A comparison of the lives and writing of Devkota and Nirala by Murari Madhusudan Thakur. Sahitya Akademi Award 2021

This collection of twenty-two short stories, written mostly between 1930 and 1950 by various authors, offers a snapshot of contemporary Indian short fiction. Twenty stories are translations from fourteen Indian languages, and two are original works in English. This demonstrates, if proof were needed, that Indian literature, despite being written in many languages, is unified - not by sameness, but by its rich diversity.

Marathi has an unbroken literary tradition of over eight centuries, divided conveniently into two distinct periods, classical and modern. The Classical period spans six centuries, remarkable for poetry, devotional and heroic. Jnandev, Namdev, Eknath, Tukaram and Ramdas have become household names throughout India. While Virasaiva, Jain, and Muslim poets have enriched the secular and spiritual content, wandering minstrels have sung heroic ballads. New forms of literature have flowered from the nineteenth century under the impact of English education and western thought. The Chiplunkar, Apte, Anil Despande, Phadke, Khandekar, Mardhekar, Rege and Gadgil. Tracing the earliest reference to Maharashtra in a rock inscription of the fourth century, the history concludes with the formation of the state in 1960.

The Kashmiri short story was born with the progressive movement in Kashmir and its acceptted the standards and values dictated by the movement unquesioningly. Nationalism and the desire for reaching out to people inspired most of the writers to switch over to Kashmiri, even though they had strated writing in Urdu. Dinanath Nadim's Javabi Card (Reply-Card) and Somnath Zutshi's Yell Phol Gash (when there was light) are the first two short stories written in Kashmiri

A literary digest of South Indian Languages.

Adorations of the Ancients offers a complete English translation of all 19 stories from Vaddaradhane in a single volume. These stories represent the earliest prose in 10th-century Halagannada. Initially, they seem to be highly religious, emphasising ethics and morality aligned with the Jain tradition. However, as creative works, they function on multiple levels: realistic, mythical, fantastic, quasi-historical, worldly, monarchical, economic, and socio-cultural. The characters are consistently portrayed within various economic classes and, interestingly, rarely within caste groups. Women characters are depicted as strong and decisive. This translation is based on R.L. Anantharamaiah’s edition of Shivakotyacharya’s Vaddaradhane. It aims to balance the limitations and scope of equivalents and approximations, making the reading experience enjoyable while maintaining scholarly interest.

The dialects and languages spoken by tribals in India are very large in number. The literary compositions in most of them have survived in oral form though some tribal languages have taken to writing as means of recording literary compositions. Conventionally, they have been perceived as mere anthropological curiosity, or at best a source for oral history. They have rarely been translated into English or an Indian language as a representation of tribal imagination. In order to meet the long felt need for brining out a systematic series of India's tribal literature, sahitya Akademi has established a project of Indian Literature in Tribal Languages and Oral Traditions.

A prequel to a History of Indian Literature 1800-1910, the present volume deals with the first nine hundred years of the medieval period of Indian Literary history. The literary scene in India during the period presents a fantastically varied and wide spectrum of thought and expressions, here vibrant, there dull, now vigorous and natural now sophisticated and recondite at once sublime and crude

Tales of Tomorrow is a fascinating, engaging mix of both old and young storytellers, guided by the brief that 'tomorrow' always leaps out of the ubiquitous womb of 'yesterday'. Chosen from among a vast array of short fiction that the ever-burgeoning Indian English has yielded over the past thirty years or more, Tales of Tomorrow endorses as well as interrogates the notion of Indianness, as it is often understood today. Some of these stories overpower us with the urgency of an insiders' view, while others tantalise us with a double vision of an 'insider-outsider', capturing all hues of the hydra- headed Indian reality. The collection reveals a new vibrant face of India, poised delicately on the edge of change and renewal. Drawn from different geographical regions, and representing the literary spirit, folk idiom and local culture of each, these stories authenticate a medley of bold, confident voices that are likely to resonate much longer than we may have imagined.

Oral epics in any Indian language are generally associated with certain specific communities, defined by their traditional occupations; and the present oral epic Koti Channaya belongs to the Billava community. This poetic narrative, which records the life and adventures of the two cultural heroes of the Billava community, their yearning for cultivable land, their brave opposition to the established powerful classes, and their tragic end, is sung by the members of the particular communities called Pambada and Parava of coastal Karnataka, during the annual worship of the twin heroes. The oral epic, Koti Chennaya unravels the world of Billava community (traditionally toddy-tappers) of coastal Karnataka recording in the process the life and adventures as also the travails and tribulations of the two cultural heroes of Billava community. Most of the oral epics begin with a 'Creation Myth', which begins with the creation of the entire universe step by step, thus focuses on the legendary first parents/ancestors of the community concerned. Such a myth, besides glorifying the cultural heroes of the epic, gives a privileged position to the community by linking it with the rest of the world and gives it a socio-cultural identity. Koti Channaya also begins with a 'Creation Myth'. A recent study undertaken by UNESCO says that half of the 6,700 languages spoken in the world at present face the danger of extinction before the end of this century.

Once Upon a time by A. Sethumadhavan, is a novel which surrounds priyamvada, who is an HR professional, and a single parent at the centre of its narrative. The strong undercurrent of this award-winning title is the way woman asserts her independence and deft strokes in the book suggest how a professional woman scores. The novel very beautifully depicts the personal journey of a single parent, where are dilemmas which priyamvada faces, doing a tightrope walk between the labor force and the managements, trying to fill the vacuum in her daughter’s life and consciously attempting to steady her own emotional moorings.

Indian English literature began as an interesting by-product of an eventful encounter in the late eighteenth cntury between a vigorous and enterprising Britain and a stagnant and chaotic India, and is now nealy twi hundred years old. It is literature written originally in English by authors Indian by birth, ancestry or nationality. It is no part of English literature any more than American literature or Australian lterature can be said to be branch of British literature. It is legitimatly a part of Indian literature, since its differntia is the expression in it of an Indian ethos.

it is a collection of 25 travel tales that talk about his trips around the world.

The vitalityof Punjabi lietrature, its rootedness in its landscape, and its concern with the totality of human experience is evident everywhere in this volume. While it will be of undoubted value to the student of Punjabi literature, we also hope that its vitality and readability will make it attractive to other readers as well.

Compilation of papers presented at symposium on Parsin Contribution to Indian Literature organised by Sahitya Akademi in 2015 at Mumbai.

स्वाधीन भारत का हिंदी साहित्य शीर्षक ग्रंथ, जिसका आलोच्य काल 1947-2010 है, हिंदी साहित्य की विविध प्रवृत्तियों और विधाओं का ऐतिहासिक तथा विश्लेषणात्मक अध्ययन प्रस्तुत करता है। यह एक ऐसा साहित्येतिहास ग्रंथ है जिसमें कोशिश की गई है कि उल्लेख्य योग्य सभी लेखकों एवं उनकी कृतियों का उल्लेख हो तथा महत्त्व के अनुसार उन लेखकों-कृतियों पर छोटी-बड़ी मूल्यांकपरक टिप्पणियाँ रहें। किसी प्रकार की व्यक्तिगत या विचारधारात्मक गुटबंदी से मुक्त होकर साहित्य का एक व्यापक समावेशी चित्र सामने आए, जो पाठकों, छात्रों और शोध-अध्येताओं के लिए उपयोगी हो।

स्वाधीन भारत का हिंदी साहित्य शीर्षक ग्रंथ, जिसका आलोच्य काल 1947-2010 है, हिंदी साहित्य की विविध प्रवृत्तियों और विधाओं का ऐतिहासिक तथा विश्लेषणात्मक अध्ययन प्रस्तुत करता है। यह एक ऐसा साहित्येतिहास ग्रंथ है जिसमें कोशिश की गई है कि उल्लेख्य योग्य सभी लेखकों एवं उनकी कृतियों का उल्लेख हो तथा महत्त्व के अनुसार उन लेखकों-कृतियों पर छोटी-बड़ी मूल्यांकपरक टिप्पणियाँ रहें। किसी प्रकार की व्यक्तिगत या विचारधारात्मक गुटबंदी से मुक्त होकर साहित्य का एक व्यापक समावेशी चित्र सामने आए, जो पाठकों, छात्रों और शोध-अध्येताओं के लिए उपयोगी हो।

In this book an attempt has been made to compare the two legendary writers by comparing the eastern way of thinking with the western way. Shakespeare is amongst the writers Sri Aurobindo holds in high esteem. Sri Aurobindo’s admiration for the great dramatist resulted in obvious Shakespearean influences on him. He adopts for his plays Elizabethan model of drama perfected by Shakespeare’s genius. Shakespeare’s influence is traceable also in Sri Aurobindo’s sonnets. It is said that Sri Aurobindo had Shakespearean literature on his bed-side when he left his mortal remains. Both the great writers were not satisfied by merely holding mirror to the nature but due to their greater and deeper life power, they recreated the human life in its beauty and completeness. Therefore, there is an obvious need to compare and contrast Shakeapeare and Sri Aurobindo so as to bring out affinities that may be there between their creative ideal and vision as well as their poetic and dramatic art, along with the former’s influence on the later. In this book an attempt has been made to fulfill the need and to contribute, in some measure to the appreciation of Sri Aurobindo’s poetry and plays. It also briefly touches upon Indian response to Shakespeare. It focuses mainly on Sri Aurobindo’s numerous insights and critical observations on him. To sum up writings of the two such outstanding writers, who represent two very different ways of thinking. On one hand Shakespeare potrays lot of blood shed, gory tales and a wild kind of poetic justice in his writings, but on the other hand Sri Aurobindo truely follows Indian ethos of non violence or ‘Ahimsa’. The author underlines the stark similarities and differences in both the writer’s exploring their plays and sonnets. The structure of plays and sonnets may be same of both the greatest minds but ethos and personna ingrained in their writings is quite different.

“मैं अपनी तरफ़ से इस कहानी में कहानी भी नहीं जोड़ सकता था। इसीलिए इस कहानी में आपको हदें भी दिखाई देंगी और सरहदें भी। नफ़रतों की आग में मोहब्बत के छींटे दिखाई देंगे। सपने दिखाई देंगे तो उनका टूटना भी।...और इन सबके पीछे दिखाई देगी सियासत की काली स्याह दीवार। हिन्दुस्तान की आज़ादी को जिसने निगल लिया। जिसने राज को कभी भी सु-राज नहीं होने दिया। जिसे हम रोज़ झंडे और पहिए के पीछे ढूँढ़ते रहे कि आख़िर उसका निशान कहाँ है? गाँव मदरसा ख़ुर्द और लछमनपुर कलाँ महज़ दो गाँव-भर नहीं हैं और अली ज़ामिन खाँ और मुस्लिम मियाँ की अदावत बस दो ख़ालाज़ाद भाइयों की अदावत नहीं है। ये तो मुझे मुल्कों की अदावत की तरह दिखाई देती है, जिसमें कभी एक का पलड़ा झुकता दिखाई देता है तो कभी दूसरे का और जिसमें न कोई हारता है, न कोई जीतता है। बस, बाक़ी रह जाता है नफ़रत का एक सिलसिला... “मैं शुक्रगुज़ार हूँ उस नीम के पेड़ का जिसने मुल्क को टुकड़े होते हुए भी देखा और आज़ादी के सपनों को टूटे हुए भी देखा। उसका दर्द बस इतना है कि वह इन सबके बीच मोहब्बत और सुकून की तलाश करता फिर रहा है।”

हरिमोहन झा की श्रेष्ठ कथाएँ संग्रह में हरिमोहन झा की तीस श्रेष्ठ कथाओं को चुनकर रखा गया है। उन्हें मैथिली का हास्य-व्यंग्य सम्राट कहा जाता है। हरिमोहन झा की कथा में हास्य-व्यंग्य ही नहीं, मार्मिक कारुण्य तथा विचार-वैदग्ध्य भी है जो रंगशाला तथा चर्चरीकी कई कथाओं में देखा जा सकता है। इसलिए हास्य-व्यंग्य सम्राट के साथ-साथ इनको गल्प-सम्राट भी कहा गया है। यहाँ इनकी सभी वर्ग की कथाओं को ऐसे क्रमबद्ध किया गया है जिससे इनके विषय में किसी भी पूर्व-धारणा को अलग रखकर पाठक इनके कथाकार के बारे में स्वयं स्वतंत्र और समग्र छवि बनाने में सफल हो सकें।