S4.11 Elucidate the factors that contributed towards the growth of literature in India during the Sultanate period? (సుల్తనేట్ కాలంలో భారత దేశంలో సాహిత్యం వెళ్లి విరియడానికి గల కారణాలను విశ్లేషించండి)
Replay on 18-10-2018 07:13:56
During Sultanate period there were two languages that are in vogue in India. One is patronized by the rulers and the nobles from Central Asia and the other by the indigenous people. So there were literature works mostly translations from one language to other during this period. The factors that contributed towards growth of literature are manifold.
1. Growing Importance of Sanskrit: By the Sultanate period Sanskrit was well developed and became the language of learned Brahmanas, philosophers, poets. With more people learning Sanskrit there was increase in literature produced in this language and also commentaries and digests on previously written books were produced.
Ex: works in the fields of advaita philosophy by madhavachary. Commentaries and digests on Dharmasastras.
2. Patronage of Persian language by rulers and nobles: The rulers who came from Central Asia are more inclined towards Persian and made it an administrative language and language of nobles. They encouraged and extended their patronage to the Persian works. It can be seen in Reign of Sultan Firuz Tughlaq digests of Islam law were prepared in Persian with the help of Indian scholars.
3. Introduction of Paper: With introduction of paper many old works were reproduced on paper and were disseminated and discussed. Mahabharata and Ramayana were reproduced and discussed.
4. Well learned rulers: There were well learned rulers like Amir Khusrau who showed interest in Literature and also experimented with various poetic forms. Many poetic works were produced by him and he aslo created a new Persian style called sabq-i-hind or style of India.
5. Travellers from Central Asia: During Sultanate period there were regular movement of people i.e. soldiers ,travellers, merchants from central Asia to India. The travellers recorded things that are not routine or unsual fand which are fascinating for them in their records. One such record is that of Ibn Battuta a traveller from Morocco visited India during Muhammad Bin Tughlaq period and served as qazi. He wrote a book called Rihla.
6. Development of school of History: A strong school of history developed during this period which produced a varied literature other than poetry. The famous historians are Afif, Isami,Ziauddin Barani.
7. Translation works: Also there were translations works from Sanskrit to persion such as 'Tuti Nama' written by Zia Nakshabi. He also translated old indian treatise on sexology 'Kok Shastra' into persian. But the translations from Persian to Sanskrit were limited and one of them is love story between Yusuf and Zulaikha written by Jami.
On a whole as a result of these factors Sultanate period witnessed immense production of literature works than its preceeding period.
