Foundations of Literary Cultures of India: Ancient and Classical

Course Type	Course Code	No. Of Credits
Discipline Core	SCC2CW101	4

Course coordinator and team: SCCE Faculty

1. How does the course link with the vision of AUD?

This course aligns closely with the vision of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD), which foregrounds critical inquiry, interdisciplinarity, and engagement with diverse knowledge systems. By situating creative writing within the rich and multilingual literary cultures of ancient and classical India, the course fosters an inclusive understanding of literary traditions across languages, regions, and forms. It encourages students to critically engage with textual, oral, and performative modes of expression, thereby expanding conventional notions of writing and authorship. Through its focus on the interaction between classical and vernacular traditions, the course promotes sensitivity to cultural plurality and epistemic diversity. Additionally, the integration of theoretical reflection with creative practice nurtures independent thinking, reflexivity, and innovation, all of which are central to AUD’s pedagogical vision.

2. How does the course link with the specific program (s) where it is being offered?

As a practice-based core course with a strong theoretical foundation, this course aligns well with programs in Creative Writing and related disciplines that emphasise both creative production and critical analysis. It enables students to draw on historical literary models to inform contemporary writing practices while cultivating an understanding of the socio-cultural and aesthetic contexts of Indian literature. The course supports the program’s objective of developing skilled, reflective writers by encouraging experimentation with diverse forms, narrative strategies, and linguistic registers. It also prepares students for advanced research and creative work by strengthening their ability to engage with multilingual sources and complex literary traditions.

3. Does the course connect to, build on, or overlap with any other courses offered in AUD?

Yes, this course builds on and complements existing courses in literature, cultural studies, and related disciplines that engage with literary theory, creative writing, and Indian literary traditions. It extends prior learning by introducing students to literary cultures through a combined lens of creative practice and critical analysis. While it may intersect conceptually with courses on Indian literature, translation, or performance studies, its distinctive focus on deriving creative writing practices from classical models, across oral, textual, and performative traditions, ensures that it offers a unique and specialized engagement rather than direct overlap.

4. Specific requirements on the part of students who can be admitted to this course:

(Pre-requisites; prior knowledge level; any others – please specify): None.

None. According to the structure of the two-year postgraduate program, this course is designed for first-year students enrolled in the Creative Writing programme. It is a compulsory course and must be taken as a core requirement.

5. No. of students to be admitted

(with justification if lower than the usual cohort size is proposed): 25

6. Course scheduling

(semester; semester-long/half-semester course; workshop mode; seminar mode; any other – please specify): semester

7. Course Details:

a. Summary:

The main thrust of the course is to engage in creative writing through various models available in the literary cultures of India. Tracing the historical course of Orality to the Written tradition spread over a vast span of spatio- temporal expansion over centuries, the course will attempt to understand the multiple schemata of creative ‘writing’ (textual/ oral/ performative) through the evident transitions/ transmutations and ruptures to the manifested essence of inter disciplinarity of Indian literary culture. The course will attempt to map the Indian literary landscape within the intricate relation between the power language (like Sanskrit and Persian ) and the ‘vernacular’ ( pali/ prakrit/ apabramshas/ other Indian language writings at various geo-cultural spheres) within the foundational contexts as simultaneously overlapping and dichotomous thereby further exploring the hybridism and chasms, fluidity and the fixed points

As a practiced based core course with equal investment on theoretical engagement in Creative Writing, the course attempts to derive writing inspiration, skill and critical consciousness from the models of the literary landscape of India. The course seeks to understand how the Role and Agency of the Author functions in the field/ works of literature. It also simultaneously introduces the students to the rich and diverse multilingualism and multiculturalism evident in the complex literary landscape of India to understand it in its interconnectedness and continuity.

To practice creative writing through various literary models available in the literary history of India. It also seeks to critically understand the role and agency of a writer by reading various literary movements, forms, figures and aesthetical/formalistic/ ideational positions from Indian literary culture.

Objectives: The course aims to cultivate creative writing practice by drawing on the diverse literary models of ancient India, engaging with textual, oral, and performative traditions across historical periods. It seeks to develop an informed understanding of the evolution from orality to written forms, while examining the dynamic interplay between classical languages such as Sanskrit and Persian and the rich vernacular traditions including Pali, Prakrit, Apabhramsha, and other regional literatures. Through this exploration, students will analyze processes of transition, hybridity, continuity, and rupture that shape Indian literary cultures. The course further intends to foster critical awareness of authorship by interrogating the role and agency of the writer within varying socio-cultural and aesthetic frameworks. By combining theoretical inquiry with practice-based learning, it encourages students to experiment with form, voice, and narrative strategies inspired by Indian literary traditions. Additionally, it aims to sensitize learners to India’s multilingual and multicultural literary landscape, highlighting its interconnectedness across regions and periods. Ultimately, the course aspires to enable students to produce creative work that is both historically grounded and critically reflective, while equipping them with the analytical tools to engage deeply with literary movements, forms, and ideas from Indian contexts.

Expected Learning Outcomes

On completion of the course, it is expected that the student will have:

Developed an understanding of the literary landscapes prevailing in the subcontinent from ancient traditions.
Developed multicultural awareness and sensitivity to issues and histories of diversity and difference among the cohort.
Developed an appreciation of the different literary forms existing in from the ancient period.
Developed the ability to engage in self directed, research oriented projects.
Developed a familiarity with the digital resources available for the study of Indian literatures.
Developed strategies to make connections in their own writing between the ancient and the contemporary.

Module I:
Introduction to the Concepts of Literary Culture (Week 1- 2)

Description
Students will be introduced to the concepts of literary culture and the paradigmatic shift from literary arts to literary culture. There will be discussions focused on the problems and prospects of writing the literary history in the context of India, as well as questions of Orality and Textuality with specific focus about oral / folk/ tribal traditions of India.

Readings :-
This unit will introduce students to readings of a few select folk tale and do a writing exercise of adaptation and re-appropriation of folk /tribal oral tradition in contemporary contexts.

Rigveda: A New Translation. Trans. Bibek Debroy. Gurugram: Penguin Random House India, 2019. (Selections)
Jataka Tales. Trans. I. B. Horner. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, Indian edition, 2005. (Selections)
Ilango Adigal. The Tale of an Anklet (Silappatikaram). Trans. R. Parthasarathy. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
G N Devy , Painted Worlds : An anthology of Tribal literature , Penguin Books India, 2002.
A.K. Ramanujan, Folk Tales from India: A Selection of Oral Tales from Twenty-Two Languages.New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Module-II
Introducing strands from different languages and cultures of India (Week-3-5)

Description
Introducing various foundational texts of literary cultures of India from different language traditions and cultural locations to explore and problematize the questions about the formulations of the ‘Indian literature’ within its vast diverse complex manifestations through various spatio- temporal expansions and progressions. Highlight the multilingualism and plurality of the Indian literary landscape through historical understanding of the interconnectedness of literary movements and developments, and the continuity(s) and discontinuity(s) through certain significant Entry Points.
The Sanskrit Kavya Tradition. A study into the generic exploration. The study will incorporate multilingual approach by critically looking at the literary expansion of Kavya in different language and forms such as natya, gatha, pada etc.
The Epic Ramayana: A Thematic exploration.
Critical discussion about its status as the ‘Adikavya’ which fathered a number and variety of distinguished literary works.
Also focus light on the Classical rendition and the various attempts of vernacularisation by recreating the original text.
The multiple Ramayanic manifestations across culture, language, locations.
Discussion about the central discourse and its various counter discourse by marginal voices.

Readings :-

Bharata Muni. Natyashastra. Trans. Adya Rangacharya. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1996.
Kalidasa. Raghuvamsha. Trans. G. H. Bhatt. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1977.
Bibek Debroy. Valmi Ramayan Vol. 1-3. Delhi: Penguin Classics, 2017.
Kamban. Ramayana. Trans. P.S. Sundaram. New Delhi: Penguin, 2002.
Goswami Tulsidas. The Epic of Ram Vol. 1. Trans. Philip Lutgendorf. Boston: Murty Classical Library of India,Harvard University Press, 2016.
Kavi Madhav Kandali. Asamiya Madhav Kandali Ramayan (Hindi translation). Lucknow: Bhuvan Vani Trust,1979.
Discussion about Chandavati’s Ramayan (Bangla) and Chabin Alun / Mizo-ramlau (A rendition by the Karbi tribe / Mizos of North East India) to Focus on attempts of scripting a counter discourse.

Module-III
Pali and Sufi Traditions (6-7 Weeks)

Description
Pali tradition of the Theragathas and the Therigathas. Probing into the ‘Vernacular’ as a literary repository of historical and socio-politico-religious realities. Reading the Therigathas as Women/ feminist text and earliest site for gender discourse in India and cross examination in the contemporary context. The Indo Persian tradition of Sufi literature. Questions of cross cultural fertilizations and politico- lingual amalgamations. Discussions about the intersection of the Quranic Classical and various Arabic/ Persian/ Indian folk / oral traditions such as Charkha Nama, Chakki Nama etc.. Critical investigation as an interface between the religious and the secular.

Readings :-

Therigatha: Poems of the First Buddhist Women. Trans. Charles Hallisey. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015. (Selections)
Malik Muhammad Jayasi. Padmavat. Trans. Aditya Behl and Simon Weightman. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Milind Wakankar, ‘Kabir in the Indo-Islamic Millennium. Original MS of Wakankar, Subalternity and Religion. London: Routledge, 2010
Aditya Behl, ‘The Magic Doe: Desire and Narrative in a Hindavi Sufi Romance, circa 1503,’ in India’s Islamic Traditions. Ed. Richard Eaton. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003
Jan Gonda, Visnuism and Sivaism: A Comparison. London: Athlone Press, 1970.

Module-IV
The Bhakti Movements and the Indian Saint Poets (8-10Weeks)

Description
Discussions about various literary modes from different locations, language and culture. Points of commonality and contradictions. Attempts at understanding the ‘UNITY IN DIVERSITY’ dictum by the Nationalist in the Indian Nationhood formulations with regard to Bhakti and its historic significance as a site for newer ideals and models.
Engage in a series of creative writing exercise on the basis of these model: Recreation of Mythic characters, Re-appropriation and Subversion of Epic, Biographical account of literary figure as a practice in Characterization etc.

Readings :-

Nammalvar. Tiruvaymoli . Trans. Archana Venkatesan. New Delhi: Penguin Classics, 2020. (Selections)
Appar, Sundarar, and Campantar. The Tevaram: Hymns of the Tamil Saivite Saints . Trans. Indira Viswanathan Peterson. Princeton: Princeton University Press, selected hymns.
Kabir. Kabir: The Weaver's Songs . Trans. Vinay Dharwadkar. New Delhi: Penguin Books India, 2003.
Mirabai. Mirabai: Ecstatic Poems . Trans. Robert Bly and Jane Hirshfield. Boston: Beacon Press, 2004.
Surdas. Sur's Ocean: Poems from the Early Tradition . Trans. Kenneth E. Bryant. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, selections.
Basavanna. Speaking of Siva . Trans. A. K. Ramanujan. New Delhi: Penguin Books India, 1973.
Mahadeviyakka. The Book of the Lord's Songs (Vacanas of Mahadeviyakka) . Trans. Vinaya Chaitanya. New Delhi: Penguin Classics, 2017.
John Stratton Hawley, Three Bhakti Voices: Mirabai, Surdas, and Kabir in Their Time and Ours. Delhi: OUP, 2005.
Karen Pechilis Prentiss, The Embodiment of Bhakti. New York: OUP, 1999.

Module V
Continuity from Ancient and Classical (Week 12-13)

Description
Re-visit the first unit to study about the oral / folk / tribal literary culture to critically discuss about these strands as site for continuity from ancient to contemporary with folk/tribal/ oral poems of North East India & Central India.

Readings :-

Kalidasa. The Recognition of Shakuntala. Trans. Chandra Rajan. New Delhi: Penguin Classics, 1989.
Chand Bardai. Prithviraj Raso. Ed. Mata Prasad Gupta. Allahabad: Hindi Sahitya Sammelan, 1963. (Selections)
Nabaneeta Deb Sen. A Woman’s Retelling of the Rama Text. Narrative Strategies Employed in Chandrabati’s Ramayan, in Amiya Dev. Ed. Narrative, A Seminar. Sahitya Akademi. New Delhi. 1994.
Indira Goswami. Ramayana from Ganga to Brahmaputra. B.R. Publishers. New Delhi, 1996
Malashri Lal . In Search of Sita: Revisiting Mythology. Penguin, 2009.
S N Dasgupta. A History of Sanskrit Literature, The Classical Period. Vol 1, University of Calcutta, 1947.
P S Sundaram, Kamba Ramayan, Penguin, London, 2002.