The ancient literature is the crowning glory of the Indian civilization. No other part of the world has produced such voluminous literature of knowledge and wisdom...!
The Indian scriptures can be broadly classified into two categories - The Shruti literature and The Smriti literature. Shruti is concerned with 'the heard' or 'the revealed'. Smriti is concerned with 'the remembered'. The Vedas and the Upanishads are considered as the Shruti literature. The literature which was based on the knowledge acquired through the experience or the tradition was the Smriti literature. Generally, the Smriti literature is based on the Shruti. The guidelines for ethics, moral obligations, social codes, customs etc. are found in the Smriti literature. The great epics Mahabharata and Ramayana also belong to the Smriti literature.
The Vedas are the most celebrated possessions of the mankind. The Rigveda is the oldest literary work in the history of the world. The Vedas are the exquisite expressions of the Divinity. They are the first significant utterances on the lips of man. The ancient Indian literature is the glorious gift of the Indian civilization to the world. It comprises of the illustrious scriptures. There are four Vedas -
Each Veda has four subdivisions
The term upaveda (“applied knowledge”) is used in traditional literature to designate the subjects of certain technical works. Lists of what subjects are included in this class differ among sources. As per the Caraṇavyuha, they are -
Maharshi Vyasa, the narrator of the Mahabharata, is hagiographically credited as the compiler of the Puranas. The ancient tradition suggests that originally there was but one Purana. Vishnu Purana (3.6.15) mentions that Vyasa entrusted his Puranasamhita to his disciple Lomaharshana, who in turn imparted it to his disciples, three of whom compiled their own samhitas. These three, together with Lomaharshana's, comprise the Mulasamhita, from which the later eighteen Puranas were derived.
The Puranic literature is encyclopedic, and it includes diverse topics such as cosmogony, genealogies of gods, goddesses, kings, heroes, sages, and demigods, folk tales, pilgrimages, temples, medicine, astronomy, grammar, mineralogy, humor, love stories, as well as theology and philosophy. There are 18 Puranas in total.
'Shastra' commonly refers to a treatise or text on a specific field of knowledge. In early Vedic literature, the word referred to any precept, rule, teaching, ritual instruction or direction. In late and post Vedic literature of Hinduism, Shastra referred to any treatise, book or instrument of teaching, any manual or compendium on any subject in any field of knowledge, including religious. Examples : Yoga-Shastra (Meditation), Nyaya-Shastra (Justice), Dharma-Shastra(right way of living), Koka- or Kama-Shastra, Moksha-Shastra (true independence), Artha-Shastra (Economics), Alamkara-Shastra (rhetoric), Kavya-Shastra (poetics), Sangita-Shastra (music), Natya-Shastra (theatre & dance) and many others.
The Mahabharata is an ancient Indian epic where the main story revolves around two branches of a family - the Pandavas and Kauravas - who, in the Kurukshetra War, battle for the throne of Hastinapura. The Mahabharata is the longest epic poem known and has been described as "the longest poem ever written". Its longest version consists of over 100,000 Shlokas or over 200,000 individual verse lines (each shloka is a couplet), and long prose passages. At about 1.8 million words in total, the Mahabharata is roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined or about four times the length of the Ramayana. The events in the epic play out in the Indian subcontinent and surrounding areas. It was first narrated by a student of Vyasa at a snake-sacrifice of the great-grandson of one of the major characters of the story. Including within it the Bhagavad Gita, the Mahabharata is one of the most important texts of ancient Indian, indeed world, literature.
The Ramayana is an ancient Indian epic, It was composed in Sanskrit by the Maharshi Valmiki, who taught it to Rama's sons, the twins Lava and Kush. At about 24000 verses, it is a rather long poem and, by tradition, is known as the Adi Kavya (adi = original, first; kavya = poem). While the basic story is about palace politics and battles with demon tribes, the narrative is interspersed with philosophy, ethics, and notes on duty.
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