1. Classical Indian Literature

2. Gold Dinar Weight: 7.8 gm Obverse: King and queen
Gupta Era 320 ce — 550 ce
Gupta dynasty was founded by Chandra Gupta I
Development of Mahayana Buddhism
Classical Age in north India
Cave paintings at Ajanta
Sakuntala, Jataka, Panchatantra and Kamasutra were written
Aryabhatta’s Astronomy.
Kumardevi and Chandragupta I (Minted by their son Samudragupta) ce
Gold Dinar Weight: 7.8 gm Obverse: King and queen

4. Mahayana Buddhism
Buddhism split into two sects, Mahayana and Hinayana (Theravada).
Mahayana laid stress on the concept of the Bodhisattva or `one destined to be the Buddha' and also conceived of Eternal Buddhas who resemble gods or deities.
Hinayana regarded the Buddha as a man and had a doctrine, Theravada, stressing the salvation of the individual.
The interaction of Mahayana philosophy and Hinduism gave rise to Tantric Buddhism or Vajrayana.

5. AJANTA CAVES
During the 4th century c.e. in a remote valley, work began on the Ajanta Caves to create a complex of Buddhist monasteries and prayer halls.
As centuries passed, numerous Buddhist monks and artisans dug out a set of twenty-nine caves, converting some to cells, and others to monasteries and Buddhist temples.
These caves are adorned with elaborate sculptures and paintings which have withstood the ravages of time .
Northeast of Mumbai (Bombay), near Aurangabad, are two astonishing series of temples carved out of living rock (rock formations still in progress) over the course of fourteen centuries. During the 4th century A. D. in a remote valley, work began on the Ajanta caves to create a complex of Buddhist monasteries and prayer halls. As centuries passed, numerous Buddhist monks and artisans dug out a set of twenty-nine caves, converting some to cells, and others to monasteries and Buddhist temples. All of these were carved from the rock cliff at Ajanta. These caves are adorned with elaborate sculptures and paintings which have withstood the ravages of time.

7. Ajanta Caves
The Ajanta caves depict the stories of Buddhism spanning from the period from 200 bce to 650 ce.
The 29 caves were built by Buddhist monks using simple tools like hammer & chisel.
The elaborate and exquisite sculptures and paintings depict stories from Jataka tales .
The caves also house images of nymphs and princesses.
The Ajanta caves depict the stories of Buddhism spanning from the period from 200 B.C. and 650 A.D. These caves were discovered in the 19th century by some British Officers who had been on a tiger hunt.
These 29 caves were built by Buddhist monks using simple tools like hammer & chisel. These caves were the retreats of Buddhist monks who taught and performed rituals in the Chaityas and Viharas, the ancient seats of learning. The elaborate and exquisite sculptures and paintings depict stories from Jataka tales . The caves also house images of nymphs and princesses.
Cave 1 houses some of the most well - preserved wall paintings which include two great Boddhisattvas, Padmapani and Avalokiteshvara. Caves 2 , 16 and 17 also contain amazing paintings, while Caves 1, 4, 17, 19, 24 and 26 boast of some of the most divine sculptures. The flying apsara, of Cave 17, and the image of Buddha preaching in Cave 17, are a couple of unforgettable works of art. The Ajanta caves and the treasures they house, are a landmark in the overall development of Buddhism as such.

8. Scene
From
The Jataka

9. Samskrta The Language of Classical Literature
Samskrta: Sanskrit
“perfected, classified refined”
“Correct speech”
Codified and frozen in the Astadhyahi : the rules of grammar
Considered ideal language for classics
Prakrta: Prakrit
“original or natural”
Dialects that changed and developed with spoken language

10. Kavya Kavya – the “poetry” of the classical canon
Permeated with the culture of the Gupta courts
Kavi, learned poets, wrote under the patronage of kings for audiences of connoisseurs
sahrdaya – “with heart, responsive”
rasika – “enjoyer of aesthetic mood”
Highly formulated norms and conventions
Many works on poetic theory

11. Kavya Genres
Mahakavya: great poem or court epic – contains lyric stanzas with elaborate figures of speech and emphasizes description
Natya: drama
employs both prose and verse
includes Sanskrit and Prakrit
wider range of characters
lyrical description more than dramatic action
Muktaka: short lyric poems
Bhartrhari: pointed epigrams
Kalidasa: idyllic verses on nature
Amaru: erotic vignettes
Katha or Akhyika: narrative tales
Pancatantra: collection of animal fables
Somadeva’s Kathasaritsagara (Ocean to the Rivers of Story): picaresque, marvelous tales, romances

12. Niti Aims for Human Conduct, Worldly Wisdom
The Nagaraka – gentleman, citizen, courtier – cultivated life as art with the 4 aims for human conduct:
Dharma: religious duty
Artha: wealth, politics, public life
Kama: erotic pleasure and the emotions
Vitsyayana’s Kamasutra
Moksa: liberation from the chain of birth and death in which souls are trapped because of Karma
Karma implies fluid relationships between divine, human and animal worlds
gods become human, humans may achieve bodhisattva status or may be reincarnated as animals

13. Women in Classical Literature
Courtly ideal wives like Sita – chaste, loyal, submissive, long-suffering
Wives in merchant-class stories – chaste, independent, powerful
Courtesans – erotic, beautiful, intelligent, ruthless, rapacious, independent
Religious contemplatives – figures of authority and free agents

14. Visnusarman’s Pancatantra ca. 2nd – 3rd ce
Pancatantra: The Five Strategies
Collection of folk tales and fables within frame tales
Brought by Arabs into Europe – model and source for 1001 Nights, Boccaccio’s The Decameron, Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, Grimms’ Fairy Tales, La Fontaine’s Fables, etc.
Central concern is niti – conduct – political expediency and social values
Visnusarman allegedly used the fables to teach 3 dim-witted princes the science of politics

15. The Pancatantra’s 5 Strategies
Book I : “The Loss of Friends”
“Leap and Creep”
“ The Blue Jackal”
“Forethought, Readywit and Fatalist”
Book II : “The Winning of Friends”
Book III: “Crows and Owls”
strategies of alliance and war
“Mouse-Maid Made Mouse”
Book IV: “Loss of Gains”
Book V: “Ill-Considered Action”
“The Loyal Mungoose”

16. Drsyakavya: poetry to be seen as opposed to sravyakavya: poetry to be heard
Bharata’s Natyasastra – authoritative text on dramatic aesthetics and theory
Abhinaya: “a symphony of languages” – verbal text, stylized gesture, facial expression, eye movement, music, dance
8 fundamental emotions, bhava, expressed in 8 major rasas, stylized representations of the emotions – universal rather than particular
No tragedy in Indian drama – impossible in the Hindu and Buddhist conception of the universe of karma linking humans with nature and the cosmos through networks of volition, action and response – open-ended cycles of time
Natya: Drama
Video on Indian Natya

17. Dramatic Conventions
Performed at seasonal festivals and celebrations such as weddings, the dramas were regarded as rites of renewal and order
Characters are types, not individuals
Contrasts and complements among diverse elements:
lyric verse and prose dialogue
erotic and heroic moods
heroic king and gluttonous buffoon
Sanskrit spoken by noblemen, Prakrit spoken by women, children and men of lower caste
domestic and public worlds; worlds of the court and of nature; worlds of the human and divine
emotional universes of men and women

18. The dramatist and poet is regarded as the greatest figure in classical Sanskrit literature.
His three surviving plays are Abhijnanasakuntala (Sakunatala and the Ring of Recognition), Vikramorvasi, and Malavikagnimitra.
These court dramas in verse, nataka, relate fanciful or mythological tales of profound romantic love intensified and matured by adversity.
In Kalidasa's two epics, Raghuvansa and Kumarasambhava, delicate descriptions of nature are mingled with battle scenes.
The other poems of Kalidasa are shorter and almost purely lyrical.
Kalidasa fl. 4th –5th c. ce
Kalidasa Pronounced As: kälidäs , fl. 5th cent.?, Indian dramatist and poet. He is regarded as the greatest figure in classical Sanskrit literature. Except that he was retained by the Gupta court, no facts concerning his life are known. His three surviving plays are Sakuntala (or Shakuntala), Vikramorvasi, and Malavikagnimitra. These court dramas in verse (nataka) relate fanciful or mythological tales of profound romantic love intensified and matured by adversity. Sakuntala, which is generally considered his masterpiece, tells of a maiden, Sakuntala, whom King Dushyanta marries. The king is bewitched so that he forgets his bride until a ring he gave her is discovered in the body of a fish. In Kalidasa's two epics, Raghuvansa and Kumarasambhava, delicate descriptions of nature are mingled with battle scenes. The other poems of Kalidasa are shorter and almost purely lyrical. Meghaduta [cloud messenger] is a description of the regions of India crossed by a cloud traveling between a tree spirit and his wife. Ritusamhara describes the course of pastoral love through the six seasons into which Indians divided the year.

19. Nataka: heroic romance – play about love between a noble hero and a beautiful woman
Dominant mood: the erotic rasa: tension between duty, dharma, and desire, kama
King Dusyanta falls in love with Sakuntala, daughter of the nymph Menaka and foster daughter of the ascetic hermit-sage, Kanva.
Sakuntala