CHAPTER 6

INDIA- LAND OF PRAYER

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this topic/chapter, you must be able to:
1. Analyze the stories using essential elements.
2. Appreciate the values found in the selections.
3. Infer a character’s mood through his lines.
4.Describe the authors’ choice of words and general tone in the literary selections

Literary Periods

The Indus Valley civilization flourished in northern India between 2500 and 1500
B.C. The Aryans, a group of nomadic warriors and herders, were the earliest known
migrants into India. They brought with them a well-developed language and literature
and a set of religious beliefs.
a) Vedic Period (1500 B.C. –500 B.C.). This period is named for the Vedas, a set
of hymns that formed the cornerstone of Aryan culture. Hindus consider the
Vedas, which were transmitted orally by priests, to be the most sacred of all
literature for they believe these to have been revealed to humans directly by the
gods.

 The Rigveda which has come to mean “hymns of supreme sacred

knowledge,” is the foremost collection or Samhita made up of 1,028 hymns.
The oldest of the Vedas, it contains strong, energetic, non-speculative hymns,
often comparable to the psalms in the Old Testament. The Hindus regard
these hymns as divinely inspired or ‘heard’ directly from the gods.

b) Epic and Buddhist Age (500 B.C. – A.D.). The period of composition of the two
great epics, Mahabharata and the Ramayana. This time was also the growth of
later Vedic literature, new Sanskrit literature, and Buddhist literature in Pali. The
Dhammapada was also probably composed during this period. The Maurya
Empire (322-230 B.C.) ruled by Ashoka promoted Buddhism and preached
goodness, nonviolence, and ‘righteousness’ although this period was known for
 warfare and iron-fisted rule. The Gupta Dynasty (320-467 B.C.) was the next
great political power. During this time, Hinduism reached a full flowering and was
evident in culture and the arts.

 The Mahabharata, traditionally ascribed to the sage Vyasa, consists of a

mass of legendary and didactic material that tells of the struggle for
supremacy between two groups of cousins, the Kauravas and the Pandavas
set sometime 3102 BC. The poem is made up of almost 100,000 couplets
divided into 18 parvans or sections. It is an exposition on dharma (codes of
conduct), including the proper conduct of a king, of a warrior, of a man living
in times of calamity, and of a person seeking to attain emancipation from
rebirth.

 The Bhagavad Gita (The Blessed Lord’s Song) is one of the greatest and
most beautiful of the Hindu scriptures. It is regarded by the Hindus in
somewhat the same way as the Gospels are by Christians. It forms part of
Book IV and is written in the form of a dialogue between the warrior Prince
Arjuna and his friend and charioteer, Krishna, who is also an earthly
incarnation of the god Vishnu.

 The Ramayana was composed in Sanskrit, probably not before 300 BC, by
the poet Valmiki and consists of some 24,000 couplets divided into seven
books. It reflects the Hindu values and forms of social organization, the
theory of karma, the ideals of wifehood, and feelings about caste, honor and
promises.

The poem describes the royal birth of Rama, his tutelage under the sage Visvamitra,
and his success in bending Siva’s mighty bow, thus winning Sita, the daughter of King
Janaka, for his wife. After Rama is banished from his position as heir by an intrigue, he
retreats to the forest with his wife and his half brother, Laksmana. There Ravana, the
demon-king of Lanka, carries off Sita, who resolutely rejects his attentions. After
numerous adventures Rama slays Ravana and rescues Sita. When they return to his
kingdom, however, Rama learns that the people question the queen’s chastity, and he
banishes her to the forest where she gives birth to Rama’s two sons. The family is
reunited when the sons come of age, but Sita, after again protesting her innocence,
asks to be received by the earth, which swallows her up.

c) Classical Period (A.D. – 1000 A.D.). The main literary language of northern
India during this period was Sanskrit, in contrast with the Dravidian languages
of southern India. Sanskrit, which means ‘perfect speech’ is considered a sacred
language, the language spoken by the gods and goddesses. As such, Sanskrit
was seen as the only appropriate language for the noblest literary works. Poetry
and drama peaked during this period. Beast fables such as the Panchatantra
were popular and often used by religious teachers to illustrate moral points.

 The Panchatantra is a collection of Indian beast fables originally written in

Sanskrit. In Europe, the work was known under the title The Fables of
Bidpai after the narrator, and Indian sage named Bidpai, (called Vidyapati in
Sanskrit). It is intended as a textbook of artha (worldly wisdom); the
aphorisms tend to glorify shrewdness and cleverness more than helping of
others. The original text is a mixture of Sanskrit prose and stanzas of verse,
with the stories contained within one of five frame stories. The introduction,
which acts as an enclosing frame for the entire work, attributes the stories to
a learned Brahman named Vishnusarman, who used the form of animal
fables to instruct the three dull-witted sons of a king.
 Sakuntala, a Sanskrit drama by Kalidasa, tells of the love between
Sakuntala and King Dushyanta. What begins as a physical attraction for both
of them becomes spiritual in the end as their love endures and surpasses all
difficulties. King Dushyanta is a noble and pious king who upholds his duties
above personal desire. Sakuntala, on the other hand, is a young girl who
matures beautifully because of her kindness, courage, and strength of will.
 After a period of suffering, the two are eventually reunited. Emotion or rasa
dominates every scene in Sanskrit drama. These emotions vary from love to
anger, heroism to cowardice, joy to terror and allows the audience to take part
in the play and be one with the characters.
 The Little Clay Cart (Mrcchakatika) is attributed to Shudraka, a king. The
characters in this play include a Brahman merchant who has lost his money
through liberality, a rich courtesan in love with a poor young man, much
description of resplendent palaces, and both comic and tragic or near-tragic
emotional situations.

d) Medieval and Modern Age (A.D. 1000 – present). Persian influence on

literature was considerable during this period. Persian was the court language of
the Moslem rulers. In the 18 th century India was directly under the British Crown
and remained so until its Independence in 1947. British influence was strong and
modern-day Indians are primarily educated in English. Many have been brought
into the world of Western learning at the expense of learning about their own
culture.

 Gitanjali: Song Offerings was originally published in India in 1910 and it s

translation followed in 1912. In these prose translations, Rabindranath
Tagore uses imagery from nature to express the themes of love and the
internal conflict between spiritual longings and earthly desires.

 The Taj Mahal, a poem by Sahir Ludhianvi, is about the mausoleum in

North India built by the Mogul emperor Shah Jahan for his wife Mumtaz-i-
Mahal. The façade of this grandiose structure is made of white marble and is
surrounded by water gardens, gateways, and walks. The tomb at the center
of the dome stands on a square block with towers at each corner. The
construction of the building took twenty years to complete involving some 20,
000 workers.
  On Learning to be an Indian an essay by Santha Rama Rau illustrates the
telling effects of colonization on the lives of the people particularly the
younger generation. The writer humorously narrates the conflicts that arise
between her grandmother's traditional Indian values and the author’s own
British upbringing.

RELIGIONS IN INDIA

Indian creativity is evident in religion as the country is the birthplace of two

important faiths: Hinduism, the dominant religion, and Buddhism, which ironically
became extinct in India but spread throughout Asia.
a) Hinduism, literally “the belief of the people of India,” is the predominant faith of
India and of no other nation. The Hindus are deeply absorbed with God and the
creation of the universe.
The Purusarthas are the three ends of man: dharma – virtue, duty, righteousness,
moral law; artha – wealth; and kama – love or pleasure. A fourth end is moksha – the
renunciation of duty, wealth and love in order to seek spiritual perfection. It is achieved
after the release from samsara, the cycle of births and deaths. The Hindus believe
that all reality is one and spiritual, and that each individual soul is identical with this
reality and shares its characteristics: pure being, intelligence, and bliss. Everything that
seems to divide the soul from this reality is maya or illusion.
Life is viewed as an upward development through four stages of effort called the four
asramas: a) the student stage – applies to the rite of initiation into the study of the
Vedas; b) the householder stage – marries and fulfills the duties as head of the family
where he begets sons and earns a living; c) the stage of the forest dweller – departs
from home and renounces the social world; and d) ascetic – stops performing any of
the rituals or social duties of life in the world and devotes time for reflection and
meditation.
Kama refers to one of the proper pursuits of man in his role as householder, that of
pleasure and love. The Kama-sutra is a classic textbook on erotics and other forms of
pleasure and love, which is attributed to the sage Vatsyayana.
The Hindus regard Purusha, the Universal Spirit, as the soul and original source of the
universe. As the universal soul, Purusha is the life-giving principle in all animated
beings. As a personified human being, Purusha's body is the source of all creation.
The four Varnas serve as the theoretical basis for the organization of the Hindu society.
These were thought to have been created from Purusha’s body:
- The Brahman (priest) was Purusha’s mouth. Their duty is to perform
sacrifices, to study and to teach the Vedas, and to guard the rules of
dharma. Because of their sacred work, they are supreme in purity and
rank.
- The Ksatriyas (warriors) are the arms. From this class arose the kings
who are the protectors of society.
- The Vaisyas (peasants) are the thighs. They live by trading, herding, and
farming.
- The Sudras (serfs) are the feet. They engage in handicrafts and manual
occupation and they are to serve meekly the three classes above them.
They are strictly forbidden to mate with persons of a higher varna.

 The Upanishads form a highly sophisticated commentary on the religious

thought suggested by the poetic hymns of the Rigveda. The name implies,
according to some traditions, ‘sitting at the feet of the teacher.’ The most
important philosophical doctrine is the concept of a single supreme being, the
Brahman, and knowledge is directed toward reunion with it by the human
soul, the Atman or Self. The nature of eternal life is discussed and such
themes as the transmigration of souls and causality in creation.

b) Buddhism originated in India in the 6 th century B.C. This religion is based on

the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, called Buddha, or the ‘Enlightened
One.’ Much of Buddha’s teaching is focused on self-awareness and self-
development in order to attain nirvana or enlightenment.
According to Buddhist beliefs, human beings are bound to the wheel of life which is a
continual cycle of birth, death, and suffering. This cycle is an effect of karma in which a
person’s present life and experiences are the result of past thoughts and actions, and
these present thoughts and actions likewise create those of the future. The Buddhist
scriptures uphold the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path. The Four Noble
Truths are: 1) life is suffering; 2) the cause of suffering is desire; 3) the removal of
desire is the removal of suffering; and 4) the Noble Eightfold Path leads to the end of
suffering. The Noble Eightfold Path consists of: 1) right understanding; 2) right
thought; 3) right speech; 4) right action; 5) right means of livelihood; 6) right effort; 7)
right concentration; and 8) right meditation. The Buddhist truth states that bad actions
and bad feelings such as selfishness, greed, hostility, hate are evil not because they
harm others but because of their negative influence on the mental state of the doer. It is
in this sense that evil returns to punish the doer

 The Dhammapada (Way of Truth) is an anthology of basic Buddhist teaching in

a simple aphoristic style. One of the best known books of the Pali Buddhist
canon, it contains 423 stanzas arranged in 26 chapters. These verses are
compared with the Letters of St. Paul in the Bible or that of Christ’s Sermon on
the Mount.

A. Religious and Philosophical Works

Vedas

Veda, (Sanskrit: “Knowledge”) a collection of poems or hymns composed

in archaic Sanskrit by Indo-European-speaking peoples who lived in northwest India
during the 2nd millennium BCE. No definite date can be ascribed to the composition of
the Vedas, but the period of about 1500–1200 BCE is acceptable to most scholars. The
hymns formed a liturgical body that in part grew up around the soma ritual and sacrifice
and were recited or chanted during rituals. They praised a wide pantheon of gods, some
of whom personified natural and cosmic phenomena, such as fire (Agni), the Sun
(Surya and Savitri), dawn (Ushas, a goddess), storms (the Rudras), and rain (Indra),
while others represented abstract qualities such as friendship (Mitra), moral authority
(Varuna), kingship (Indra), and speech (Vach, a goddess).
 Dhammapada

Dhammapada is a collection of 423 verses as uttered by Gautama Buddha

himself to his disciples. An anthology of moral precepts and maxims, it is divided into
26 chapters under such headers as Thought, Flowers, Old Age, Self, Happiness,
Pleasure, Anger, Thirst, Brahmana and others. Though seemingly separated across
so many chapters a fundamental thread runs through all the verses, which becomes
perceptible on reading the text.

Upanishads

It is a Sanskrit poem, consisting of 700 verses divided into 18 chapters,

that is regarded by most Hindus as their most important text—the essence of
their belief.
B. Indian Epics

Mahabharata

The Mahabharata is an epic that comprises one hundred thousand stanzas of

verse divided into eighteen books, or parvas. It is the largest single literary work in
existence. Originally composed in the ancient language of Sanskrit sometime between
400 BC and 400 AD, it is set in a legendary era thought to correspond to the period of
Indian culture and history in approximately the tenth century BC. The original “author”
was Vyasa who tried to tell about the Great War between the Pandavas and the
Kauravas - cousins who claimed to be the rightful rulers of a kingdom.
The evil brothers, Kauravas, were envious of their cousin Yudhistira and started
scheming to dethrone him. Their first attempt to kill the Pandavas was by burning them
inside a palace. The Pandavas managed to escape, but then the evil brothers once
again attempted to gain control. One challenged the eldest brother Yudhisthira to a
game of dice which led Yudhisthira to lose everything, including his and his brothers'
wife, Draupadi. He, along with his brothers and their wife Draupadi, were exiled from the
kingdom. For twelve years they had to live in the forest and upon the thirteenth year
they were to hide in a city in disguise. It was during those thirteen years that the
brothers grew to learn what it was like to live with the bare minimum and became more
knowledgeable.
After the thirteenth year Duryodhana decided that he would fight against them
which led to a huge war and the deaths of many. Many died from both sides and after
the war, they realized that nothing was really gained. The most dramatic figure of the
entire Mahabharata, however, was Krishna who was the supreme personality of
Godhead himself, descended to earth in human form to reestablish his devotees as
care takers of the earth, and who practiced Dharma. Krishna was the cousin of both
parties, but he was a friend and advisor to the Pandavas, became the brother-in-law of
Arjuna, and served as Arjuna's mentor and charioteer in the Great War. Krishna is
portrayed several times as eager to see the war occur, and in many ways the Pandavas
were his human instruments for fulfilling that end. Throughout their lives and the terrible
Great War, there were examples of the ethical gaps between men which were never
resolved. In the aftermath of the war, Yudhishthira alone was terribly troubled, but his
sense of the war's wrongfulness persisted to the end of the text. This was in spite of the
fact that everyone else, from his wife to Krishna, told him the war was right; even the
dying patriarch, Bhishma, lectured him at length on all aspects of the Good Law (the
Duties and Responsibilities of Kings). In the years that followed the Great War, the only
survivors on the part of the Kauravas, Duryodhana's parents, King Dhritarashtra and his
queen, Gandhari lived a life of asceticism in a forest retreat and died with yogic calm in
a forest fire. Kunti, the mother of the Pandavas was with them too. Krishna departed
from this earth thirty-six years after the Great War. When they learned of this, the
Pandavas believed it was time for them to leave this world too and they embarked upon
the 'Great Journey,' which involved walking north toward the polar mountain that is
toward the heavenly worlds, until one's body dropped dead.
 One by one, beginning with Draupadi, the Pandavas died along the way until
Yudhishthira was left alone with a dog that had accompanied him from the start.
Yudhishthira made it to the gates of heaven and there refused the order to drive the dog
back, at which point the dog was revealed to be an incarnate form of the God Dharma
(the God who was Yudhishthira's actual, physical father), who was there to test
Yudhishthira's virtue. Once in heaven Yudhishthira faced one final test of his virtue: He
saw only the Dhartarashtra Clan in heaven, and he was told that his brothers were in
hell. He insisted on joining his brothers in hell, if that were the case! It was then
revealed that they were really in heaven, that this illusion had been one final test for
him. In essence, the epic story represents an extended exploration of the
responsibilities set forth by the code of dharma. In addition to recounting a heroic tale,
the Mahabharata contains a collection of writings on a broad spectrum of human
learning, including ethics, law, philosophy, history, geography, genealogy, and religion.
It also features a number of legends, moral stories, and local tales all woven into an
elaborate narrative.

Ramayana

Dasharatha was the King of Ayodhya and had three wives and four sons. Rama
was the eldest and his mother was Kaushalya. Bharata was the son of Dasharatha’s
second and favorite wife, Queen Kaikeyi. The other two were twins, Lakshmana and
Shatrughna whose mother was Sumithra. In the neighboring city the ruler’s daughter
was named Sita. When it was time for Sita to choose her bridegroom (at a ceremony
called a swayamvara) princes from all over the land were asked to string a giant bow
which no one could lift. However, as Rama picked it up, he not only strung the bow, he
broke it. Seeing this, Sita indicated that she had chosen Rama as her husband by
putting a garland around his neck. Their love became a model for the entire kingdom as
they looked over the kingdom under the watchful eye of his father the king.
 A few years later, King Dasharatha decided it was time to give his throne to his
eldest son Rama and retire to the forest. Everyone seemed pleased, save Queen
Kaikeyi since she wanted her son Bharata to rule. Because of an oath Dasharatha had
made to her years before, she got the king to agree to banish Rama for fourteen years
and to crown Bharata, even though the king pleaded with her not to demand such a
request. The devastated King could not face Rama and it was Queen Kaikeyi who told
Rama the King’s decree. Rama, always obedient, was content to go into banishment in
the forest. Sita and Lakshmana accompanied him on his exile.

One day Rama and Lakshmana wounded a rakshasas (demon) princess who
tried to seduce Rama. She returned to her brother Ravana, the ten-headed ruler of
Lanka. In retaliation, Ravana devised a plan to abduct Sita after hearing about her
incomparable beauty. He sent one of his demons disguised as a magical golden deer to
entice Sita. To please her, Rama and Lakshmana went to hunt the deer down. Before
they did though, they drew a protective circle around Sita and told her that she would be
safe for as long as she did not step outside the circle. After Rama and Lakshmana left,
Ravana appeared as a holy man begging alms. The moment Sita stepped outside the
circle to give him food, Ravana grabbed her and carried her to his kingdom in Lanka.

Rama then sought the help of a band of monkeys offer to help him find Sita.
Hanuman, the general of the monkey band can fly since his father is the wind. He flew
to Lanka and, finding Sita in the grove, comforted her and told her Rama would come to
save her soon. Ravana’s men captured Hanuman, and Ravana ordered them to wrap
Hanuman's tail in cloth and to set it on fire. With his tail burning, Hanuman escaped and
hopped from house-top to house-top, setting Lanka on fire. He then flew back to Rama
to tell him where Sita was.

Rama, Lakshmana and the monkey army built a causeway from the tip of India to Lanka
and crossed over to Lanka where a cosmic battle ensued. Rama killed several of
Ravana’s brothers and eventually confronted the ten-headed Ravana. He killed Ravana,
freed Sita and after Sita proved here purity, they returned to Ayodhya where Bharata
returned the crown to him.

C. Literary Selections

Panchatantra

Panchatantra, (Sanskrit: “Five

Treatises” or “Five Chapters”) also
spelled Pancatantra, collection of Indian
animal fables, which has had extensive
circulation both in the country of its origin
and throughout the world. In Europe the
work was known under the name The
Fables of Bidpai (for the narrator, an Indian sage, Bidpai, called Vidyapati in Sanskrit),
and one version reached the West as early as the 11th century.

In theory, the Panchatantra is intended as a textbook of niti (“policy,” especially

for kings and statesmen); the aphorisms tend to glorify shrewdness and cleverness
rather than altruism. The original text is a mixture of Sanskrit prose and stanzas of
verse, with the stories contained within one of the five frame stories. The introduction,
which acts as an enclosing frame for the entire work, attributes the stories to a learned
Brahmin named Vishnusharman, who used the form of animal fables to instruct the
three dull-witted sons of a king.
Sakuntala

Dusyanta, a king in northern India, is racing along in his chariot, preparing to

shoot a deer. Suddenly, a forest-dwelling ascetic warns him not to shoot, since the deer
belongs to the nearby hermitage of Kanva, a great sage. The ascetic invites King
Dusyanta to visit the hermitage, which is under his royal protection. He explains that
Kanva isn’t home, but the sage’s daughter, Shakuntala, is receiving guests.

When the King enters the hermitage, he notices Shakuntala and her two
friends, Anasuya and Priyamvada, watering the sacred trees. He hides in the shadows
to observe them, instantly drawn to Shakuntala’s beauty. When Dusyanta reveals his
presence, a flustered Shakuntala is immediately attracted to him, too. Though
Shakuntala is modest and shy, the King questions Shakuntala’s friends about her and

offers her his signet ring.

Before the King has to concoct a reason to linger near the hermitage, he’s asked
to protect the ascetics from evil spirits in Kanva’s absence. He quickly dispels the
demons, then overhears Shakuntala, who’s desperately lovesick, confiding her feelings
for him to her friends. When Shakuntala recites a love poem she’s composed for him,
he emerges from hiding and openly declares his love for her. Their mutual declarations
effectively constitute a secret marriage. Before long, Shakuntala is pregnant.

After Dusyanta is forced to return to his capital, Shakuntala is so distracted that

she unintentionally offends Durvasas, a short-tempered sage, when he visits the
hermitage. Durvasas puts a curse on her that will cause Dusyanta to forget Shakuntala,
but when Priyamvada intercedes, he grants that the sight of a memento—the signet ring
—will lift the curse. After Kanva returns, he celebrates Shakuntala’s good fortune and
sends her to join her husband, escorted by seers.

In the capital, when Dusyanta receives word that a party from Kanva’s hermitage is on
its way, he is surprised and uneasy. To Shakuntala’s grief, the baffled and defensive
King denies having any connection with her. When she tries to show him the signet ring
as a reminder, she discovers it’s missing from her finger. Dusyanta relents and agrees
to house Shakuntala until she gives birth, but before he can do so, Shakuntala is
spirited away to the celestial realm by nymphs.

A poor fisherman discovers the King’s signet ring in the belly of a fish and is

threatened with execution, but he is let go with a reward after the King, seeing the ring
and remembering everything, corroborates his story. Soon thereafter, Sanumati, a
nymph and friend of Shakuntala’s mother, spies at the palace to find out why the spring
festival has been canceled. She learns that the King, overwhelmed by depression and
remorse over Shakuntala, has forbidden the celebration. Dusyanta continues to obsess
over the situation until Matali, the god Indra’s charioteer, appears at the palace and
takes him away on an urgent mission to fight demons.

Six years pass. King Dusyanta has successfully vanquished the demons and
been duly honored by Indra. When Matali and the King tour the earth in a flying chariot,
they descend to visit Marica’s hermitage, a celestial realm of the demigods. Here the
King is astonished to meet a little boy who greatly resembles him. When he picks up the
boy’s protective amulet—able to be touched only by the boy and his parents—he
confirms that the boy, Sarvadamana, is indeed his child, the prophesied world ruler.
Then Shakuntala enters, and, though it takes her a moment to recognize the King, they
are soon tearfully reunited. The three of them talk with Marica the sage, and he explains
Durvasas’s curse, telling the couple not to blame themselves or one another. Marica
confirms Sarvadamana’s destiny and blesses the family, sending them home to live in
Dusyanta’s court.

Gitanjali

The Gitanjali Song Offerings poetry collection by Rabindranath Tagore was first

published in the Bengali language in 1910. The English version, Song Offerings, was
published in 1912 with translations by Tagore, with a second edition following in 1913.
Later that year, Tagore received the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The English edition of Gitanjali is divided into 103 sections of prose poetry. Not all
of these poems come from the Bengali version; Song Offerings also contains poems
from Tagore’s previously published books.
The 1913 edition begins with an introduction by W. B. Yeats, the Irish poet who
helped Tagore to find a Western audience. Yeats describes his interest in Tagore’s
work and notes the poet’s ability to combine authentic feeling with spiritual concepts.
Throughout the Gitanjali collection, Tagore expresses a joyful, personalized
spirituality with emphasis on devotion, faith, and an individual’s relationship with the
divine in contrast with the official rules and practices of orthodox religion.
Although the poems in the English-language edition come from various
collections, they still can be understood with a narrative arc. The collection begins with
the poet’s joy at serving God, describes his suffering through separation from God and
his re-awakening to God’s presence, shares his accumulated wisdom through song and
story, and, at the end, relates his acknowledgment of his mortality and fulfillment of his
life’s purpose.

Bhagavad Gita
Dilemma
The Bhagavad Gita takes place over a relatively short time frame. It is
narrated by the poet Sanjaya and told to King Dhritarashtra. Arjuna, a young warrior,
and Krishna, a god who acts as Arjuna's charioteer, stand still between two armies while
surveying the battlefield. In the beginning, Arjuna is struck with sudden and intense
doubt about his role in the battle. Although he is one of the generals of the Pandava
army, he does not want to fight. He hesitates because the adversaries are his cousins,
the Kauravas. Arjuna believes it would be an action of great evil to fight and kill his
family members. Krishna strongly counsels Arjuna to fight, nonetheless.

Yoga

Most of the Gita is a dialogue that follows Arjuna's pronouncement of despair

at the idea of fighting and killing his cousins. Krishna tells Arjuna it is his dharma, or
duty, to go into this battle and that by fighting he will be fulfilling his moral obligations.
Furthermore, in fulfilling this dharma, Arjuna will be following the path of karma yoga, or
the yoga of right action. When performing an action that aligns with a person's duty, one
should be unattached to the outcome of that action. By doing this, Arjuna may find
wisdom and freedom from the cycle of death and rebirth. Krishna recommends the yoga
of right action to Arjuna.
Krishna and Arjuna also discuss other yogic paths, such as the yoga of knowledge and
the yoga of devotion. Krishna goes to great lengths to teach Arjuna about these paths.
However, he continues to urge Arjuna that the path of action is the one for him. The
path of devotion, Krishna argues, can be integrated with the path of action if Arjuna
devotes his actions to a personal god. Similarly, the path of knowledge requires action
as well, so ultimately the path of action is the heart of all other paths.

In the end Arjuna runs out of questions and recognizes the validity of Krishna's
teaching. He affirms his love for Krishna and decides to go into battle to fulfill his
dharma. Learning from Krishna's conversations and teachings elevates Arjuna to a
wiser, more enlightened state.

Formative Assessment 1 (Quiz, Exercise, Activity, etc.)

  1. It is an ancient Indian religion teaching a path to spiritual purity and enlightenment
through disciplined nonviolence
a. Sikhism b. Jainism c. Buddhism d. Hinduism
2. This poem is considered as the longest epic in the world.
a. Ramayana b. Mahabharata c. The Tale of Genji
3. This is the fundamental scripture of the Hindu religion.
a. Vedas b. Bible c. Koran d. Analects
4. This heroic text tells the story of the hero Rama, prince of Ayodhya and incarnation
of the god Vishnu.

a. Mahabharata b. Ramayana c. Shakuntala d. Vishnu

5. It is a collection of stories in prose and verse, which feature animals as the

characters, teach lessons about human conduct

a. Shakuntala b. Kalidasa c. Panchatantra d. Ramayana

6. This is the period when unique version of local myths, legends, romances and epics
emerged.

a. Classical Literature b. Medieval Literature

c. Contemporary Literature d. Sanskrit Literature

7.  Rabindranath Tagore won the Nobel prize for Literature. Which of these did he
write?
a. Gitanjali b. Ramayana c. Bhagavad Gita d. Vedas

8. Which literature contains short stories that have th priceless treasures of morality and
knowledge?

a. Mahabhrata b. Ramayana c. Panchatantra d. Vedas

9. He is India’s preeminent classical poet.

a. Kalidasa b. Valkimi c. Vyasa d. Rabindranath Tagore

10. Dhammapada is the first Indian novel in English.

a. Fact b. Fiction

The verses above come from Dhammapada, choose one and explain briefly.

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 The verses above come from Bhagavad Gita, Choose one and explain briefly.
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Chapter/Module Summary

The earliest Indian literature took the form of the canonical Hindu sacred writings,
known as the Veda, which were written in Sanskrit. To the Veda were added prose
commentaries such as the Brahmanas and the Upanishads. The production of Sanskrit
literature extended from about 1500 BCE to about 1000 CE and reached its height of
development in the 1st to 7th centuries CE. In addition to sacred and philosophical
writings, such genres as erotic and devotional lyrics, court poetry, plays, and narrative
folktales emerged.
Because Sanskrit was identified with the Brahminical religion of the Vedas,
Buddhism and Jainism adopted other literary languages (Pali and Ardhamagadhi,
respectively). From these and other related languages emerged the modern languages
of northern India. The literature of those languages depended largely on the ancient
Indian background, which includes two Sanskrit epic poems, the Mahabharata and
Ramayana, as well as the Bhagavata-purana and the other Puranas. In addition, the
Sanskrit philosophies were the source of philosophical writing in the later literatures,
and the Sanskrit schools of rhetoric were of great importance for the development of
court poetry in many of the modern literatures. The South Indian language of Tamil is an
exception to this pattern of Sanskrit influence because it had a classical tradition of its
own. Urdu and Sindhi are other exceptions.
Beginning in the 19th century, particularly during the height of British control over
the subcontinent, Western literary models had an impact on Indian literature, the most
striking result being the introduction of the use of vernacular prose on a major scale.
Such forms as the novel and short story began to be adopted by Indian writers, as did
realism and an interest in social questions and psychological description. A tradition of
literature in English was also established in the subcontinent.

Summative Assessment 1

Describe briefly the Indian Literature.

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Fill in this diagram with key details on Indian Literature about Hinduism and Buddhism.

Choose between two epics ( Mahabharata and Ramayana), and do this reading
response format.
What is the message of this poem from Gitanjali?
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