A History of Hindi Literature

About the Book:

The ballads of Rajput prowess, the aphorisms of Kabir, Tulsidas, Ramayana, the bhajans of Sur and Mira, the poetical rhetoric of Kesava, the closed-packed epigrams of Behari, the lyrics of mystics Prasada, Pant and Mahadevi make Hindi literature an 'enchanted garden'. The present work seeks to give a glimpse of that 'enchanted garden' to those whose mother-tongue is not Hindu. At the end there is an anthology of Hindi verse containing best pieces of the 'nine gems' of mediaeval Hindi and 'nine gems' of modern Hindi. A glance through the anthology may enduce the reader to read the full text in the original.

From the Chhandas of the Vedas to the Khadi Boli of the present day is a long span of five thousand years. From Chhandas of Sanskrit, from Sanskrit to Prakrit, from Prakrit to Apabhramsa, from Apabhramsa to local dialects Dingal, Pingal, Avadhi, Brajbhasa, Maithili, Bhojpuri, Bundeli, Dakhani, and finally a wrench from the past and the birth of a new language, the Khadi Boli of today - is a phenomenon unparalleled in the history of any language.

About the Author:

K.B. Jindal had his education at the Lucknow University. He joined the Indian Revenue Service in 1942. While in service he wrote several treatises on Income-tax law. His Income-Tax, Past and Present is a locus classicus on the subject and has run into four editions. After retirement Jindal joined the Bar in 1972 and is now a senior Advocate of the Allahabad High Court. Literature, Law and Accounts is a strange amalgam; but there its is. And the end product is A History of Hindi Literature - the present work. He has also edited An Epitome of Jainism (New Delhi, 1988).

Contents

Preface
Foreword to the First Edition

Chapter 1
Introductory

Chapter 2
Bardic Chroniclers

Chapter 3
The Cult of the Sufi

Chapter 4
Deistic Monotheism

Chapter 5
The Cult of Rama

Chapter 6
Krsna-Cult

Chapter 7
The Elaborative Period

Chapter 8
The Language Called Khadi Boli

Chapter 9
Prose: 1800 to Present Day

Chapter 10
Drama

Chapter 11
Modern Poetry: 1857 to Present Day

Anthology of Hindi Verse
Bibliography
Index

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