Lectures on the World’s Best Literature

Oriental Literature
 Literatures of civilizations that had perished, hidden under the ground like
precious metals, have been dug up and read. - a revelation from a people
that lived long ago. It tells us what they were and what they did; we learn
their commercial habits, their laws, their mode of warfare, their religion
and how they buried their dead, their poetry, their songs, their stories, and
what they have done in art
 Social organisms die, but their literatures live on - Literature in the broader
sense includes all the composition produced by one people. Some peoples
early invent a system of signs and commit their sayings to writing. Others
carry their compositions in memory and hand them down orally from one
generation to another, finally perhaps stealing a script from some other
nation. Composition can only be called literature when it has been cast into
written form.
 The social unit in the early stage of human existence - members slept where
they happened to be; perhaps they knew how to build a fire to warm
themselves and cook a little game. They would not need many terms to
express all their wants. Wandering about from place to place, without
homes and more or less unclothed, living on wild fruits and herbs wherever
such things could be found, doubtless had a very meagre vocabulary of
speech.
ARABIC LITERATURE
Arabic literature is the collective prose and poetry of Arabia. It is approximately fourteen
hundred years old.
Andras Hamori describes the desert as “the true stage for poetry in the Pre-Islamic Period”
Arabic literature was born out of the inspiration which the Arabian desert presented.
The Arabs used poetry as a weapon against their enemy tribes. They used Arabic literature
as a silent sword aimed at the hearts of the opposing camp, not with the purpose of drawing
blood, but with the goal of insulting the pride of their enemies through words.
there came a revived interest in Arabic literature as Islam acquired a greater following.
Arabs began to recognize the Holy Qur’an, the Holy Book of Islam. Many of those who are
studying Arabic Literature today are quick to point out the significance of the Holy Qur’an in
Arabic Literature.
The Arabs, during their lengthy journeys back and forth across the desert, began singing to
themselves songs about the desert, songs which later evolved into poems that kept them
company

- What is portrayed in the Arabian Literature

 - The precarious conditions of desert life and of the tent, the more
certain existence in settled habitations
- the grandeur of empire acquired in a short period of enthusiastic
rapture
- the softening influence of luxury and unwonted riches
- give us a picture of the spiritual life of the people which no mere
massing of facts can ever give

- CLASSICAL POETRY
- The classical period of Arabic poetry, reaches from the beginning of the
sixth century to the beginning of the eighth, is dominated by the form of
the Kasídah.
- The Kasídah is composed of distiches, the first two of which only are to
rhyme; though every line must end in the same syllable. It must have at
least seven or ten verses, and may reach up to one hundred or over. In
nearly every case it deals with a tribe or a single person,—the poet
himself or a friend
- Because of this disposition of the material, which is used by the greater
poets of this time, the general form of the Kasídah became in a measure
stereotyped. No poem was considered perfect unless molded in this
form.
-  Arabic poetry is thus entirely lyrical.
- It falls generally into the form of an allocution, even where it is
descriptive. It is the poet who speaks, and his personality pervades the
whole poem. He describes nature as he finds it, with little of the
imaginative
-   The horizon which bounded the Arab poet’s view was not far drawn
out. He describes the scenes of his desert life: the sand dunes; the
camel, antelope, wild ass, and gazelle; his bow and arrow and his sword;
his loved one torn from him by the sudden striking of the tents and
departure of her tribe.
 POETS
- Abu Tammám (Hamásah)
- Hammád -al-Rawia (Mu ’allakât) (the hung up) - first collector of pre-
Islamic poems. Von Kremer described a ‘Mu ’allakât’ as being a “series
of poems written down from oral dictation.”:

a. Contain of 7 poets whose writers are:

1. Imr-al-Kais
 2. Tárafa,
3. Zuhéir
4. Labîd 
5. ’Antara
6. ’Amr
7. al-Hárith
 CHARACTERISTICS
- The flower of Arabic literature is poetry, and the poetry of the Arabic
literature is a beautiful flower, which budded in the desert of northern
Arabia, in the atmosphere of the freedom of tribal life, in the pre-Islamic
age.
- Writing was unknown. Literature was, therefore, oral and was handed
down from mouth to mouth to a later day.
-  The person who recited poems was called a “rawi.” This function was
distinct from that of being a poet.
- The ancient poet of the Arabs was held to be endowed with
supernatural knowledge
-  The oldest form of poetic speech among the Arabs was rhymed prose.
It was composition having rhyme without metre
- The Gift of the dessert
- produced some prose writers of value, writing, as an art to charm and
to please, has always sought the measured cadence of poetry or the
unmeasured symmetry of rhymed prose.
- Its first lispings are in the “trembling” (rájaz) metre—iambics, rhyming
in the same syllable throughout; impromptu verses, in which the poet
expressed the feelings of the moment: a measure which, the Arabs say,
matches the trembling trot of the she-camel.
- the poet to bring out comes last; the greater part of the poem being of
the nature of a captatio benevolentia. Here he can show his full power
of expression. He usually commences with the description of a deserted
camping-ground, where he sees the traces of his beloved. He then adds
the erotic part, and describes at length his deeds of valor in the chase or
in war; in order, then, to lead over to the real object he has in view.
 INDIAN LITERATURE
Oldest living civilization on earth
 2 PARTS
1. The Vedic
- Vedic composition was certainly going on as early as 1500 B.C
- entirely a religious literature
- priestly
- Brahmanism is the religion of the Vedic period as developed by the
priestly caste
- The Veda is thoroughly poetic and, in spite of its primitive nature,
exhibits marked refinement of thought.
- The subject matter consists of prayers to the gods by the priests,
sacrificial formulas, charms for witchcraft, medicine manipulation, and
philosophic and theosophical speculations; rules for the conduct of daily
life are also given.
- At the base of the Vedic literature of more than one hundred books may
be found four Vedas, which in later times were named, the ‘Rig-Veda,’
(contains stanzas of praise with blessings and cursings) the ‘Yajur-Veda,’
(represents the growth of ritualism and sacerdotalism) the ‘Sama-Veda,’
(contains stanzas known as melodies in which the systems of accent in
song) and the ‘Atharva-Veda.’ (picture of the lower life of the Hindu)
- The ‘Rig-Veda’ is the oldest and the most important of the Vedas.
2.  the Sanskrit
-  early as 300 B.C
- Secular
- represents a small educated class
- The study of Sanskrit has thrown much light upon the course of
civilization among the different peoples of the Indo-European race.
- Its literature is divided into epic, lyric, and dramatic.
Sanskrit Literature:
1. Epics and Purānas: The oldest compositions in Sanskrit are—first, the
Epic called the ‘Bhārata,’ or grandiloquently the ‘Mahābhārata,’ that is,
the Great (Mahā) Bhārata (War). The ‘Purānas’: There are eighteen of
these works, all ostensibly religious literature, written in the usual Epic
verse. The name Purāna means “old” (tales), and the works handed
down under that name recount the deeds of deified heroes, explain
religious and moral doctrine, give an account of the glories of past
 cycles and of what will happen in time to come; and besides narration
and speculation, they incidentally inculcate moral and religious truths.
2. Fables and Drama- example is the Toy Clay Cart which is attributed to
the King Sundra and also Sakuntala or The Fatal Ring which is attributed
to Kalidasa
3. Lyric- example is

 CHARACTERISTICS OF INDIAN LITERATURE

- The family is important in Indian literature and drama- example is Both the Mahabharata
and Ramayana—the two most famous works of Indian literature and theater— are family
epics, featuring cousins, uncles and aunts “struggling and killing each other over land and
dharma and then mourning inconsolably."
- Storytelling has been a popular form of entertainment in India for centuries. Many regions
and ethnic groups have their traditions of folk stories.
 STORIES
1. Panchatantra - one of the best-known collections of old stories, a Sanskrit word that
means "five books." Each book has a framework story, sort of like Arabian Nights, into
which shorter stories are interwoven. The fable-like stories ar e full of humor and sagely
advice.
2. Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
3. Aladdin and his Magic Lamp
4. The Little Black Sambo story is set in India - It was originally a children's book written
and illustrated by Helen Bannerman, and first published by Grant Richards in October
1899. The story was a children's favorite for half a century until the word sambo was
deemed a racial slur in some countries and the illustrations considered reminiscent of
"darky iconography".
 WRITERS
1. Bankin Chandrra Chatterji
2. V.S. Naipaul
3. R.K Narayan - one of the greatest and celebrated novelists in India. He is distinguished for his
simple and unpretentious English writing style and is one of the most widely read Indian
novelists. His stories were grounded in a compassionate humanism and celebrated the humour
and energy of ordinary life
4. Bibhuti Bhushan Banerji

https://www.irfi.org/articles/articles_2151_2200/THE%20EVOLUTION%20OF%20ARABIC
%20LITERATURE.HTM
https://www.bartleby.com/library/prose/283.html
https://www.bartleby.com/library/course/19.html
https://www.bartleby.com/library/prose/2780.html
https://www.slideshare.net/draizelle_sexon/literature-of-india
http://factsanddetails.com/india/Arts_Culture_Media_Sports/sub7_5a/entry-4236.html