How many people know that Indian literature is generally believed to be the oldest in the world? Surprising, not many but yes, that is the fact. Poetry and literature in general have always been of immense importance to the evolution of human civilization. Humans always had one distinct advantage over other species and that is ability to read and write. The emergence of education through the course of human civilization is very interesting. Almost all the ancient cultures have contributed their own bit to it. Whether it is Greek culture, Roman Civilization, Egyptian, Indian or Chinese, they all have contributed significantly in the development of poetry and literature as we know today.

Poetry is a universal language. It has always been a subject of amazement, how poetry and literature emanating from one particular culture manage to touch the heartstrings of people residing in other parts of the world. That is the beauty of these two magical medium where sensibility and emotion matter more than anything else. Countries can be different, language can be separate and expression can differ as well but emotions are always common across the length and breadth of the globe. If we talk about Indian literature, it can be identified with its cultural diversities. India has around two dozen officially recognized languages. India is a literature goldmine because of over thousands years of huge and diverse literature been produced in various languages in the country. The earlier Indian literary scene had Sanskrit as dominating language. Pali and Prakrit were also languages of common people. Theme wise, Indian literature revolves around poetry, drama, songs and devotion.

We all have heard of great Indian literature like Vedas, Ramayana, and Mahabharata etc. Indian literature also excelled in treatises like Vaastu Shastra (architecture), Arthashastra (political science) and Kamsutra that are true reflection of the Indian literary excellence. Some of the greatest exponents of Hindi literature were Sant Kabir and Tulsidas. Muslim literature also flourished during the medieval period. It was a wonderful mix of Hindi, Urdu and Persian literature during that era. The arrival of English literature took place during British rule. Some of famous Indian English writers are R. K. Narayan, Jhumpa Lahiri, Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh, Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Khushwant Singh and Anita Desai.