SYNTHESIS PAPER (MIDTERM REQUIREMENT)

By: GLADYZ ARTJANE Q. FLORES

ENGLISH 505 (ASIAN LITERATURE)
SEPTEMBER 17, 2016
ABSTRACT
This paper has been written to present the development of Asian
Literature from the Ancient to modern period. This briefly discusses the
development starting from Vedas namely Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda
and Atharva Veda and the four divisions of Vedas specifically Samhita, the
Aranyaka, the Brahmanas and the Upanishads. It also explains the
development of Asian Literature themes and language from past to present
by reflecting on the different literary writings discussed inside the class, such
the writing of the Rig Veda (The Creation, Night and To Vishvakarman, the
Maker of the Universe), of Valmiki (Ramayana), the writings of Rabindranath
Tagore (The Song, My Birthday, etc.), of R.K. Narayan (45 rupees a month), of
Mahasweta Devi (the story of Dhowli), Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (Can the
Subaltern Speak?) Aside from presenting the transition of the Indian
Literature, it also tries to explain the inner contexts of the different authors
to link to the idea of the transition.

Indian Literature, just like all other literature around the world had been through the test
of time. It is like a metal which you need to set on fire before it can be shaped into a useful
weapon just like a knife. Tracing Asian literature from present to past, it revolves around
devotion, drama, poetry and songs. (Schulberg 1968) Indian literature is based on piety, a deeply
religious spirit. Indians are very much recognized on their devotion. They tend to worship
millions of Gods. (Twain 1910) "India has two million gods, and worships them all. In religion
all other countries are paupers; India is the only millionaire." Undeniably, religion has great

influence in Indians literature. Its where majority of the Indian writings have been rooted. The
development of the Indian Literature begun with having consists of the four Vedas and the
Upanishads. The four Vedas bids information concerning the growth and development of early
and the later Aryan civilization. The four Vedas are Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and
Atharva Veda. Ample of time was needed to compose the four divisions of the Vedas, namely the
Samhita, the Aranyaka, the Brahmanas and the Upanishads. Rig Veda is comprise of over
thousand hymns, a various collection of prayers, instruction of rituals, embodiment, poetries of
natures and such secular songs as gamblers lament over luck at dice (Schulberg 1968). Rig
Veda, covering sacred songs and hymns of mantras, suktas praising the Vedic divinities is the
oldest of the Samhitas. It is appraised that the Rig Veda was composed between 1800 BCE to
1200 BCE. It has 1028 suktas or hymns and 10,600 verses in all, arranged in 10 books called
mandalas. The hymns are dedicated to Rig Vedic deities. Many of these books are named after
the Rishis descended from the soothsayer who heard the hymns. The suktas of the Rig Veda in
praising the heroic act and achievements of the Vedic deities present their mythology. However,
some suktas serve as an hint of future developments in Vedic thought along two different lines,
ritualism and philosophical assumption. Sama Veda is earliest known efficient practice for giving
a descant to a chanted verse. It is prescribes as the tunes for recitation of the hymn of the rig
veda. Sama Veda, entailing melodies and chants used by the priests, during the fire-sacrifices
'yagna. Most of the 1549 mantras in this samhita are taken from the Rig Veda, predominantly
the 8th and 9th books of mandalas. These hymns are re-arranged for liturgical purposes in forms
that can be used as samans, chants during the yagna. Using the Sama Veda hymns as basis of
the actual chants of the recorded in the ganas collections of songs. Yajur Veda like the Sama
Veda is also ritualistic in character and is in many ways the first regular textbook of Vedic ritual

as a whole. It mainly deals with the duties of the adhvaryu the chief who officiates over the
rites of the Yadyna / Yajna. There are two main branches or rescencions of the Yajur Veda, the
Krishna or Black Yajur Veda and the Shukla or White Yajur Veda. These rescensions are not
different so much in content as in arrangement. In the Black Yajur Veda, the mantras or hymns
mostly derived from the Rig Veda, the Yajus, sacrificial formulae in prose, and the ritualistic
explanation (known as the Brahmana) are mined together. Atharva Veda: a very heterogeneous
collection of mantras. Unlike the Sama Veda and the Yajur Veda which mostly repeat the hymns
of the Rig Veda, the Atharva Veda is an independent set of mantras that concerns itself with the
everyday life of the Vedic people and is usually considered the Veda of magic. The Atharva Veda
hymns are very diverse in character, they have charms to counteract diseases and ward of evil
spirits, descriptions of medicinal herbs, prayers for health, wealth, happiness and longevity, love
spells, chants that help kings accomplish various royal tasks, black magic and counter black
magic, and perhaps most surprisingly, philosophical speculations. As being mentioned above,
sufficient time was needed in the division of the Veda into Samhita, the Aranyaka, the
Brahmanas and the Upanishads (De Bary 1958). The Samhita are collections of hymns of suktas
and mantras. The Brahmana is a manual of the rituals of the Vedic fire sacrifice along with the
meaning of these rituals. The Aranyakas, is known as the books of the forest. These texts mark
an alteration from the ritualism of the Samhita and the Brahmanas to the speculative philosophy
and spiritualism of the Upanishads. So many Aranyakas form the concluding sections of the
Brahmanas, while some Aranyakas have the Upanishads appended to them or embedded in them.
These scriptures are obscure in nature, and they emphasize the true inscrutability of the Yajna
known as sacrifice rituals, by exalting the inner mental detriment as against the external material
one. Hence, these texts were traditionally restricted for study and contemplation in the forest of

aranya; hence the name aranyaka. The Upanishads represent the abstruse knowledge imparted by
the teacher to his disciple pupil who sits beside him; hence the name Upanishad. The
prominence of the Upanishads as the fundamental spiritual wisdom of India cannot be overemphasized. The Upanishads are concerned with the contemplative-realization facets of spiritual
life, as against the ritual aspect as described in the Samhitas and the Brahmans. There are 200
Upanishads are listed accordingly. Usually, 13 Upanishads are regarded as the principal
Upanishads, and are connected with one Vedic rescission. The principal Upanishads were
composed between 1000 BCE to 300 BCE. It is remarkable to note that the Hindu literary
traditions have dominated a large part of Indian culture. These traditions are well reflected in
great works like Vedas and epics such as Ramayana and Mahabharata. Both epic works tend
highlight the essential attribute of Indian people, heroism and being grounded with Dharma, the
appropriate way of living. Treatises like Vaastu Shastra stressing on architecture, Arthashastra
emphasizing political science and Kamsutra are true reflection of the Indian literary
excellence. Early Hindi literature, in dialects like Avadhi and Brai, began around religious and
philosophical poetry in medieval period. Sant Kabir and Tulsidas were the greatest exponents of
the Hindi literature during this period. With the passage of time, the Khadi boli became more
prominent and saw a great gain, which continues to this day. During the medieval period,
Muslim literary traditions dominated a large part of Indian literature and saw flourishing of
Muslim literature. Muslim rule during the medieval times saw rapid growth and development of
Persian and Urdu literature in India. A huge variety of literature spanning across history, culture
and politics was written in this period. With the coming of the British in India, works started to
be written in English language. As more and more Indians became well versed with the English
language, the number of works in English literature began to grow. During the contemporary

times, numerous Indian authors have made their mark on the world English literature scene.
Some of the most noted Indian born or Indian writers are R. K. Narayan, Vikram Seth, Salman
Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Amitav Ghosh, Khushwant Singh, Anita Desai and Jhumpa Lahiri.
Talking about the twist of themes from ancient and modern Indian literature (based in the
observation during discussion inside the class), ancient literature writing such as The Creation
(explaining the existence of the world based on the beliefs of Indians) Mahabharata and
Ramayana which is categorized as epic that shows themes in heroism grounded with Dharma or
the appropriate way of living, which can also consider superficial (human fighting other creature
to protect people under their care). The story of Dhowli and Can Subaltern Speak which try to
present social critique being articulated in literature, and in particular how they define a literary
view from below the perspective of the lower orders of society, the subalterns as expressed
in literary styles and modes. The rapport between colonialism and socio-cultural modernity in
the colonized world were being addressed. The recent scholarship on alternative maternities'
strongly proposes that fine-grained historical, cultural, and philosophical analyses will show how
distinctly modern values such as individuality and radical egalitarianism were articulated in
contexts other than the capitalist West. Since the so-called pre-modern societies have been
looked at through speculative and ideologically distorted lenses, it is likely that a more rigorous,
empirically based analysis can drastically revise our understanding of them. The modern Indian
literature de-emphasizes regional literary histories, especially the construction of stale pasts and
glorious traditions, to focus instead on cross-regional clusters of historical and cultural meaning.
They attempt in-depth interpretations instead of merely celebrating authors and their works. Just
for example the literary writings of the Rig Veda such as the Creation, the Night and the To
Vishvakarman, the Maker of the Universe attempt to explain the concept of how the world

started and how did people from India nurture it and better use of the idea to teach religion and
preserve their cultures. It also stresses the notion that they also believe that there might be a
Supreme Being which they believed to be ultimate, though; they cannot determine who is that
Supreme Being really is. Other writings from the Rig Veda also compliments claims from prior
statement mentioned. Valmikis writings, grounded with some of the ideas from the different
writings of Rig Veda, showcase the beliefs of the Indians about Dharma or known as the proper
way of living. Ramayana displays the essential characteristic that the people must possess to be
able to achieve a better way of life. Rabindranath Tagores writings which focuses on different
themes centers on religion, society, his personal struggles and his country. R.K. Narayans Fortyfive Rupee a Month assesses their importance in Narayan's Indian world view. It evaluates
Narayan's depiction of Indian middle class society in the comic-ironic mode. Digging deeper, it
traces the progress of Narayan's fictional town, Malgudi, and exemplifies how it mirrors changes
on the Indian sub-continent and how they influence on the Malgudi character. The themes of
parental love, the conflict between orthodoxy and modernity, academic disillusionment, harmony
in family relationships are being highlighted. Mahasweta Devis the story of Dhowli - an
outcaste girl who has the misfortune of having the landlord's son fall for her. Dhowli has few
options, and the ending is sad, but her own fortitude saves this from being just another mournful
tale of oppression. The characters in the stories are immensely tough, in spite of a system that
grinds them down at every step. It is this innate sense of raw rebellion that makes the stories so
impressive - she forces the reader to feel the humanity targeting the emotions of the people.
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivaks Can the Subaltern Speak? argues that the necessarily Western
perspective of post-colonial studies serves to silence the third world Other given that postcolonial studies are a feature of the Wests intellectual tradition. Drawing on the example of the

Western impulse to interpose in the Hindu tradition of sati, Spivak uncovers the colonialist
impulse to save brown women from brown men. (Shivak, 1988). As being claimed by many
other writers, Indian Literature has great influence in all other writings around the world that it
deserves to be given appreciation and credits by people from different races.

References:

De Bary, W.M.T. 1958, Sources of Indian Tradition, Volume 1, Columbia University Publication,
Universal Digital Library.
http://dharmaraja.blogspot.com/2007/05/o...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedas
http://www.importantindia.com/20535/brief-overview-of-ancient-indian-literature/
http://www.vedamu.org/VirtualUniversity/...
Schulberg, L. 1968, Historic India: Great Ages of Man, History of Worlds Culture. Cambridge
University,
Twain, M. 1835-1910, Mark Twain on Travel edited by Terry Mort. Library of Congress, United
States of America.
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. Can the Subaltern Speak? Marxism and the Interpretation of
Culture. Ed. Cary Nelson & Lawrence Grossberg. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois
Press, 1988. Print.