry. A little over 400 verses in the so-called “abhang” form are...

  • Meitei-lon poetry
  • Nepali poetry
    Nepali literature
    Nepali Literature refers to the literature written in the Nepali language and should not be confused with Nepalese literature; a work that is classified as Nepali literature does not necessarily have to be written by a Nepalese/ written in Nepal. Much of today's Nepali literature is widely written...

  • Oriya poetry
  • Punjabi poetry
  • Rajasthani poetry
    Rajasthani literature
    Rajasthani has a vast literature written in various genres starting from 1000 AD. But, it is generally agreed that modern Rajasthani literature began with the works of Surajmal Misrana. His most important works are the Vansa Bhaskara and the Vir Satsai...

  • Sindhi poetry
    Sindhi poetry
    Sindhi language poetry continues an oral tradition of a thousand years. The verbal verses were based on folk stories. Sindhi is one of the oldest languages of the Indus Valley having own literary colour both in poetry and prose. Sindhi poetry is very rich in thoughts as well as contain variety of...

  • Tamil poetry
    Tamil literature
    Tamil literature refers to the literature in the Tamil language. Tamil literature has a rich and long literary tradition spanning more than two thousand years. The oldest extant works show signs of maturity indicating an even longer period of evolution...

  • Telugu poetry
    Telugu poetry
    Telugu poetry is verse originating in the southern provinces of India, predominantly from modern Andhra Pradesh and some corners of Tamilnadu and Karnataka.- Origins :...

  • Urdu poetry
    Urdu poetry
    Urdu poetry is a rich tradition of poetry and has many different types and forms. Borrowing much from the Persian language, it is today an important part of Pakistani and North Indian culture....

  • Indian Poetry in English
    Indian Poetry in English
    Henry Louis Vivian Derozio is considered the first poet in the lineage of Indian English Poetry. A significant and torch bearer poet is Nissim Ezekiel and the significant poets of the post-Derozio and pre-Ezekiel times are Toru Dutt, Sarojini Naidu, Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo...

  • Ghazal
    Ghazal
    The ghazal is a poetic form consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain, with each line sharing the same meter. A ghazal may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation and the beauty of love in spite of that pain. The form is ancient, originating in 6th century...

  • Indian epic poetry
    Indian epic poetry
    Indian epic poetry is the epic poetry written in the Indian subcontinent, traditionally called Kavya . The Ramayana and Mahabharata, originally composed in Sanskrit and translated thereafter into many other Indian languages, are some of the oldest surviving epic poems on earth and form part of...

  • Sanskrit poetry
    • Classical Sanskrit poetry
    • Vedic Sanskrit poetry
      Vedas
      The Vedas are a large body of texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism....


Indian Literature Golden Jubilee Poetry Awards

On the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of Indian Literature
Indian literature
Indian literature refers to the literature produced on the Indian subcontinent until 1947 and in the Republic of India thereafter. The Republic of India has 22 officially recognized languages....

, the official journal of Sahitya Akademi
Sahitya Akademi
The Sahitya Akademi ', India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India...

, the National Academy of Letters in India, the following prizes were given away for outstanding works of poetry in translation from Indian languages.

Rana Nayar
Rana Nayar
Professor Rana Nayar is a translator of poetry and short fiction from Punjabi to English. He has more than forty volumes of poetry and translation works to his credit. He is also a theatre artist and has participated in a number of major full-length productions...

 won the first prize for his translation of the verses of the Sikh saint Baba Farid from Punjabi
Punjabi language
Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region . For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies take place. In Pakistan, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language...

.

Dr Tapan Kumar Pradhan won the second prize for the English translation of his own Oriya
Oriya literature
Oriya is an official language of the state of Orissa, India. The region has been known at different stages of history as Kalinga, Udra, Utkala, or Koshala. The language is also spoken by minority populations of the neighboring states of Jharkhand, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. The...

 poems "Equation", "Kalahandi
Kalahandi
Kalahandi, , is a district of Orissa in India. The region had a glorious past and great civilization in ancient time. Archaeological evidence of stone age and Iron Age human settlement has been recovered from the region. Asurgarh offered an advanced, well civilized, cultured and urban human...

" and "The Hour of Coming".

The third Prize was won by Ms Paromita Das for the poems "If Life be Lost" and "Life Awakens" - which were English translations of Parvati Prasad Baruwa
Parvati Prasad Baruwa
Parvati Prasad Baruva was a poet, lyricist, dramatist: an icon of Assamese literature and the Culture of Assam. Known for his simple and sensitive use of the Assamese language, he is popularly known as the Geetikavi—the lyrical poet of Assam...

's poems in Assamese
Assamese language
Assamese is the easternmost Indo-Aryan language. It is used mainly in the state of Assam in North-East India. It is also the official language of Assam. It is also spoken in parts of Arunachal Pradesh and other northeast Indian states. Nagamese, an Assamese-based Creole language is widely used in...

.

Western thinkers and poets interested in Indian poetry

In the 19th century, American Transcendentalist
Transcendentalism
Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the 1830s and 1840s in the New England region of the United States as a protest against the general state of culture and society, and in particular, the state of intellectualism at Harvard University and the doctrine of the Unitarian...

 writers and many German Romantic writers became interested in Indian poetry, literature and thought. In the 20th century, few Western poets became interested in Indian thought and literature, and the interest of many of those was minor: T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...

 studied Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

 at Harvard, but later lost interest. Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

 brought Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...

 and Gary Snyder
Gary Snyder
Gary Snyder is an American poet , as well as an essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist . Snyder is a winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry...

 to India, but they became more interested in Tibetan and Japanese forms of the religion. Mexican poet and writer Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz Lozano was a Mexican writer, poet, and diplomat, and the winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature.-Early life and writings:...

 developed a strong, lasting interest in Indian poetry after living in the country as part of the Mexican diplomatic mission (and as ambassador in the 1960s). Paz married an Indian woman, translated Sanskrit kavyas, and wrote extensively about India.

See also

  • List of Indian poets
  • Indian literature
    Indian literature
    Indian literature refers to the literature produced on the Indian subcontinent until 1947 and in the Republic of India thereafter. The Republic of India has 22 officially recognized languages....

  • Journal : Indian Literature
    Indian Literature (journal)
    Indian Literature is an English-language literary journal published bi-monthly by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters. the editor was A. J. Thomas, and Gopi Chand Narang, Sunil Gangopadhyaya and Agrahara Krishna Murthy, inspired by K...

  • Sahitya Akademi Award
    Sahitya Akademi Award
    Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honor in India which Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of outstanding works in one of the following twenty-four major Indian languagesAssamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri,...

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