1.
Agastya
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Agastya is a revered Vedic sage of Hinduism. In the Indian traditions, he is a recluse and an influential scholar in diverse languages of the Indian subcontinent. He and his wife Lopamudra are the authors of hymns 1.165 to 1.191 in the Sanskrit text Rigveda. Agastya is considered by many to be the father of the Tamil language, Agastya is a character in numerous inconsistent mythologies and regional epics including the major Ramayana and Mahabharata. He is also revered in the Puranic literature of Shaktism and Vaishnavism and he is one of the Indian sages found in ancient sculpture and reliefs in Hindu temples of South Asia, and Southeast Asia such as in the early medieval era Shaiva temples on Java Indonesia. He is the figure and Guru in the ancient Javanese language text Agastyaparva. He is also referred to as Mana, Kalasaja, Kumbhaja, the etymological origin of Agastya is unclear and there are several theories. One states that it is derived from a tree called Agati gandiflora. This theory suggests that Agati evolved into Agastih, and favors Dravidian origins of the Vedic sage, a third theory links it to Indo-European origins, through the Iranian word gasta which means sin, foul, and a-gasta would mean not sin, not foul. The word is written as Agasti and Agathiyar. The origins of Agastya are mythical, unlike most Vedic sages, he has neither a human mother nor a father. According to Hindu mythology, his miraculous birth follows a yajna being done by gods Varuna and Mitra and they are overwhelmed by her extraordinary sexuality, and ejaculate. Their semen falls into a mud pitcher, which is the womb in which the fetus of Agastya grows and he is born from this jar, along with his twin sage Vashistha in some mythologies. This mythology gives him the name kumbhayoni, which means he whose womb was a mud pot. Agastya leads a life, educates himself, becoming a celebrated sage. He is not born to Brahmin parents, but is called a Brahmin in many Indian texts because of his learning, in the Tamil traditions, he is considered a form of the Hindu god Shiva, one well versed in Sanskrit and a symbol of Tamil learning. According to inconsistent legends in the Puranic and the epics, the ascetic sage Agastya proposed to Lopamudra and her parents were unwilling to bless the engagement, concerned that she would be unable to live the austere lifestyle of Agastya in the forest. Therewith, Lopamudra becomes the wife of Agastya, Agastya and Lopamudra have a son named Drdhasyu, sometimes called Idhmavaha
2.
Tamil Sangams
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The Tamil Sangams or Cankams were assemblies of Tamil scholars and poets that, according to traditional Tamil accounts, occurred in the remote past. Scholars believe that these assemblies were originally known as kooṭam or gathering, the legend has it that the first two were held in cities since taken by the sea, and the third was held in the present-day city of Madurai. The word sangam is used in the context of an academy in several Tamil literary works, such as Tevaram, Thiruvilayadal puranam, periyapuranam, also legend has it that Nammazwars Thiruvaimozhi was approved in an assembly of 300 poets. The Sangam period extended from roughly 400 BC to 200 AD, however, the name Sangam and the associated legends probably derive from a much later period. Others reject the notion as not factual. Nevertheless, legends of the Sangams played a significant role in inspiring political, social, the earliest express references to the academies are found in the songs of Appar and Sampandar, Shaivite poets who lived in the 7th century. The first full account of the legend is found in a commentary to the Iraiyanar Akapporul by Nakkīrar, Nakkīrar describes three Sangams spanning thousands of years. A total of 4449 poets are described as having composed songs for this Sangam, there were 89 Pandiya kings starting from Kaysina valudi to Kadungon were decedents and rulers of that period. The grammar followed in the first sangam was agattiyam, the poems composed were Paripaadal, mudunarai, mudukurugu, kalariyavirai. If credence is given to the commentary of Irayanar Ahapporul, the beginning of sangam should be placed somewhere in 9000 B. C, the second Sangam idaichangam was convened in Kapatapuram. This Sangam lasted for 3700 years and had 59 members, with 3700 poets participating, there were 59 Pandiya kings starting from Vendercceliyan to Mudattirumaran were decedents and rulers of that period. This city was submerged in sea. Ramayana and Arthashastra of Kautalya corroborates the existence of a city named kavatapuram, there is a reference to a south Indian place called kavata by sugriva in a verse which runs something like having reached Kavata suitable for Pandiya. The place kavata is also mentioned by Kautalya in Arthashastra, the grammar followed was budapuranam, agattiyam, tholkaapiyam, mapuranam and isainunukkam. The poems attributed to second academy are Kali, Kurugu, vendali, the third Sangam kadaichangam was purportedly located in the current city of Madurai and lasted for 1850 years. There were 49 Pandiya kings starting from Mudattirumaran to Ukkirapperu valudi were decedents, the academy had 49 members, and 449 poets are described as having participated in the Sangam. The grammars followed were agattiyam and tholkappiyam, the poems composed were Kurunthogai, Netunthogai, kurunthogai nanooru, narrinai nanooru, purananooru, aingurunooru, padirrupaatu, kali, paripaadal, kuttu, vari, sirrisai and perisai. There are a number of other isolated references to the legend of academies at Madurai scattered through Shaivite and Vaishnavite devotional literature throughout later literature
3.
Madurai
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Madurai is a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the headquarters of Madurai District. Madurai is the third largest city by population in Tamil Nadu, located on the banks of River Vaigai, Madurai has been a major settlement for two millennia. Madurai was the longest continuous capital city until British rule in India, Madurai has been selected as one of the hundred Indian cities to be developed as a smart city under Prime Minister Narendra Modis flagship Smart Cities Mission. Madurai is closely associated with the Tamil language, and the third Tamil Sangam, the recorded history of the city goes back to the 3rd century BCE, being mentioned by Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador to India, and Kautilya, a minister of the Mauryan emperor Chandragupta Maurya. Signs of human settlements and Roman trade links dating back to 300BC are evident from excavations by Archeological Survey of India in Manalur, the city has a number of historical monuments, with the Meenakshi Amman Temple and Tirumalai Nayak Palace being the most prominent. Madurai is an important industrial and educational hub in South Tamil Nadu, the city is home to various automobile, rubber, chemical and granite manufacturing industries. It has developed as a city for information technology. Madurai has important government educational institutes like the Madurai Medical College, Homeopathic Medical College, Madurai Law College, Agricultural College, Madurai city is administered by a municipal corporation established in 1971 as per the Municipal Corporation Act. Madurai is the corporation in Tamil Nadu next to Chennai corporation. The city covers an area of 147.97 km2 and had a population of 1,017,865 in 2011, the city is also the seat of a bench of the Madras High Court. The city is referred by various names including Madurai, Koodal, Malligai Maanagar, Naanmadakoodal, the word Madurai may be derived from Madhura arising out of the divine nectar showered on the city by the Hindu god Shiva from his matted hair. Another theory is that Madurai is the derivative of the word Marutham, a town in the neighbouring Dindigul district is called Vada Madurai and another in Sivagangai district is called Manamadurai. The different names by which the city has referred to historically are listed in the 7th-century poem Thiruvilayaadal puraanam written by Paranjothi Munivar. Koodal means an assembly or congregation of people, referring to the three Tamil Sangams held at Madurai. Naanmadakoodal, meaning the junction of four towers, refers to the four major temples for which Madurai was known for, tevaram, the 7th- or 8th-century Tamil compositions on Shiva by the three prominent Nayanars, namely Appar, Sundarar and Thirugnanasambandar, address the city as Thirualavai. As per Iravatham Mahadevan, a 2nd-century BCE Tamil-Brahmi inscription refers to the city as matiray, Madurai has been inhabited since at least the 3rd century BCE. Megasthenes may have visited Madurai during the 3rd century BCE, with the city referred as Methora in his accounts
4.
Pandiya
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The Pandyan or Pandiyan or Pandian dynasty was an ancient Tamil dynasty, one of the three Tamil dynasties, the other two being the Chola and the Chera. The Pandya King, along with Chera King and Chola King, were referred to as the Three Crowned Kings of Tamilakam, the dynasty ruled parts of South India from around 600 BCE to first half of 17th century CE. They initially ruled their country Pandya Nadu from Korkai, a seaport on the southernmost tip of the Indian Peninsula, fish being their flag, Pandyas were experts in water management, agriculture and fisheries and they were eminent sailors and sea traders too. Pandyan was well known since ancient times, with contacts, even diplomatic, the Pandyan empire was home to temples including Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai, and Nellaiappar Temple built on the bank of the river Thamirabarani in Tirunelveli. The Pandya kings were called either Jatavarman or Maravarman Pandyan, from being Jains in their early ages, they became Shaivaites after some centuries of rule. Strabo states that an Indian king called Pandion sent Augustus Caesar presents and gifts of honour, the country of the Pandyas, Pandi Mandala, was described as Pandyan Mediterranea in the Periplus and Modura Regia Pandyan by Ptolemy. The early Pandyan Dynasty of the Sangam Literature faded into obscurity upon the invasion of the Kalabhras, the dynasty revived under Kadungon in the early 6th century, pushed the Kalabhras out of the Tamil country and ruled from Madurai. They again went into decline with the rise of the Cholas in the 9th century and were in constant conflict with them. The Pandyas allied themselves with the Sinhalese and the Cheras in harassing the Chola empire until they found an opportunity for reviving their fortunes during the late 13th century and they also had extensive trade links with the Southeast Asian maritime empires of Srivijaya and their successors. The Pandyas excelled in trade and literature. They controlled the fisheries along the South Indian coast, between Sri Lanka and India, which produced some of the finest pearls in the known ancient world. Traditionally, the legendary Sangams were held in Madurai under their patronage, during their history, the Pandyas were repeatedly in conflict with the Pallavas, Cholas, Hoysalas and finally the Muslim invaders from the Delhi Sultanate. The Islamic invasion led to the end of Pandyan supremacy in South India,1323, Jaffna Kingdom in Sri Lanka declared its independence from the crumbling Pandyan Empire. The Pandyans lost their capital city Madurai to Madurai Sultanate in 1335, however they shifted their capital to Tenkasi and continued to rule the Tirulnelveli, Tuticorin, Ramanad, Sivagangai regions. Meanwhile, Madurai sultanate was replaced by Nayaka governors of Vijayanagara in 1378, in 1529 Nayaka governors declared independence and established Madurai Nayak dynasty. The word Pandya is derived from the Tamil word Pandu meaning very old, another theory is that the word Pandya is derived from the Tamil word Pandi meaning bull. Ancient Tamils, considered the bull as a sign of masculinity, the earliest Pandyans, probably used the bull as its emblem. Another theory suggests that in Sangam Tamil lexicon the word Pandya means old country in contrast with Chola meaning new country, Chera meaning hill country, the Chera, Chola and Pandya are the traditional Tamil siblings and together with the Pallavas are the major Kings that ruled ancient Tamilakam
5.
Tamil language
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Tamil is a Dravidian language predominantly spoken by the Tamil people of India and Sri Lanka, and also by the Tamil diaspora, Sri Lankan Moors, Burghers, Douglas, and Chindians. Tamil is a language of two countries, Singapore and Sri Lanka. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and it is also used as one of the languages of education in Malaysia, along with English, Malay and Mandarin. Tamil is also spoken by significant minorities in the four other South Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and it is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India. Tamil is one of the classical languages in the world. Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions from 500 BC have been found on Adichanallur and 2 and it has been described as the only language of contemporary India which is recognizably continuous with a classical past. The variety and quality of classical Tamil literature has led to it being described as one of the classical traditions. A recorded Tamil literature has been documented for over 2000 years, the earliest period of Tamil literature, Sangam literature, is dated from ca.300 BC – AD300. It has the oldest extant literature among other Dravidian languages, the earliest epigraphic records found on rock edicts and hero stones date from around the 3rd century BC. More than 55% of the inscriptions found by the Archaeological Survey of India are in the Tamil language. Tamil language inscriptions written in Brahmi script have been discovered in Sri Lanka, the two earliest manuscripts from India, acknowledged and registered by the UNESCO Memory of the World register in 1997 and 2005, were written in Tamil. In 1578, Portuguese Christian missionaries published a Tamil prayer book in old Tamil script named Thambiraan Vanakkam, the Tamil Lexicon, published by the University of Madras, was one of the earliest dictionaries published in the Indian languages. According to a 2001 survey, there were 1,863 newspapers published in Tamil, Tamil belongs to the southern branch of the Dravidian languages, a family of around 26 languages native to the Indian subcontinent. It is also classified as being part of a Tamil language family, the closest major relative of Tamil is Malayalam, the two began diverging around the 9th century CE. According to linguists like Bhadriraju Krishnamurti, Tamil, as a Dravidian language, descends from Proto-Dravidian, linguistic reconstruction suggests that Proto-Dravidian was spoken around the third millennium BC, possibly in the region around the lower Godavari river basin in peninsular India. The material evidence suggests that the speakers of Proto-Dravidian were of the associated with the Neolithic complexes of South India. The next phase in the reconstructed proto-history of Tamil is Proto-South Dravidian, the linguistic evidence suggests that Proto-South Dravidian was spoken around the middle of the second millennium BC, and that proto-Tamil emerged around the 3rd century BC. The earliest epigraphic attestations of Tamil are generally taken to have been shortly thereafter
6.
Tamil literature
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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. Contributors to the Tamil literature are mainly from Tamil people from South India, including the land now comprising Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Sri Lankan Tamils from Sri Lanka, and from Tamil diaspora. The history of Tamil literature follows the history of Tamil Nadu, the early Sangam literature, starting from the period of 2nd century BCE, contain anthologies of various poets dealing with many aspects of life, including love, war, social values and religion. This was followed by the early epics and moral literature, authored by Hindu, Jain and Buddhist authors, from the 6th to 12th century CE, the Tamil devotional poems written by Nayanmars and Azhvars, heralded the great Bhakti movement which later engulfed the entire Indian subcontinent. The later medieval period saw many assorted minor literary works and also contributions by a few Muslim and European authors. A revival of Tamil literature took place from the late 19th century when works of religious, with growth of literacy, Tamil prose began to blossom and mature. Short stories and novels began to appear, modern Tamil Literary criticism also evolved. The popularity of Tamil cinema has also interacted with Tamil literature in some mutually enriching ways, Sangam literature comprises some of the oldest extant Tamil literature, and deals with love, war, governance, trade and bereavement. Unfortunately much of the Tamil literature belonging to the Sangam period has been lost, the literature currently available from this period is perhaps just a fraction of the wealth of material produced during this golden age of Tamil civilization. The available literature from this period has been divided in antiquity into three categories based roughly on chronology. These are, the Major Eighteen Anthology Series comprising the Eight Anthologies and the Ten Idylls, Tolkaappiyam, a commentary on grammar, phonetics, rhetoric and poetics is dated from this period. Tamil legends hold that these were composed in three successive poetic assemblies that were held in ancient times on a now vanished continent far to the south of India. A significant amount of literature could have preceded Tolkappiyam as grammar books are written after the existence of literature over long periods. Tamil tradition holds the earliest Sangam poetry to be over twelve millennia old, modern linguistic scholarship places the poems between the 1st century BC and the 3rd century AD. Sangam age is considered by the Tamil people as the era of Tamil language. This was the period when the Tamil country was ruled by the three crowned kings the Cheras, Pandyas and the Cholas, the land was at peace with no major external threats. Asokas conquests did not impact on the Tamil land and the people were able to indulge in literary pursuits, the poets had a much more casual relationship with their rulers than can be imagined in later times
7.
Sangam period
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Sangam period is the period in the history of ancient Tamil Nadu spanning from c. 4th century BC to c. It is named after the famous Sangam academies of poets and scholars centered in the city of Madurai, according to Tamil legends, there were three Sangam periods, namely Head Sangam, Middle Sangam and Last Sangam period. Historians use the term Sangam period to refer the last of these, so it is also called Last Sangam period, or Third Sangam period. The Sangam literature is thought to have produced in three Sangam academies of each period. The evidence on the history of the Tamil kingdoms consists of the epigraphs of the region, the Sangam literature. Approximately during the period between 400 BC to AD200, Tamilakam was ruled by the three Tamil dynasties of Pandya, Chola and Chera, and a few independent chieftains, the Velir. There is a wealth of sources detailing the history, socio-political environment and cultural practices of ancient Tamilakam, including volumes of literature, tamilakams history is split into three periods, prehistoric, classical and medieval. A vast array of literary, epigraphical and inscribed sources from around the world provide insight into the socio-political and cultural occurrences in the Tamil nation. The religion of the ancient Tamils closely follow roots of nature worship, in the ancient Sangam literature, Sivan was the supreme God, and Murugan was the one celebrated by the masses, both of them were sung as deified Tamil poets ascending the Koodal academy. The Tamil landscape was classified into five categories, thinais, based on the mood, the season, other ancient works refer to Maayon and Vaali. The most popular deity was Murugan, who has from an early date been identified with Karthikeya. Kannagi, the heroine of the Silappatikaram, was worshiped as Pathini by many Tamils, there were also many temples and devotees of Thirumaal, Siva, Ganapathi, and the other common Hindu deities. The year was made up of twelve months and every two months constituted a season, with the popularity of Mazhai vizhavu, traditionally commencement of Tamil year was clubbed on April 14, deviating from the astronomical date of vadavazhi vizhavu. Pongal, பொங்கல் the festival of harvest and spring, thanking Lord Indiran and Lord El and this day comes on April 14/15. Mazhai Vizhavu, aka Indhira Vizha, the festival for want of rain, celebrated for one month starting from the full moon in Ootrai சித்திரை. It is epitomised in the epic Cilapatikaram in detail, soornavai Vizha, the slaying of legendary Kadamba Asura king Surabadma, by Lord, comes on the sixth day after new moon in Itrai. It is sung about in Thirumurugatrupadai and Purananuru anthology, vaadai Vizha or Vadavazhi Vizha, the festival of welcoming the Lord Surya back to home, as He turns northward, celebrated on December 21/22. It is sung about in Akanauru anthology, aathi Irai min means the star of the God on the Bull
8.
Secular
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Secularity is the state of being separate from religion, or of not being exclusively allied with or against any particular religion. Historically, the secular was not related or linked to religion. The idea of a dichotomy between religion and the secular originated in the 18th century European Enlightenment, one can regard eating and bathing as examples of secular activities, because there may not be anything inherently religious about them. Nevertheless, some religious traditions see both eating and bathing as sacraments, therefore making them religious activities within those world views, saying a prayer derived from religious text or doctrine, worshipping through the context of a religion, and attending a religious school are examples of religious activities. The secular is experienced in diverse ways ranging from separation of religion and state to being anti-religion or even pro-religion, a related term, secularism, involves the principle that government institutions and their representatives should remain separate from religious institutions, their beliefs, and their dignitaries. Many businesses and corporations, and some operate on secular lines. This stands in contrast to theocracy, government with deity as its highest authority, Secular and secularity derive from the Latin word saeculum which meant of a generation, belonging to an age or denoted a period of about one hundred years. In the ancient world, saeculum was not defined in contrast to any sacred concerns and had a usage in Latin. It was in Christian Latin of medieval times, that saeculum was used for distinguishing this temporal age of the world from the realm of God. The Christian doctrine that God exists outside time led medieval Western culture to use secular to indicate separation from specifically religious affairs and involvement in temporal ones. This does not necessarily imply hostility to God or religion, though some use the term this way, routinization — institutionalizing through integration into the society. Differentiation — a redefined place such as when accepting its status as one religion in a plural religious field or morphing into a more generic, disengagement — the detachment of certain facets of social life from religion. Transformation — gradual change over time in a sense that Protestantism became for Christianity. Generalization — a particular kind of change in which it becomes less specific, more abstract, has moderation of controversial and divisive claims. Desacralization — culture and rationality guide people while leaving out religious beings, segmentation — the development of specialized religious institutions, which take their place beside other specialized social institutions. Secularism — the only form that leads to rejection of religion. Examples of secular used in this way include, Secular authority, which involves legal, police, and military authority, as distinct from clerical authority, or matters under church control. Secular clergy in the Roman Catholic Church, who, traditionally, do not live the lives of the regular clergy and are therefore, in a sense
9.
Colophon (publishing)
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In publishing, a colophon is a brief statement containing information about the publication of a book such as the place of publication, the publisher, and the date of publication. A colophon may also be emblematic or pictorial in nature, colophons were formerly printed at the ends of books, but in modern works they are usually located at the verso of the title-leaf. The term colophon derives from the Late Latin colophōn, from the Greek κολοφών and it should not be confused with Colophon, an ancient city in Asia Minor, after which colophony, or rosin, is named. The term is applied to clay tablet inscriptions appended by a scribe to the end of an Ancient Near East text such as a chapter, book, manuscript. The colophon usually contained facts relative to the such as associated person, literary contents. Colophons and catch phrases helped the reader organize and identify various tablets, positionally, colophons on ancient tablets are comparable to a signature line in modern times. Bibliographically, however, they closely resemble the imprint page in a modern book. Examples of colophons in ancient literature may be found in the compilation The Ancient Near East, Supplementary Texts, colophons are also found in the Pentateuch, where an understanding of this ancient literary convention illuminates passages that are otherwise unclear or incoherent. An extensive study of the eleven colophons found in the book of Genesis was done by Percy John Wiseman. C. sometimes additional information, such as the name of a proofreader or editor, or other more-or-less relevant details, might be added. A colophon might also be emblematic or pictorial rather than in words, the normal position for a colophon was after the explicit. After around 1500 these data were transferred to the title page. Colophons sometimes contained book curses, as this was the one place in a medieval manuscript where a scribe was free to write what he wished, such curses tend to be unique to each book. In Great Britain colophons grew generally less common in the 16th century, in some parts of the world, colophons helped fledgling printers and printing companies gain social recognition. For example, in early modern Armenia printers used colophons as a way to gain power by getting their name out into the social sphere. Some commercial publishers took up the use of colophons, and began to include details in their books. Such colophons might identify the designer, the software used, the printing method, the printing company, the typeface used in the page design. Book publishers Alfred A. Knopf, the Folio Society and OReilly Media are notable for their substantial colophons, some web pages also have colophons, which frequently contain HTML, CSS, or usability standards compliance information and links to website validation tests. Jerusalem Colophon Union label Wiseman hypothesis
10.
Arumuga Navalar
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Arumuka Navalar was one of the early revivalists of native Hindu Tamil traditions in Sri Lanka and India. As part of his religious revivalism, he was one of the early adaptors of modern Tamil prose, introduced Western editing techniques, and built schools that taught secular and Hindu religious subjects. He was a defender of Saivism against Christian missionary activity and was one of the first natives to use the printing press to preserve the Tamil literary tradition. He published many polemical tracts in defence of Saivism, and also sought and he also attempted to reform Saivism itself – an effort which sometimes led to the decline of popular deities and worship modes and confrontation with traditional authorities of religion. Some post-colonial authors have criticised his contributions as parochial, limited, conservative, Tamil people are found natively in South India and in Sri Lanka. During the Sangam period in the centuries of the common era, Buddhist and Jain missionary activity from North India resulted in Tamil Hindu literati defining their own cults. The result was the poems of the saints, the Nayanars and Alvars. They institutionalised a definition of a Tamil Hindu on the basis Tamil literary culture, the mostly Vellala and Iyer Brahmin literati were Shaiva, the largest of the sects. By the 13th to 18th centuries, Shaiva theologians codified their religious traditions as Shaiva Siddhanta, Shaiva theologians did not formally include or confront Muslims and Christians in this classification but they included them along with Buddhists, Jains, and pagans. Arumuga Navalar was one of the first Tamil laymen to undertake as his lifes career the intellectual and institutional response of Saivism to Christianity in Sri Lanka, the 18th and 19th century Tamils in India and Sri Lanka found themselves in the midst of intrusive Protestant Missionary activity. Although Tamil Saivas opposed Roman Catholic and Protestant missions from the earliest days that they were established, but by 1835 Tamils who were able to own and operate presses used them to print palm-leaf manuscripts. They also converted native literature from poetry to prose with additional commentary, most of these activities happened in Jaffna in British Ceylon and Madras in Madras Presidency. By the time Navalar was born, Protestants from England and America had established nine mission stations in the Jaffna peninsula, Tamils in Jaffna faced a concentrated effort to convert them as opposed to Tamil in Southern India. This move angered local Shaivas as they interpreted it as a move by the missionaries to understand, although the missionaries were able to translate and study the material, they were unable to teach it, as locals boycotted the classes. As a response, two anti-Christian poems appeared in Jaffna, the poet Muttukumara Kavirajar wrote the Jnanakkummi and Yesumataparikaram. This was followed up by publications of polemic nature by both sides, aMCs Batticotta Seminary launched a semimonthly and bilingual periodical called The Morning Star. The aim of this periodical was to challenge all non-Protestants to stand up to intellectual scrutiny, the 19th century Protestants of Jaffna believed that Shaivism was evil and in the struggle God and the Devil, they intended The Morning Star to reveal the falsity of Shaivism. Navalar, born Arumukam also spelt Arumugam in 1822, belonged to an elite Vellalas caste and he grew up in the Tamil dominated regions of Sri Lanka
11.
U. V. Swaminatha Iyer
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Uttamadhanapuram Venkatasubbaiyer Swaminatha Iyer was a Tamil scholar and researcher who was instrumental in bringing many long-forgotten works of classical Tamil literature to light. His singular effort over five decades brought to light major literary works in Tamil, Iyer published over 91 books in his lifetime, on a variety of matters connected to classical Tamil literature, and collected 3,067 paper manuscripts, palm-leaf manuscripts and notes of various kinds. He is affectionately called Tamil Thatha, utthamadhanapuram Venkatasubramanian Swaminathan was born on 19 February 1855 in the village of Suriaymoolai near Kumbakonam in present-day Tamil Nadu. Swaminatha Iyer learned Tamil literature and grammar for five years as a student to Mahavidwan Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai. He was also a beneficiary of the reputed Saiva Mutt at Thiruvavaduthurai, tyagaraja Chettiar was the head of the Tamil Department at the Government Arts College, Kumbakonam. A student of Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai, he was a man of erudition and was held in high esteem alike by his pupils. When Chettiar retired, he recommended that Swaminatha Iyer be invited to take his place, Swaminatha Iyer was duly appointed to that post on 16 February 1880. During his tenure at the College, Swaminatha Iyer met Salem Ramaswami Mudaliar, the friendship between them proved to be a turning point in Swaminatha Iyers life. Mudaliar was responsible for persuading Iyer to edit and publish the ancient Tamil classics, Swaminatha Iyer had till then confined his enjoyment of Tamil literature to medieval works. Mudaliar also gave him a copy of Seevaga Sindhamani for publication. As the Civaka Cintamani was a Jain classic, Swaminatha Iyer went to the homes of learned member of the Jain community in Kumbakonam to get some doubts cleared and he also read the Jain epics and collated several manuscript versions and arrived at a correct conclusion. It was due to his efforts that the Cevaka Cintamani was published in 1887, from that time onwards, he began to search for Sangam classics with a view to editing and publishing them. After the Cevaka Cintamani, the Pattupattu was published, thus began Swaminatha Iyers long search for the original texts of ancient literary works during which he regularly worked with S. V. Damodaram Pillai. It was a search that lasted until his death, many people voluntarily parted with the manuscripts in their possession. Swaminatha Iyer visited almost every hamlet and knocked at every door and he employed all the resources at his command to get at the works. As a result, a number of literary works which were gathering dust as palm-leaf manuscripts in lofts, storerooms, boxes. Of them, the Cilappatikaram, Manimekalai and Purananuru were received by Tamil lovers with a lot of enthusiasm, Purananuru, which mirrored the lives of Tamils during the Sangam period, prompted scholarly research on the subject. In a span of five decades, Swaminatha Iyer published about 100 books, including minor poems, lyrics, puranas
12.
Sangam landscape
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The Sangam landscape is the name given to a poetic device that was characteristic of love poetry in classical Tamil Sangam literature. The core of the device was the categorisation of poems into different tiṇais or modes, depending on the nature, location, mood, classical Tamil love poetry assigns the human experiences it describes, and in particular the subjective topics that those experiences relate to, to specific habitats. Every situation in the poems is described using themes in which the time, the place and these codifications are used as symbols to imply a socio-economic order, occupations and behaviour patterns, which, in turn, are symbolized, by specific flora and fauna. Four of the landscapes are described as being landscapes that occur naturally in the Tamil lands. The fifth - pālai, or desert, associated with separation - is described in the Tolkappiyam as not being a naturally existing landscape, from these basic associations of landscape and subject, a wide range of specific themes suitable for each landscape were derived. According to the Tamilneri vilakkam, a 9th-century text on poetry, the two non-geographical modes - kaikkilai and peruntiṇai - were seen as dealing with emotions that were non-conforming, and therefore were not associated with any specific landscape. Kaikkilai, dealt with unreciprocated or one-sided love, while peruntiṇai, in Tamil, each of the five geographical thinais are named for a flower that is characteristic of that landscape. The mountain is the scene of the union at midnight. It is the cold, dewy season, the forest is rich with lakes, waterfalls, teak, bamboo and sandalwood. In this region millet grows and wild bees are a source of honey, love in this setting is exemplified by Murugan, and one of his wives, Valli, the daughter of a mountain dweller. He wears the sparkling red kantal flower and rides a peacock, the name of the region, Kurinci, is also the name of the famous Kurinji flower from the lofty hills of Tamil country. The Strobilanthes, a shrub whose brilliant white flowers blossom for only a few days once every ten or twelve years, the lovers hold each other tighter still and forget the dangers of the mountain path. Mullai is the land of the forest, the forest is rich with lakes, waterfalls, teak, bamboo and sandalwood. In this region millet grows and wild bees are a source of honey, Mullai or Jasmine is the flower of the forests. The Marutam tree was the tree of this region. The seashore affords many examples of the charm of Sangam poetry. Water lily is the flower of the region. In classical Tamil prosody, the pālai or wasteland is not seen as being a naturally occurring ecology, paalai could thus be seen as a mixture of Mullai and Kuṟiñci tracts, rather than as a mere sandy area
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History of literature
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Some recorded materials, such as compilations of data are not considered literature, and this article relates only to the evolution of the works defined above. Literature and writing, though connected, are not synonymous, scholars have often disagreed concerning when written record-keeping became more like literature than anything else, the definition is largely subjective. Moreover, given the significance of distance as a cultural isolator in earlier centuries, the historical development of literature did not occur at an even pace across the world. Much has been written, for example, about the destruction of the Library of Alexandria in the 1st century BC, the deliberate suppression of texts by organisations of either a spiritual or a temporal nature further shrouds the subject. Certain primary texts, however, may be isolated which have a role as literatures first stirrings. Many texts handed down by oral tradition over several centuries before they were fixed in form are difficult or impossible to date. The core of the Rigveda may date to the mid 2nd millennium BC, the Pentateuch is traditionally dated to the 15th century, although modern scholarship estimates its oldest part to date to the 10th century BC at the earliest. Homers Iliad and Odyssey date to the 8th century BC and mark the beginning of Classical Antiquity and they also stand in an oral tradition that stretches back to the late Bronze Age. The great Hindu epics were also transmitted orally, likely predating the Maurya period, the Classic of Poetry is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, comprising 305 works by anonymous authors dating from the 11th to 7th centuries BC. The Chu Ci anthology is a volume of poems attributed to or considered to be inspired by Qu Yuans verse writing. Qu Yuan is the first author of verse in China to have his name associated to his work and is regarded as one of the most prominent figures of Romanticism in Chinese classical literature. The first great author on military tactics and strategy was Sun Tzu, among the earliest Chinese works of narrative history, Zuo Zhuan is a gem of classical Chinese prose. This work and the Shiji or Records of the Grand Historian, were regarded as the models by many generations of prose stylists in ancient China. The books that constitute the Hebrew Bible developed over roughly a millennium, the oldest texts seem to come from the eleventh or tenth centuries BCE, whilst most of the other texts are somewhat later. They are edited works, being collections of various sources intricately and carefully woven together, the Old Testament was compiled and edited by various men over a period of centuries, with many scholars concluding that the Hebrew canon was solidified by about the 3rd century BC. The works have been subject to various literary evaluations, friedrich Nietzsche wrote, “In the Jewish Old Testament, there are men, things and speeches in so grand a style that Greek and Indian literature have nothing to compare to it. One stands with awe and reverence before these tremendous remnants of what man once was, the taste for the Old Testament is a touchstone of greatness and smallness. ”Ancient Greek society placed considerable emphasis upon literature. Notable among later Greek poets was Sappho, who defined, in many ways, a playwright named Aeschylus changed Western literature forever when he introduced the ideas of dialogue and interacting characters to playwriting
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Sumerian literature
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Sumerian literature is the literature written in the Sumerian language during the Middle Bronze Age. Most Sumerian literature is preserved indirectly, via Assyrian or Babylonian copies, the Sumerians invented the first writing system, developing Sumerian cuneiform writing out of earlier proto-writing systems by about the 30th century BC. The earliest literary texts appear from about the 27th century BC and it is not rhymed, although “comparable effects were sometimes exploited. ”It did not use syllabo-tonic versification, and the writing system precludes detection of rhythm, metre, rhyme, or alliteration. Quantitative analysis of other possible poetic features seems to be lacking, the Sumerians, Their History, Culture, and Character. In M. E. Vogelzang, H. L. J. Vanstiphout, mesopotamian Poetic Language, Sumerian and Akkadian. Jeremy Black, Graham Cunningham, Eleanor Robson, Gábor Zólyomi, the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature Catalogue of literary works at the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
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Ancient Egyptian literature
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Ancient Egyptian literature was written in the Egyptian language from ancient Egypts pharaonic period until the end of Roman domination. It represents the oldest corpus of Egyptian literature, along with Sumerian literature, it is considered the worlds earliest literature. Writing in ancient Egypt—both hieroglyphic and hieratic—first appeared in the late 4th millennium BC during the phase of predynastic Egypt. It was not until the early Middle Kingdom that a narrative Egyptian literature was created and this was a media revolution which, according to Richard B. However, it is possible that the literacy rate was less than one percent of the entire population. The creation of literature was thus an elite exercise, monopolized by a scribal class attached to government offices, However, there is no full consensus among modern scholars concerning the dependence of ancient Egyptian literature on the sociopolitical order of the royal courts. Middle Egyptian, the language of the Middle Kingdom, became a classical language during the New Kingdom. Scribes of the New Kingdom canonized and copied many literary texts written in Middle Egyptian, some genres of Middle Kingdom literature, such as teachings and fictional tales, remained popular in the New Kingdom, although the genre of prophetic texts was not revived until the Ptolemaic period. Popular tales included the Story of Sinuhe and The Eloquent Peasant, while important teaching texts include the Instructions of Amenemhat and The Loyalist Teaching. By the New Kingdom period, the writing of graffiti on sacred temple and tomb walls flourished as a unique genre of literature. The acknowledgment of rightful authorship remained important only in a few genres, while texts of the genre were pseudonymous. Ancient Egyptian literature has been preserved on a variety of media. This includes papyrus scrolls and packets, limestone or ceramic ostraca, wooden writing boards, monumental stone edifices, Texts preserved and unearthed by modern archaeologists represent a small fraction of ancient Egyptian literary material. The area of the floodplain of the Nile is under-represented because the moist environment is unsuitable for the preservation of papyri, on the other hand, hidden caches of literature, buried for thousands of years, have been discovered in settlements on the dry desert margins of Egyptian civilization. By the Early Dynastic Period in the late 4th millennium BC, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Egyptian hieroglyphs are small artistic pictures of natural objects. The Narmer Palette, dated c.3100 BC during the last phase of Predynastic Egypt, combines the hieroglyphs for catfish and chisel to produce the name of King Narmer. The Egyptians called their hieroglyphs words of god and reserved their use for exalted purposes, such as communicating with divinities, each hieroglyphic word represented both, a specific object and embodied the essence of that object, recognizing it as divinely made and belonging within the greater cosmos. Through acts of priestly ritual, like burning incense, the priest allowed spirits, mutilating the hieroglyph of a venomous snake, or other dangerous animal, removed a potential threat
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Akkadian literature
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Akkadian literature is the ancient literature written in the Akkadian language written in Mesopotamia during the period spanning the Middle Bronze Age to the Iron Age. Drawing on the traditions of Sumerian literature, the Babylonians compiled a substantial textual tradition of narrative, legal texts, scientific works, letters. There were libraries in most towns and temples, an old Sumerian proverb averred that he who would excel in the school of the scribes must rise with the dawn. Women as well as men learned to read and write, and in Semitic times, this involved a knowledge of the extinct Sumerian language, the Babylonians very advanced systems of writing, science and mathematics contributed greatly to their literary output. A considerable amount of Babylonian literature was translated from Sumerian originals, vocabularies, grammars, and interlinear translations were compiled for the use of students, as well as commentaries on the older texts and explanations of obscure words and phrases. The characters of the syllabary were all arranged and named, Assyrian culture and literature came from Babylonia, but even here there was a difference between the two countries. There was little in Assyrian literature that was original, and education, in Babylonia, it was of very old standing. Under the Seleucids, Greek was introduced into Babylon, and fragments of tablets have been found with Sumerian and Assyrian words transcribed into Greek letters, the earliest historical royal epic is, however, that of Zimri-Lim of Mari. Similar literature of the middle Babylonian period is poorly preserved with a fragmentary epic of the Kassite period. Exemplars of comical texts span the genres of burlesque to satire and include humorous love poems and riddles. The Dialogue of Pessimism was seen as a saturnalia by Böhl, where master and servant switch roles, and as a burlesque by Speiser, where a fatuous master mouthes clichés, lambert considered it a musing of a mercurial adolescent with suicidal tendencies. The Poor Man of Nippur provides a narrative of the triumph of the underdog over his superior while Ninurta-Pāqidāts Dog Bite is a school text of a slapstick nature. The earliest Akkadian laws are the “Old Assyrian Laws” relating to the conduct of the court of a trading colony in Anatolia. The Laws of Eshnunna were a collection of sixty laws named for the city of its provenance and dating to around 1770 BC. The Code of Ḫammu-rapi, ca.1750 BC, was the longest of the Mesopotamian legal collections, the edict of Ammi-Saduqa, ca.1646 BC, was the last issued by one of Ḫammu-rapi’s successors. The Middle Assyrian Laws date to the fourteenth century BC, over a hundred laws are extant from Assur, the Neo-Babylonian Laws number just fifteen, ca.700 BC, probably from Sippar. A plethora of mid to late second millennium versions give witness to its popularity. ”It is extant in 73 copies and was credited to a certain Sîn-lēqi-unninni, each division contains the story of a single adventure in the career of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk. The whole story is a product, and it is probable that some of the stories are artificially attached to the central figure
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Avesta
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The Avesta /əˈvɛstə/ is the primary collection of religious texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the otherwise unrecorded Avestan language. The Avesta texts fall into different categories, arranged either by dialect. The principal text in the group is the Yasna, which takes its name from the Yasna ceremony, Zoroastrianisms primary act of worship. The most important portion of the Yasna texts are the five Gathas and these hymns, together with five other short Old Avestan texts that are also part of the Yasna, are in the Old Avestan language. The remainder of the Yasnas texts are in Younger Avestan, which is not only from a stage of the language. Extensions to the Yasna ceremony include the texts of the Vendidad, the Visperad extensions consist mainly of additional invocations of the divinities, while the Vendidad is a mixed collection of prose texts mostly dealing with purity laws. Even today, the Vendidad is the liturgical text that is not recited entirely from memory. Some of the materials of the extended Yasna are from the Yashts, unlike the Yasna, Visperad and Vendidad, the Yashts and the other lesser texts of the Avesta are no longer used liturgically in high rituals. Aside from the Yashts, these lesser texts include the Nyayesh texts, the Gah texts, the Siroza. Together, these texts are conventionally called Khordeh Avesta or Little Avesta texts. When the first Khordeh Avesta editions were printed in the 19th century, the term Avesta is from the 9th/10th-century works of Zoroastrian tradition in which the word appears as Zoroastrian Middle Persian abestāg, Book Pahlavi ʾpstʾkʼ. In that context, abestāg texts are portrayed as received knowledge, the literal meaning of the word abestāg is uncertain, it is generally acknowledged to be a learned borrowing from Avestan, but none of the suggested etymologies have been universally accepted. The surviving texts of the Avesta, as they exist today and that master copy, now lost, is known as the Sassanian archetype. The oldest surviving manuscript of an Avestan language text is dated 1323 CE, summaries of the various Avesta texts found in the 9th/10th century texts of Zoroastrian tradition suggest that about three-quarters of the corpus has since been lost. A pre-Sasanian history of the Avesta, if it had one, is in the realm of legend, the oldest surviving versions of these tales are found in the ninth to 11th century texts of Zoroastrian tradition. The legends run as follows, The twenty-one nasks of the Avesta were created by Ahura Mazda, supposedly, Vishtaspa or another Kayanian, Daray, then had two copies made, one of which was stored in the treasury, and the other in the royal archives. Following Alexanders conquest, the Avesta was then supposedly destroyed or dispersed by the Greeks after they translated the scientific passages that they could make use of, the Denkard also transmits another legend related to the transmission of the Avesta. In that story, credit for collation and recension is given to the early Sasanian-era priest Tansar, who had the works collected
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Chinese literature
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In more modern times, the author Lu Xun is considered the founder of baihua literature in China. An attempt at tracing the genealogy of Chinese literature to religious spells, there is a wealth of early Chinese literature dating from the Hundred Schools of Thought that occurred during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. The most important of these include the Classics of Confucianism, of Daoism, of Mohism, of Legalism, as well as works of military science and Chinese history. Note that, except for the books of poems and songs, most of this literature is philosophical and didactic, however, these texts maintained their significance through both their ideas and their prose style. These nine books therefore became the center of the educational system and they have been grouped into two categories, the Five Classics, allegedly commented and edited by Confucius, and the Four Books. Other important philosophical works include the Mohist Mozi, which taught inclusive love as both an ethical and social principle, and Hanfeizi, one of the central Legalist texts, important Daoist classics include the Dao De Jing, the Zhuangzi, and the Classic of the Perfect Emptiness. Later authors combined Daoism with Confucianism and Legalism, such as Liu An, among the classics of military science, The Art of War by Sun Tzu was perhaps the first to outline guidelines for effective international diplomacy. It was also the first in a tradition of Chinese military treatises, such as the Wujing Zongyao, the Chinese kept consistent and accurate court records after the year 841 BC, with the beginning of the Gonghe Regency of the Western Zhou Dynasty. The earliest known history of China was the Zuo Zhuan, which was compiled no later than 389 BC. The Book of Documents included early information on geography in the Yu Gong chapter, the oldest extant dictionary in China is the Erya, dated to the 3rd century BC, anonymously written but with later commentary by the historian Guo Pu. Other early dictionaries include the Fangyan by Yang Xiong and the Shuowen Jiezi by Xu Shen, one of the largest was the Kangxi Dictionary compiled by 1716 under the auspices of the Kangxi Emperor, it provides definitions for over 47,000 characters. This groundbreaking text laid the foundation for Chinese historiography and the many official Chinese historical texts compiled for each dynasty thereafter and this was often difficult for the official dynastic historians, who used historical works to justify the reign of the current dynasty. Large encyclopedias were also produced in China through the ages, the Yiwen Leiju encyclopedia was completed by Ouyang Xun in 624 during the Tang Dynasty, with aid from scholars Linghu Defen and Chen Shuda. This included the Extensive Records of the Taiping Era, the Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era, the Finest Blossoms in the Garden of Literature, the rich tradition of Chinese poetry began with two influential collections. In northern China, the Shijing or Classic of Poetry comprises over 300 poems in a variety of styles ranging from those with a suggestion of folk music to ceremonial hymns. The word shi has the meaning of poem or poetry. Confucius is traditionally credited with editing the Shijing and its stately verses are usually composed of couplets with lines of four characters each, and a formal structure of end rhymes. Many of these early poems establish the tradition of starting with a description of nature that leads into emotionally expressive statements, known as bi, xing
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Hebrew literature
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Hebrew literature consists of ancient, medieval, and modern writings in the Hebrew language. It is one of the forms of Jewish literature, though there have been cases of literature written in Hebrew by non-Jews. Hebrew literature was produced in different parts of the world throughout the medieval and modern eras. Beyond comparison, the most important work of ancient Hebrew literature is the Hebrew Bible, the Mishna, compiled around 200 CE, is the primary rabbinic codification of laws as derived from the Torah. It was written in Mishnaic Hebrew, but the commentary on it. Many works of classical midrash were written in Hebrew, during the medieval period, the majority of Jewish and Hebrew literature was composed in Islamic North Africa, Spain, Palestine, and the Middle East. Many works of philosophical literature such as Maimonedes Guide to the Perplexed and The Kuzari. One work of fiction which was written in Hebrew was the Fox Fables by Berechiah ben Natronai ha-Nakdan, much medieval Jewish poetry was written in Hebrew, including liturgical piyyutim in Palestine in the seventh and eighth centuries by Yose ben Yose, Yanai, and Eleazar Kalir. These poems were added to the Hebrew-language liturgy and this liturgy was compiled in book form as the siddur by rabbis including Amram Gaon and Saadia Gaon. Later Spanish, Provençal, and Italian poets wrote both religious and secular poems, particularly prominent poets were Solomon ibn Gabirol, Yehuda Halevi, most were also active in translating Jewish rabbinic and secular literature from Arabic into Hebrew. In addition to writing traditional rabbinic literature in Hebrew, modern Jews developed new forms of fiction, poetry, and essay-writing, by the early eighteenth century, Jewish literature was still dominated by Sephardic authors, often writing in Judeo-Arabic. Moses Hayyim Luzzattos allegorical drama La-Yesharim Tehillah may be regarded as the first product of modern Hebrew literature and it has been referred to as a poem that in its classic perfection of style is second only to the Bible. Luzzattos pupil in Amsterdam, David Franco Mendes, in his imitations of Jean Racine and of Metastasio, continued his masters work, moses Mendelssohns translation of the Hebrew Bible into German inspired interest in the Hebrew language that led to the founding of a quarterly review written in Hebrew. Poetry by Naphtali Hirz Wessely such as Shire Tiferet, or Mosiade, made Wessely, so to speak, nachman Krochmal, a philosopher, theologian, and historian. Meir Halevy Letteris, a poet also known for his adaption of Goethes Faust into Hebrew. In Amsterdam, a circle of Hebrew-language literary artists emerged in the nineteenth century, in Hungary, Hebrew-language authors included Solomon Lewison of Moor, author of Melitzat Yeshurun, Gabriel Südfeld, a poet who was the father of Max Nordau, and the poet Simon Bacher. A notable Jewish author in Romania during the century was the physician. Italian Jews of the nineteenth-century who wrote in Hebrew included I. S. Reggio, Joseph Almanzi, Hayyim Salomon, abraham Mapu, the creator of the Hebrew novel, whose historical romance Ahabat Tziyyon exercised an important influence on the development of Hebrew
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Latin literature
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Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and other writings written in the Latin language. Latin literature was in ways a continuation of Greek literature. Formal Latin literature began in 240 BC, when a Roman audience saw a Latin version of a Greek play, the adaptor was Livius Andronicus, a Greek who had been brought to Rome as a prisoner of war in 272 BC. Andronicus also translated Homers Greek epic the Odyssey into an old type of Latin verse called Saturnian, the first Latin poet to write on a Roman theme was Gnaeus Naevius during the 3rd century BC. He composed a poem about the first Punic War, in which he had fought. Naeviuss dramas were mainly reworkings of Greek originals, but he also created based on Roman myths. Quintus Ennius wrote an epic, the Annals, describing Roman history from the founding of Rome to his own time. He adopted Greek dactylic hexameter, which became the verse form for Roman epics. He also became famous for his tragic dramas, in this field, his most distinguished successors were Marcus Pacuvius and Lucius Accius. These three writers rarely used episodes from Roman history, instead, they wrote Latin versions of tragic themes that the Greeks had already handled. But even when they copied the Greeks, they did not translate slavishly, only fragments of their plays have survived. Considerably more is known about early Latin comedy, as 26 Early Latin comedies are extant –20 of which Plautus wrote, and these men modeled their comedies on Greek plays known as New Comedy. But they treated the plots and wording of the originals freely, Plautus scattered songs through his plays and increased the humor with puns and wisecracks, plus comic actions by the actors. Terences plays were more polite in tone, dealing with domestic situations and his works provided the chief inspiration for French and English comedies of the 17th century AD, and even for modern American comedy. The prose of the period is best known through On Agriculture by Cato the Elder, Cato also wrote the first Latin history of Rome and of other Italian cities. He was the first Roman statesman to put his political speeches in writing as a means of influencing public opinion, Early Latin literature ended with Gaius Lucilius, who created a new kind of poetry in his 30 books of Satires. He wrote in an easy, conversational tone about books, food, friends and this period is usually said to have begun with the first known speech of Cicero and ended with the death of Ovid. Cicero has traditionally been considered the master of Latin prose, Ciceros many works can be divided into four groups, letters, rhetorical treatises, philosophical works, and orations
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Prakrit literature
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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 earliest works of Indian literature were orally transmitted. Sanskrit literature begins with the literature of the Rig Veda a collection of sacred hymns dating to the period 1500–1200 BCE. The Sanskrit epics Ramayana and Mahabharata appeared towards the end of the first millennium BCE, Classical Sanskrit literature developed rapidly during the first few centuries of the first millennium BCE, as did the Tamil Sangam literature, and the Pāli Canon. In the medieval period, literature in Kannada and Telugu appeared in the 9th and 11th centuries respectively, later, literature in Marathi, Odia, Bengali, various dialects of Hindi, Persian and Urdu began to appear as well. Early in the 20th century, Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore became Indias first Nobel laureate, in contemporary Indian literature, there are two major literary awards, these are the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship and the Jnanpith Award. Examples of early works written in Vedic Sanskrit include the holy Hindu texts, other examples include the Sulba Sutras, which are some of the earliest texts on geometry. Ved Vyasas Mahabharata and Valmikis Ramayana, written in Epic Sanskrit, are regarded as the greatest Sanskrit epics, the famous poet and playwright Kālidāsa wrote one epic, Raghuvamsha, it was written in Classical Sanskrit rather than Epic Sanskrit. Other examples of written in Classical Sanskrit include the Pāṇinis Ashtadhyayi which standardized the grammar. The Laws of Manu is an important text in Hinduism, some other famous plays were Mricchakatika by Shudraka, Svapna Vasavadattam by Bhasa, and Ratnavali by Sri Harsha. Later poetic works include Geeta Govinda by Jayadeva, some other famous works are Chanakyas Arthashastra and Vatsyayanas Kamasutra. The most notable Prakrit languages were the Jain Prakrit, Pali, Maharashtri, one of the earliest extant Prakrit works is Hālas anthology of poems in Maharashtri, the Gāhā Sattasaī, dating to the 3rd to 5th century CE. Kālidāsa and Harsha also used Maharashtri in some of their plays, in Jainism, many Svetambara works were written in Maharashtri. Many of Aśvaghoṣas plays were written in Shauraseni as were a number of Jain works. Canto 13 of the Bhaṭṭikāvya is written in what is called like the vernacular, the Pali Canon is mostly of Indian origin. Later Pali literature however was produced outside of the mainland Indian subcontinent, particularly in Sri Lanka. Pali literature includes Buddhist philosophical works, poetry and some grammatical works, major works in Pali are Jataka tales, Dhammapada, Atthakatha, and Mahavamsa. Some of the major Pali grammarians were Kaccayana, Moggallana and Vararuci, the Charyapadas are often cited as the earliest example of Assamese literature
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Sanskrit literature
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There are contemporary efforts towards revival, with events like the All-India Sanskrit Festival holding composition contests. Some Sanskrit literature such as the Yoga-Sutras of Patanjali and the Upanishads were translated into Arabic and Persian, the Panchatantra was also translated into Persian. Composed between approximately 1500 BCE and 600 BCE in pre-classical Sanskrit, Vedic oral literature forms the basis for the development of Hinduism. There are four Vedas - Rig, Yajur, Sāma and Atharva, each with a main Samhita, the main period of Vedic literary activity falls into c. the 9th to 7th centuries when the various shakhas compiled and memorized their respective corpora. The oldest surviving manuscript of a composed in Sanskrit is the Devi Māhātmya on Palm-leaf dating from the 11th century CE. The older Upanishads belong to the Vedic period, but the part of the Muktika canon is post-Vedic. The Aranyakas form part of both the Brahmana and Upanishad corpus, in the Vedanga disciplines of grammar and phonetics, no author had greater influence than Pāṇini with his Aṣṭādhyāyī. Being prescriptive for all later works, such as Patanjalis Mahābhāṣya. The Backus–Naur form or BNF grammars used to describe modern programming languages have significant similarities with Paninis grammar rules and they are known as itihasa, or history. While not as long as the Mahabharata, the Ramayana is still twice as long as the Iliad, traditionally, the authorship is attributed to the Hindu sage Valmiki, who is referred to as Adikavi, or first poet. In the Ramayana, the meter was introduced for the first time. Like the Mahabharata, the Ramayana was also handed down orally and it includes tales that form the basis for modern Hindu festivals and even contains a description of the same marriage practice still observed in contemporary times by people of Hindu persuasion. The story deals with Prince Rama, his exile and the abduction of his wife by the Rakshasa king Ravana, similar to the Mahabharata, the Ramayana also has several full-fledged stories appearing as sub-plots. The Ramayana has also played a similar and equally important role in the development of Indian, the Ramayana is also extant in Southeast Asian versions. The Mahabharata is one of the longest poetic works in the world, while it is clearly a poetic epic, it contains large tracts of Hindu mythology, philosophy and religious tracts. Traditionally, authorship of the Mahabharata is attributed to the sage Vyasa, the broad sweep of the story of the Mahabharata chronicles the story of the conflict between two families for control of Hastinapur, a city in ancient India. The impact of the Mahabharata on India and Hinduism can hardly be overstated, having been molded by Indian culture, it has in turn molded the development of Indian culture. Thousands of later writers would draw freely from the story and sub-stories of the Mahabharata, Sanskrit also became a major language for Indian religions such as Buddhism and Jainism
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Japanese literature
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Early works of Japanese literature were heavily influenced by cultural contact with China and Chinese literature, often written in Classical Chinese. Indian literature also had an influence through the Diffusion of Buddhism in Japan, since Japan reopened its ports to Western trading and diplomacy in the 19th century, Western and Eastern literature have strongly affected each other and continue to do so. Before the introduction of kanji from China, Japanese had no writing system and it is believed that Chinese characters came to Japan at the very beginning of the fifth century, brought by immigrants from the mainland of Korean and Chinese descent. Chinese characters were further adapted, creating what is known as manyōgana. The earliest literary works in Japan were created in the Nara period, one of the stories they describe is the tale of Urashima Tarō. The Heian period has been referred to as the era of art. During this era, literature became centered on an elite of nobility. The imperial court patronized the poets, most of whom were courtiers or ladies-in-waiting. Reflecting the aristocratic atmosphere, the poetry was elegant and sophisticated and expressed emotions in a rhetorical style, editing the resulting anthologies of poetry soon became a national pastime. The iroha poem, now one of two standard orderings for the Japanese syllabary, was developed during the early Heian period. Genji Monogatari written in the early 11th century by a woman named Murasaki Shikibu is considered the pre-eminent masterpiece of Heian fiction, other important writings of this period include the Kokin Wakashū, a waka-poetry anthology, and Makura no Sōshi. The Pillow Book was written by Sei Shōnagon, Murasaki Shikibus contemporary and rival, as an essay about the life, loves, another notable piece of fictional Japanese literature was Konjaku Monogatarishū, a collection of over a thousand stories in 31 volumes. The volumes cover various tales from India, China and Japan, the 10th-century Japanese narrative, Taketori Monogatari, can be considered an early example of proto-science fiction. The protagonist of the story, Kaguya-hime, is a princess from the Moon who is sent to Earth for safety during a celestial war and she is later taken back to her extraterrestrial family in an illustrated depiction of a disc-shaped flying object similar to a flying saucer. During the Kamakura period, Japan experienced many civil wars led to the development of a warrior class, and subsequent war tales, histories. Work from this period is notable for its more sombre tone compared to the works of previous eras, with themes of life and death, simple lifestyles, and redemption through killing. A representative work is Heike monogatari, an account of the struggle between the Minamoto and Taira clans for control of Japan at the end of the twelfth century. Other important tales of the period include Kamo no Chōmeis Hōjōki, despite a decline in the importance of the imperial court, aristocratic literature remained the center of Japanese culture in the beginning of the Kamakura period
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Matter of Britain
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It could be said that the legendary history of Britain was created in part to form a body of patriotic myth for the country. Several agendas thus can be seen in this body of literature, the Historia Brittonum, the earliest known source of the story of Brutus of Troy, may have been devised to create a distinguished genealogy for a number of Welsh princes in the 9th century. Traditionally attributed to Nennius, its actual compiler is unknown, it exists in several recensions, as such, this material could be used for patriotic mythmaking just as Virgil linked the founding of Rome to the Trojan War in The Æneid. Geoffrey of Monmouth also introduced the fanciful claim that the Trinovantes, reported by Tacitus as dwelling in the area of London, had a name he interpreted as Troi-novant, New Troy. More speculative claims link Welsh mythology with several of the rulers and it has been suggested, for instance, that Leir of Britain, who later became Shakespeares King Lear, was originally the Welsh sea-god Llŷr. Various Celtic deities have been identified with characters from Arthurian literature as well, many of these identifications come from the speculative comparative religion of the late 19th century, and have been questioned in more recent years. William Shakespeare was interested in the history of Britain, and was familiar with some of its more obscure byways. Shakespeares plays contain several tales relating to these kings, such as King Lear. It has been suggested that Shakespeares Welsh schoolmaster Thomas Jenkins introduced him to this material and these tales also figure in Raphael Holinsheds The Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, which also appears in Shakespeares sources for Macbeth. Other early authors also drew from the early Arthurian and pseudo-historical sources of the Matter of Britain, the Scots, for instance, formulated a mythical history in the Picts and the Dál Riata royal lines. While they do eventually become factual lines, unlike those of Geoffrey, their origins are vague, the story of Gabrán mac Domangairt especially incorporates elements of both those histories. The Arthurian literary cycle is the best known part of the Matter of Britain and it has succeeded largely because it tells two interlocking stories that have intrigued many later authors. One concerns Camelot, usually envisioned as a utopia of chivalric virtue, undone by the fatal flaws of Arthur. The other concerns the quests of the knights to achieve the Holy Grail, some succeed. Finally, the relationships between the characters invited treatment in the tradition of love, such as Lancelot and Guinevere, or Tristan. In more recent years, the trend has been to attempt to link the tales of King Arthur and his knights with Celtic mythology, usually in highly romanticized, early 20th century reconstructed versions. Additionally, it is possible to read the Arthurian literature in general, derek Pearsall, Arthurian Romance, a short introduction, Blackwell, Oxford,2005 D
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Armenian literature
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Armenian literature begins around AD400 with the invention of the Armenian alphabet by Mesrop Mashtots. Christian Armenian literature begins about 406 with the invention of the Armenian alphabet by Mesrop for the purpose of translating Biblical books into Armenian and this early period of Armenian literature also produced many original compositions. Eznik of Kolb wrote a Refutation of the Sects, and Koryun the History of the Life of St. Mesrop and these men, both of whom were disciples of Mesrop, bring to an end what may be called the Golden Age of Armenian literature. The Golden Age was to large extent a commentary and exegesis of Hebrew and Christian literary tradition, Armenia is known to have been a nation often occupied by nearby powers, such as the Sassanid Empire. The beginning of the Medieval era was marked by the Arab conquest of Armenia, the people then start to talk of a great hero who would be able to liberate them and reestablish Armenian sovereignty. David of Sasun, known as Sasuntsi Davit, is the medieval Armenian equivalent of Hercules, in 1873, the story was first written down by Archbishop Karekin Servantzdiants, who copied word for word the tale as told by a peasant storyteller from Moush named Grbo. One of the most famous treatments of the story was the verse rendition made by Hovhannes Toumanian in 1902 and his poem only covers the story of David, which is actually only one of 4 parts of the story, although the central portion. The four portions of the story are named after their heroes, Sanasar & Balthazar, Lion-Mher, David of Sassoun, Sanasar is the father of Lion-Mher, who is the father of David, who is the father of Mher the Younger. Despite the Christian flavor of the epic, numerous fantastic creatures, good and evil, one of the ancestors of the legendary David is the Lady Dzovinar, who agrees to marry the 90-year-old King of Baghdad in order to save her people. Sanasar and Balthasar were their two sons, Sanasar moves to Sassoun, the fortress-town of Armenia, now located in Turkey. He has three children, the eldest of them being the Great Mher of Sassoun, with superhuman powers, mhers veritable son is David of Sassoun. However, he gets another son from the Arabic queen of Egypt. He is known as Misra Melik, which literally means The sovereign of Egypt and he is probably the figure of all of what the Armenians resented, traitors, and foreign oppressors. Throughout the years the half-brothers fought, and eventually David chops his nemesis in half, the medieval period opens with comparative sterility. It was mostly important in the 8th century, that of John Otznetzi, a Discourse against the Paulicians, a Synodal Discourse, and a collection of the canons of the councils and the Fathers anterior to his day, are the principal works of his now extant. About the same time appeared the translations of the works of several of the Fathers, particularly of St. Gregory of Nyssa and Cyril of Alexandria, from the pen of Stephen, Bishop of Syunik. It was two centuries later that the celebrated History of Armenia by the Catholicos John V the Historian came forth, covering the period from the origin of the nation to the year A. D.925. A contemporary of his, Annine of Mok, an abbot and the most celebrated theologian of the time, composed a treatise against the Tondrakians, the name of Chosrov, Bishop of Andzevatsentz, is honoured because of his interesting commentaries on the Breviary and Mass-Prayers
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Byzantine literature
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Byzantine literature is the Greek literature of the Middle Ages, whether written in the territory of the Byzantine Empire or outside its borders. It forms the second period in the history of Greek literature, though popular Byzantine literature and early Modern Greek literature and this practice was perpetuated by a long-established system of Greek education where rhetoric was a leading subject. A typical product of this Byzantine education was the Greek Church Fathers, consequently, the vast Christian literature of the 3rd to 6th centuries established a synthesis of Hellenic and Christian thought. In addition, this style was also removed from the Koine Greek language of the New Testament, reaching back to Homer. In this manner, the culture of the Byzantine Empire was marked for over 1000 years by a diglossy between two different forms of the language, which were used for different purposes. However, the relations between the high and low forms of Greek changed over the centuries, the political recovery of the 9th century instigated a literary revival, in which a conscious attempt was made to recreate the Hellenic-Christian literary culture of late antiquity. Simple or popular Greek was avoided in literary use and many of the saints lives were rewritten in an archaizing style. By the 12th century the cultural confidence of the Byzantine Greeks led them to new literary genres, such as romantic fiction, in which adventure. Satire made occasional use of elements from spoken Greek, at the same time there was the beginning of a flourishing literature in an approximation to the vernacular Modern Greek. However the vernacular literature was limited to poetic romances and popular devotional writing, all serious literature continued to make use of the archaizing language of learned Greek tradition. Byzantine literature has two sources, Classical Greek and Orthodox Christian tradition, each of those sources provided a series of models and references for the Byzantine writer and his readers. The oldest of three civilizations is the Greek, centered not in Athens but in Alexandria and Hellenistic civilization. Alexandria through this period is the center of both Atticizing scholarship and of Graeco-Judaic social life, looking towards Athens as well as towards Jerusalem and this intellectual dualism between the culture of scholars and that of the people permeates the Byzantine period. Both tendencies persisted in Byzantium, but the first, as the one officially recognized, retained predominance and was not driven from the field until the fall of the empire, the reactionary linguistic movement known as Atticism supported and enforced this scholarly tendency. Alexandria, the center, is balanced by Rome, the center of government. It is as a Roman Empire that the Byzantine state first entered history, its citizens were known as Romans and its laws were Roman, so were its government, its army, and its official class, and at first also its language and its private and public life. The organization of the state was similar to that of the Roman imperial period, including its hierarchy. It was in Alexandria that Graeco-Oriental Christianity had its birth, on Egyptian soil monasticism began and thrived
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Georgian literature
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The culture of Georgia has evolved over the countrys long history, providing it with a unique national culture and a strong literary tradition based on the Georgian language and alphabet. This has provided a sense of national identity that has helped to preserve Georgian distinctiveness despite repeated periods of foreign occupation. The Georgian alphabet is traditionally said to have invented in the 3rd century BC. Most modern scholarship puts its date at some time in the 5th century AD. These included churches and monasteries, works of art such as icons, in addition, many secular works of national history, mythology, and hagiography were also written. Medieval Georgian icons are renowned as being among the finest creations of Orthodox religious art, george of the 11th century from Labechina The Icon of St. The works of the famous Georgian goldsmiths, Beka and Beshken Opizari, are outstanding contributions to world art, important Georgian literary works of the pre-Christian period are, Amiraniani, ancient Georgian folk epos. Though notably more visibly amongst the classes, Persian cultural aspects were incorporated amongst the already existing Georgian columns, especially painting, architecture. The French traveller Jean Chardin who visited Georgia in 1672 noted that the Georgians followed Persian customs, since many Georgian kings, princes, and nobles were either born or raised in mainland Iran, it is not susprising that Persian cultural aspects spread in Georgia. During the modern period, from about the 17th century onwards, the first Georgian-language printing house was established in the 1620s in Italy, and the first one in Georgia itself was founded in 1709 in Tbilisi. Georgian theatre has a history, its oldest national form was the Sakhioba. The Georgian National Theatre was founded in 1791 in Tbilisi, by the writer, dramatist and its leading actors were Dimitri Aleksi-Meskhishvili, David Machabeli, David Bagrationi, Dimitri Cholokashvili, and others. In Tbilisi, the Museum of the Caucasus was founded in 1845, in the 1920s, it became the State Museum of Georgia. The Tbilisi State Theatre of Opera and Ballet was established in 1851, the first cinema in Georgia was established in Tbilisi on November 16,1896. The first Georgian cinema documentary was shot in 1912 by Vasil Amashukeli, the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts was founded in 1917. Georgian culture suffered under the rule of the Soviet Union during the 20th century, since the independence of Georgia in 1991, a cultural resurgence has taken place, albeit somewhat hampered by the countrys economic and political difficulties in the post-Soviet era. Georgian cuisine is considered one of the attractions for tourists in Georgia. The Georgian cuisine is specific to the country, but also contains some influences from the Middle Eastern
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Kannada literature
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Kannada literature is the corpus of written forms of the Kannada language, a member of the Dravidian family spoken mainly in the Indian state of Karnataka and written in the Kannada script. Attestations in literature span something like one and a half millennia, with some literary works surviving in rich manuscript traditions. Although much of the prior to the 18th century was religious. The Veerashaiva movement of the 12th century created new literature which flourished alongside the Jain works, after the decline of the Vijayanagara empire in the 16th century, Kannada literature was supported by the various rulers, including the Wodeyars of the Kingdom of Mysore and the Nayakas of Keladi. In the 19th century, some forms, such as the prose narrative, the novel. In the early period and beginning of the period, between the 9th and 13th centuries, writers were predominantly Jains and Lingayats. Jains were the earliest known cultivators of Kannada literature, which dominated until the 12th century. Jain authors wrote about Tirthankaras and other aspects of religion, the Veerashaiva authors wrote about Shiva, his 25 forms, and the expositions of Shaivism. Lingayat poets belonging to the vachana sahitya tradition advanced the philosophy of Basava from the 12th century, thereafter, Lingayat and Vaishnava writers dominated Kannada literature. Vaishnava writers focused on the Hindu epics - the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the devotional songs of the Haridasa poets, performed to music, were first noted in the 15th century. Writings on secular subjects remained popular throughout this period, writings eulogising kings, commanders and spiritual heroes waned, with a proportional increase in the use of local genres. The champu Sanskritic metre was the most popular written form from the 9th century onwards, other Sanskritic metres used were the saptapadi, the ashtaka and the shataka. There were numerous translations and adaptations of Sanskrit writings into Kannada and, to a lesser extent, the medieval period saw the development of literary metres indigenous to the Kannada language. These included the tripadi, one of the oldest native metres, the shatpadi, of six types exist, the ragale, the sangatya. There were rare interactions with Tamil literature, as well, though religious literature was prominent, literary genres including romance, fiction, erotica, satire, folk songs, fables and parables, musical treatises and musical compositions were popular. The topics of Kannada literature included grammar, philosophy, prosody, rhetoric, chronicles, biography, history, drama and cuisine, as well as dictionaries and encyclopedias. According to critic Joseph T. Shipley, over fifty works on subjects including medicine, mathematics. Kannada literature of this period was written on palm leaves
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Middle Persian literature
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Middle Persian was the prestige dialect during the era of Sassanid dynasty. These compositions, in the Aramaic-derived Book Pahlavi script, are known as Pahlavi literature. The earliest texts in Zoroastrian Middle Persian were probably written down in late Sassanid times, the surviving manuscripts are usually 14th-century copies. Pahlavi literature traditionally defines the writings of the Zoroastrians in the Middle Persian language and Book Pahlavi script which were compiled in the 9th, the literary corpus in Middle Persian in Book Pahlavi consists of, translations and commentaries of the Avesta. Other exegetical compositions on religious subjects and these divisions are not mutually exclusive. Several different literary genres are represented in Pahlavi literature, zand texts The zand corpus include exegetical glosses, paraphrases, commentaries and translations of the Avestas texts. Although such exegetical commentaries also exist in other languages, the Middle Persian zand is the only to survive fully, with the notable exception of the Yashts, almost all surviving Avestan texts have their Middle Persian zand, which in some manuscripts appear alongside the text being glossed. These glosses and commentaries were not intended for use as theological texts by themselves, in contrast, the Avestan language texts remained sacrosanct and continued to be recited in the Avestan language, which was considered a sacred language. The Bundahishn, Original Creation, is an important source of information on Zoroastrian cosmogony, Manushchihrs Dadestan i Denig and Epistles the Vichitakiha i Zatsparam, the Treatises of Zatsparam, by Manushchihrs brother Zatsparam. The Arda-Viraf Namag relates the dream-journey of a devout Zoroastrian through the next world, the Shikand-gumanic Vichar, a partly apologetic and partly polemic review of other religions. The Shayast ne-shayast, Proper and Improper, a compilation of laws and customs regarding sin and impurity, with other memoranda about ceremonies. The Shahrestaniha i Eranshahr, is a catalogue of the four regions of the Sassanid empire with mythical and/or historical stories related to their founding, several andarz texts, the Iranian type of wisdom literature containing advice and injunctions for proper behavior. The Drakht i Asurig, the Assyrian tree, is an originally Parthian poem recast into Book Pahlavi but retaining many Parthian phrases, the Abdih ud Sahigih i Sagistan is a description of the Wonders and Remarkable Features of Sistan. The Khusraw va Redag, Khusraw and the Page, is an account of a conversation between the king and a boy who would like to be a page. This work is a source of information on the delights of the Sassanian court. Only a single manuscript of this text survives. Scribes also created several glossaries for translating foreign languages, of these, two have survived, Frahang-i Pahlavig, a glossary of common Aramaic heterograms used in written Middle Persian. Frahang-i Oim-evak, a dictionary of Avestan words and phrases, several other works, now lost, are known of from references to them in other languages. e
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Medieval literature
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Medieval literature is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe and beyond during the Middle Ages. The literature of time was composed of religious writings as well as secular works. Just as in literature, it is a complex and rich field of study, from the utterly sacred to the exuberantly profane. Works of literature are often grouped by place of origin, language, however, in Eastern Europe, the influence of the Eastern Roman Empire and the Eastern Orthodox Church made Greek and Old Church Slavonic the dominant written languages. The common people continued to use their respective vernaculars, although the extant versions of these epics are generally considered the works of individual poets, there is no doubt that they are based on their peoples older oral traditions. Celtic traditions have survived in the lais of Marie de France, the Mabinogion, another host of vernacular literature has survived in the Old Norse literature and more specifically in the Saga literature of Iceland. A notable amount of literature is anonymous. This is not only due to the lack of documents from a period, medieval authors often deeply respected the classical writers and the Church Fathers and tended to re-tell and embellish stories they had heard or read rather than invent new stories. And even when they did, they claimed to be handing down something from an auctor instead. From this point of view, the names of the individual authors seemed much less important, the invention of biography can be attributed to this time period. It had such ancient forebears as Plutarchs Parallel Lives and Suetoniuss Lives of the Twelve Caesars, theological works were the dominant form of literature typically found in libraries during the Middle Ages. Catholic clerics were the center of society in the Middle Ages. Countless hymns survive from time period. The liturgy itself was not in fixed form, and numerous competing missals set out individual conceptions of the order of the mass, hagiographies, or lives of the saints, were also frequently written, as an encouragement to the devout and a warning to others. The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine reached such popularity that, in its time, francis of Assisi was a prolific poet, and his Franciscan followers frequently wrote poetry themselves as an expression of their piety. Dies Irae and Stabat Mater are two of the most powerful Latin poems on religious subjects, goliardic poetry was an art form used by some clerics to express dissent. The text of these plays was often controlled by local guilds, during the Middle Ages, the Jewish population of Europe also produced a number of outstanding writers. Maimonides, born in Cordoba, Spain, and Rashi, born in Troyes, secular literature in this period was not produced in equal quantity as religious literature, but much has survived and we possess today a rich corpus
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Medieval Bulgarian literature
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Medieval Bulgarian literature is Bulgarian literature in the Middle Ages. In the late 9th, the 10th and early 11th century literature in Bulgaria prospered, with many books being translated from Byzantine Greek, many scholars worked in the Preslav and Ohrid Literary Schools, creating the Cyrillic script for their needs. Bulgarian scholars and works influenced most of the Slavic world, spreading Old Church Slavonic, the Cyrillic, as the Bulgarian Empire was subjugated by the Byzantines in 1018, Bulgarian literary activity declined. However, after the establishment of the Second Bulgarian Empire followed another period of upsurge during the time of Patriarch Evtimiy in the 14th century. Evtimiy founded the Tarnovo Literary School that had a significant impact on the literature of Serbia and Muscovite Russia, Bulgarian literature continued in the Ottoman empire. Medieval Bulgarian literature was dominated by themes, most works being hymns, treatises, religious miscellanies, apocrypha and hagiographies, most often heroic. Епитетът в славянобългарската агиография от 14-15 век, anonymous Bulgarian Chronicle Старобългарска литература, Донка Петканова Илиев, И. Епитетът в славянобългарската агиография от 14-15 век,2005 Епитетът в славянобългарската агиография от 14-15 век
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