Devotional Hindu drama, poetry & songs span a subcontinent. Among a better known come a works of Kalidas (writer of a famed Sanskrit play Shakuntala) & Tulsidas (world health organization wrote an larger-than-life Hindi verse form according to the Ramayana). Tamil poetry of the Sangam poetry is swell famed.

Sanskrit literature
A best known works around Sanskrit are a Hindu holy texts such as the Vedas, Upanishads, and Manusmriti. A smashing epos come Ramayana and Mahabharata. Panini's Ashtadhyayi standardized Sanskrit grammar and phonetics. Kalidas is considered the Shakespeare of Sanskrit. His Shakuntala and Meghdoot are the best known Sanskrit plays. Another celebrated plays were Mricchakatika by Shudraka, Svapna Vasavadattam by Bhaasa, and Ratnavali by Sri Harsha. Late poetic works include Geeta Govinda by Jayadeva. Another illustrious works come Chanakya's Arthashastra and Vatsyayana's Kamasutra.

Prakrit Literature
A virtually all notable Prakrit language was Pali. Pali literature includes Buddhist philosophical works, poetry and a few grammatical works. Major works within Pali come Jataka tales, Dhammapada, Addhakatha, and Mahavansha. A select few of the major Pali syntactician were Kachvaayan, Moggalaan & Varruchi (world health organization wrote Prakrit Prakash). Several of Ashvaghosha's plays were written in Shaurseni Prakrit. An additional major act within Shaurseni was Karpoormanjari. Kalidasa, Harsha and Haal used Maharashtrian Prakrit in a bit of of their plays & poetry. Several Shwetambar Jain works are besides written in the Maharashtri Prakrit. Numbers of plays (prefer victims of Ashvaghosha) and Jain works were written in the Ardha Magadhi Prakrit.

Tamil literature
Tamil literature has been in being for thomas more that 2500 years. Tolkaappiyam has been credited as its oldest operate, whereas a precise origins of Thirukkural is unknown. A golden age of Tamil literature was when you took a Sangam period, roughly 1800 years ago. A classic works of this time come Cilappatikaram, Manimekalai, and Sivakasinthamani. Tamil literature is known for its laic traditions, although its authors experienced hard religious beliefs. Thirukkural is considered to be a greatest of Tamil works.

Kannada literature
Kannada literature is probably the third oldest within Indian literature next to Sanskrit literature and Tamil literature. A earliest reported operate within Kannada literature dates back to 5th century. A foremost available literary within Kannada is Kavirajamarga written in 8th century by Amoghavarsha Nrpatunga. Kannada literature potty broadly exposed within ternary phases: Hale Kannada (Old Kannada), Nadu Kannada (Middle Kannada) & Adhunika Kannada (Modern Kannada). Kannada Authors stand distinction of winning vii jnanpeeth awards, the greatest literary award around India.

Hindi literature
Hindi literature started when religious & philosophic poetry inside mediaeval periods within idiom prefer Avadhi and Brij. A best known numbers from either this period of time come Kabir and Tulsidas. Within modern days, a Khadi idiom became further large & the kind of literature was produced around Sanskrit.

Chandrakanta, written by Devaki Nandan Khatri, is considered to be a number 1 operate of prose inside Hindi. Munshi Premchand was the best known Hindi novelist. A chhayavadi poets include Surya kant tripathi "Nirala", Jaishankar Prasad, Sumitranandan Pant,and Mahadevi Varma other renouned poets are Maithili Sharan Gupt,Agay,Harivansh rai bachan,Kedarnath agrawal,Shamsher,Gajanan madhav "Muqtibodh",Ramdhari Singh "Dinkar",Nagarjun,Raghuveer sahai,Dharmveer bharti and Kedar nath singh.

Urdu literature
Among more traditions, Urdu poetry is a fine case of linguistic & ethnical synthesis. Arab and Persian vocabulary based on the Hindi language resulted withinside a brobdingnagian & super dear class of ghazal literature, ordinarily written by Muslims in contexts ranging from either romance & society to philosophy & devotion to Allah. Urdu soon became a court language of the Mughals & inside its higher forms was another time known as the "Kohinoor" of Indian languages.

Bengali literature
A virtually all internationally famed Bengali writer is Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, who received a Nobel Prize for Literature; but an additional poet, a single generation immature is equally popular, worthful, & influential inside his united states, though virtually unknown inside foreign countries: Kazi Nazrul Islam. More renowned Indian Bengali writers were Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. Bengali is the 2nd virtually all usually spoken language within India (when Hindi). Following of the Bengali renaissance in the Nineteenth & Twentieth centuries, quite bit of India's best known, & comparatively recent, literature, poetry, & songs come inside Bengali.

Marathi literature
Marathi literature began with saint-poets prefer Dnyaneshwar, Tukaram, Ramdas, and Eknath. Modern Marathi literature was marked by the theme of social reform. Easily-known numbers from either this phase include Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, Lokhitwadi, and others. Large modern literary numbers include Vishnu Sakharam Khandekar, P.L. Deshpande, Vijay Tendulkar, and Vishnu Vaman Shirvadakar (Kavi Kusumagraj).

Malayalam literature
Indian writing in English
inside the go century, many Indian writers own distinguished themselves non merely in traditional Indian languages but also inside English. India's merely Nobel laureate around literature was a Bengali writer Rabindranath Tagore. More major even writers world health organization come either Indian or of Indian origin & derive great deal inspiration from either Indian themes are R. K. Narayan, Vikram Seth, Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Raja Rao, Amitav Ghosh, Vikram Chandra, Mukul Kesavan, Shashi Tharoor, Nayantara Sehgal, Anita Desai, Ashok Banker, Shashi Deshpande, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Bharati Mukherjee.

Inside recent years, English-language writers of Indian origin come existence published in the West at an astonishing rate. Around June 1997, the favorite fiction issue of The New Yorker magazine devoted much space to essays by Amitav Ghosh and Abraham Verghese, a short story by Vikram Chandra, and verse form by Jayanta Mahapatra and A. K. Ramanujan. John Updike profiled R.K. Narayan and Arundhati Roy's "A God of Small Things." Salman Rushdie acknowledged the influence of G. V. Desani on his writing.

Indian literature in other languages

Awards
A Jnanpith Award is India's highest literary award.

de:Indische Literatur