The Origin and Development of Hindi Literature

The origin and development of Hindi Literature gives the brief description of the history of Hindi literature from its initiation till modern Hindi. It touches most of the authentic theories popular about the Hindi Literature.

Origin and Development of Hindi Literature

The origin and development of Hindi literature is a brief description of the history of Hindi literature from the beginning to modern Hindi. This article touches on most of the prevailing canonical theories about Hindi literature.

The history of Hindi literature is very extensive and ancient. According to the well-known linguist Dr. Hardev Bahri, the history of Hindi literature actually starts from the Vedic period. It would not be wrong to say that Hindi is the Vedic language. It has been the misfortune of Hindi language that its name has been changing from age to age. Its name has sometimes been ‘Vedic’ and sometimes ‘Sanskrit’. Sometimes it has been ‘Prakrit‘, sometimes ‘Apabhransa‘ and now its name is ‘Hindi’.

It is worth noting that languages ​​like Hebrew, Russian, Chinese, German and Tamil are also ‘very old’, there is a difference between the ancient and present forms of these languages; Yet people did not change the names of these languages ​​and called their changed forms as ‘Ancient’, ‘Medieval’, ‘Modern’ etc., whereas in the context of ‘Hindi’, the language of each era has been named a new one.

The origin and development of Hindi language

There are many popular beliefs regarding the origin and development of Hindi language. If those assumptions are considered, then the time of origin of Hindi language is considered to be ‘Prakrit-bhas’ language and ‘Apabhramsa’ languages ​​around the tenth century. Many arguments and evidence have been presented in the history texts of Hindi literature for the etymology of the word Apabhramsa and to establish the relation of Apabhramsa compositions with Hindi. He has considered the emergence of Hindi literature from the last Apabhramsa-state of Prakrit. At that time many forms of Apabhramsa were prevalent and in them poetry-composing started from the seventh-eighth century.

The literary verse works of that time are found only in couplet form. The subjects of those compositions are mainly religion, policy, preaching etc. Rajasrit poets [the poets who were dependent on the king] and bard poets used to show their literary interest by describing policy, religion, love and beauty, bravery, might etc.

Later on, this tradition continued for many years in Shauraseni Apabhramsa or ‘Prakrit-bhasa Hindi’. The use of the old Apabhramsa language and the colloquial native language continued to increase. This language has been called the native language by Vidyapati. Later the word Hindi was used for this language.

Tradition of writing the History of Hindi Literature 

From the early period till now, there have been many historians of Indian literature. Among these the main historians and their texts are as follows –

1. Garsa de Tasi : Garsa de Tassie was a French scholar. He is considered the first historian of Hindi literature. In 1839, he wrote a book in French called ‘Istvar de la Literature Andui Andustani’, which describes the history of Hindi.
2. Maulvi Karimuddin: Tajkira-i-Shurai, (1848)
3. Shiv Singh Sengar : Shiv Singh Saroj, (1883)
4. George Grierson: The Modern Vernacular Literature of India, (1888)
5. Mishra Brothers : Mishra Bandhu Vinod (in four parts) Part 1, 2 and 3 (in 1913) Part 4 (in 1934)
6. Edwin Greaves: A Sketch of Hindi Literature (1917)
7. F. E. K. Sir: A History of Hindi Literature (1920)
8. Ramchandra Shukla: History of Hindi Literature (1929)
9. Hazari Prasad Dwivedi: (i) Role of Hindi Literature (1940); (ii) Aadikal of Hindi Literature (1952); (iii) Hindi Literature : Emergence and Development (1955)
10. Ramkumar Verma: A Critical History of Hindi Literature (1938)
11. Dr. Dhirendra Verma : Hindi literature (in three volumes)
12. Big History of Hindi Literature (in sixteen volumes) – from 1957 to 1984 AD.
13. Dr. Nagendra: History of Hindi Literature (1973); Hindi literature 20th century
14. Ramswaroop Chaturvedi: Development of Hindi Literature and Sensation, Lokbharti Publications, Allahabad, 1986
15. Bachchan Singh: Second History of Hindi Literature, Radhakrishna Publications, New Delhi (1996)
16. Dr. Mohan Awasthi: Updated History of Hindi Literature
17. Babu Gulab Rai:  A Comprehensive History of Hindi Literature
18. Rajendra Prasad Singh: Subaltern History of Hindi Literature (2009)

Different periods of development of Hindi literature

The beginning of Hindi literature is considered to be from the 8th century. This is the time when after the death of Emperor Harsha, many small kingdoms were established in the country. These states used to conflict with each other. They also used to fight with foreign Muslim rulers. The religious sector was also engaged in struggles. At this time, Buddhism was propagated in many parts of North India. Buddhism split into Hinayana and Vajrayana sects.

The time of Vajrayani Siddhas

The followers of Vajrayana were tantric and they were called Siddha. He adopted the contemporary vernacular language to propagate his thoughts among the masses. The oldest literature of Hindi was written by these Vajrayani Siddhas in the vernacular language i.e. Old Hindi.

The time of Nath-panthi sadhus

After the time of Vajrayani Siddhas, it came the time of Nath-panthi sadhus. These sages started their new sect with a mixture of Buddhism, Shankara, Tantra, Yoga and Shaivism. In this new sect, a general idea of ​​religion was propounded for all classes and varnas. Many of his religious compositions written in the popular old Hindi are still available today.

The time of Jain Poets

After the Nath-panthi sadhus, the works of Jain poets are found. The ‘Pa-u-m-cha-ri-u‘ or Ramayana composed by Swayambhu is from the eighth century. The works of Buddhists and Nathpanthis are either Muktaks or only religious compositions. But many works of Jain poets are also related to general experiences of life. Many of these compositions are Prabandha-kvya. Abdur Rahman’s poem “Sandesh-rasak” was also written in this period. In this poem, the languageis found close to the later colloquial. Thus, we see that Old Hindi continued to be created and developed till the eleventh century.

 

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Note- The data used in this article has been taken from various books, magazines of Hindi literature and Wikipedia.