This is our Power point presentation in Afro Asian Literature... Topic HINDU LITERATURE

1. Hindu Literature
GROUP V

2. India
 World’s 7th largest country located in
South Asia
 Second most populous country.
 About 3,000 km(1,865 mi) wide,
shoreline about 7000 km (4,350 mi)
along Bay of Bengal
 India and Bharat are both official names.
 Derives from Indus river used by Greek
 India civilization grew up in the Indus
Valley 4000 to 2500 BC.

3. Divided into three Main
Topographic regions
 Himalayan Mountain system on
the North
 Northern plain, drained by the
Indus, Ganges and Bramaputra
rivers in North Central India.
 Peninsular India in the South

4. People
 Over thousand years, countless
group have migrated into the
subcontinent and many of these
groups have maintained distinctive
cultures down through years.
 The earliest Indians may have
migrated from Australia and the
Pacific Islands

5. Language
 More than 200 languages are
spoken in India
 Four (4) major Languages are
represented
 Indo-Arab branch of the Indo-
European group (the major Linguistic
family in Europe)
 Dravidian language group
 Hindi, the fourth most widely spoken
language in the world
 Indo – Aryan language

6. Religion
 Four major religious traditions have
emerged from this area:
 Hinduism – 83%
 Jainism (and Islam)– 11%
 Buddhism – less than 1%
 Sikhism
 Indian Caste system – major social
system that groups people according to
birth
 Brahmins: priests, the highest caste
 Kshatriyas: warriors and kings
 Vaishyas: merchants
 Shudras: manual labourers

7. Caste system
 Some people do not fall into any caste; these
are called dalits, or untouchables
 Untouchables also known as Harijans
 Dalits have traditionally been tasked with work such as
cleaning streets and working with human and animal
corpses and waste
 Caste-based discrimination is now illegal in
India, and affirmative-action policies aim to
improve standards of living in lower castes, but
inequalities persist

8. Education
 1950 and 1988 – India literacy was
doubled
 Literacy is higher on man than
woman
 Free and open
 8 years in primary
 2 years in lower secondary
 2 years in upper secondary
 Compulsory in 6-14 years old.
 University are large w/ cluster of
affiliated colleges.

9. Government
 Federal system with parliamentary
form of government
 Parliament consist of two houses
 The Raiya Sabha (Council of states)
 The Lok Sabha (House of the People)
 Elected directly by eligible voters and sit 5
years unless Parliament is dissolved
 Indian National Congress- party
most identified remained control of
the central government

10.  November 1989 election -
Discontent with India’s leadership
caused Congress to lose its
parliamentary
 1991 election- P.V Narasimha Rao
succeeded Ravid Gadhi as party
leader became prime minister in
June 1991

11. History
 The history of India as a sovereign state under
its own constitutional government began on
August 15, 1947, when the subcontinent was
partitioned into the two states of India and
Pakistan. Pakistan become an Islamic state
while India opted to become a secular state.
 Mahatma Gandhi the father of modern India was
assassinated on January 20, 1948 by the
militant Hindu who believed him to be too kind to
Muslim. During Gandhi's first decade in office
agriculture production increased. India exploded
1974 it's first nuclear weapon and Sikkim
became state of India.

12.  In June 1975, Gandhi persuaded president
Fakhuruddin Ali Ahmed to evoke as state of
emergency that gave her near-dictatorial power
opposition leads were jailed without trial and
many constitutional freedom were curtailed.
 In March 1977, Gandhi suddenly called new
election, perhaps to legitimatize the powers she
had taken under the emergency. Surprisingly, a
coalition of parties ranging in ideology from
socialist to conservative Hindus (the Janata
party) won control of the Lok Sabha. Morarji
Desai, a longtime opponent of Gandhi became
prime minister. President Ahmed died that same
year and Nelan Sanjavi Reddy was elected
president. The Janata party almost immediately
began to break apart and Desai resign as prime
minister in July 1979.

13.  Gandhi was born in Pobandan India on October 2,
1869, his father was a chief minister for the
maharaja of Porbandan, and the family came from
traditional caste of grocers and moneylenders. His
mother was a devout adherent Jainism, a religions
in which ideas of nonviolence and vegetarianism.
Gandhi stated that he was most influence by his
mother. He married by arrangement at 13. He went
to London to study law when his was18.He works
for an Indian firm in South Africa. He experiences of
overt racial discrimination. He assumed leadership
of protest campaign and gradually developed his
techniques of nonviolent resistance known as
Satyagraha. Gandhi also fought to improve the
status of the lowest classes of society, the castles
untouchables, whom he called Harijans.

14.  He believed in manual labor and simple living.
Non-violence or non-injury is a percept common
to three faiths, HINDUISM,JAINISM, and
BUDDHISM.
1. HINDUISM....adherent to the proscription
against violence toward living things can
escape from the cycle of rebirth and the
doctrine also form a basis for vegetarian.
2.BUDDHISM.... non-violence is manifest in the
Buddha's emphasis on compassion and is also
part of the faith's moral codes.
3.JAINISM.... non-violence is a core religious duty
and followed so strictly that the most Orthodox
devotes cover their faces with mask to prevent
accidentally harming insect.

15. Literature
 Sanskrit Literature – Oral Tradition produced the Vedic
holy text.
 Mahabharata and Ramayana – two great books, sources
for countless literary.
 400 B.C. –PANINI produced his Sanskrit grammar
 Second Century AD – Prakrits being used in literature
 Middle Ages Sanskrit – used in religious context by
priesthood
 Ghazal – stylized form of lyrical folk song and notable
exponents of the form
 MACAULAY – established English-langauge schooling ofr
Indians
 Michael MADHUSUDAN DUTT and JAYASHANKAR
PRASAD (1889 – 1937) introduced black verse in sonnet
into Indian poetry

16.  ARUNACALA KAVI – developed a utilitarian
prose style
 MADHUSUDAN DUTT – wrote the first plays
modeled on Western Drama
 SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE – introduced
the short story to vernacular writing in India
 LAKSMINATH BEZBARUA and MUHAMMAD
IQBAL – major poets of the period
 History of Indian literature falls into 2 periods;
1. The Vedic Period
2. Sanskrit Period

17. Religious works
 Poetry
 The Rig Veda: a book of sacred hymns
 The Yajur Veda: a book of knowledge and
melodies for the hymns
 The Sama Veda: descriptions of the
materials for sacrifice
 The Atharva Veda: contains magic spells
and other folk knowledge
 The Brahmanas
 The Upanishads
 Maya
 The Sutras

18. Secular works
 Epics
 The Mahabharata
 Bhagavad gita
 Nala and
Damayanti
 The Ramayana
 Dramas
 The toy clay cart
 Sakuntala or the
fatal ring
 The Jatakas
 The Panchatantra
 Romanorum
 The Hitopdesa
 The Sukasaptati

19. Ganesh
Brahma
Shiva Vishnu

20. Karma and Reincarnation
 Reincarnation is the belief that the soul
repeatedly goes through a cycle of
being born into a body, dying, and
being reborn again in a new body.
 Karma, a force that determines the
quality of each life, depending on how
well one behaved in a past life.
 Hinduism says we create karma by our
actions on earth. If you live a good life,
you create good karma. If you live a
bad life, you create bad karma.

21. Moksha
 Each time a Hindu soul is born into a
better life, it has the opportunity to
improve itself further, and get closer to
ultimate liberation.
 This liberation is called Moksha.
 One attains Moksha when one has
"overcome ignorance", and no longer
desires anything at all.
 The ones who reach this state no longer
struggle with the cycle of life and
death.
 The way to get to Moksha is to not
create any karma.

22. Sacred Writings
 The Vedas collections of Sanskrit
hymns (written down 1200-900BCE,
but based on older oral versions).
 The Upanishads which means the
inner or mystic teaching that were
passed down from guru (teacher) to
disciple (student).

23. Mahabharata
 Mahabharata, Sanskrit for Great Story,
is one of the great epic poems of ancient
India.
 It was written between 300 BC and AD.
300.
 The story is about the battle of one family
over a kingdom in northern India.
 The Bhagavad Gita (Song of God) is
contained in the Mahabharata. It is
dialogue between Krishna and the hero
Arjuna on the meaning of life.

24. Krishna and Arjuna

25. Ramayana
 Ramayana was written in 3rd century
BC, and tells story of Rama, and his wife,
Sita.
 Rama and Sita are generally seen as
ideal examples of great manly heroism
and wifely devotion.
 Reciting the Ramayana is considered a
religious act, and scenes from the epic
are portrayed throughout India and
Southeast Asia.

26. Rama and Sita

27. Hindu Life Goals
 Hinduism is about the sort of life one
should lead in order to be born into a
better life next time and ultimately
achieve liberation. There are 4 legitimate
goals in life:
 dharma (appropriate living)
 artha (the pursuit of material gain by
lawful means)
 kama (delight of the senses)
 moksha (release from rebirth).

28. Hindu Duties
 Each Hindu has 4 daily duties:
 Revere the deities
 Respect ancestors
 Respect all beings
 Honor all humankind