Hindi Literature

Hindi literature has been divided into four stages: Adikal, Bhaktikal , Ritikal and Adhunikkal.

• Adikal
  
  
  • The period from the middle of the 10th century to the beginning of the 14th century is called Adikal. Adikal is also known as Veergathakal.
    
    
  • Most of the literary creations of this period, which are in the form of verse-narratives (raso-kavyas), admire the heroic deeds of the Rajput rulers and warriors.
    
    
  • Some of the raso-kavyas of this age are Chand Bardai's Prithviraj Raso, Dalpativijay's Khuman Raso, Narpati Nalha's Visaldev Raso and Jagnik's Parmal Raso.
    
    
• Bhakti Kal
  
  
  • The period from the 14th to the 17th century is known as the Bhakti Kal.
    
    
  
  
  • This was the period for the rise of Bhakti Kavyas.
    
    
  • Bhakti kavyas have been divided into two schools: Nirguna School and Saguna School. The Nirgunas believed in a formless god, whereas the Sagunas believed in a human incarnation of god.
    
    
  • Kabir, Guru Nanak, Dharma Das, Maluk Das, Dadudayal, Sunder Das, Jayasi, Usman etc. are the main poets of Nirguna School.
    
    
  • Tulsidas, Surdas, Abdur Rahim Khankhana, Meera Bai etc. are the main poets of Saguna School.
    
    
  • Sur Sagar, Sur Saravali (Surdas), Ramacharitamanasa, Gitavali, Kavitavali and Vinay Patrika (Tulsidas), Rahim-dohavali and Madanastaka (Abdur Rahim Khankhana) Padmavati (Malik Mohammad Jayasi) Hitopadesa (Agradas) etc. are main literary creations of this age.
    
    
• Ritikal
  
  
  • The period between 16th century and middle of the 18th century is called Ritikal.
    
    
  • Rasa, alankara and nayika bheda in poems are the specialty of this age.
    
    
  • Bihari (Bihari Satsai), Senapati, Padmakara (Jagadvinoda), Chintamani Tripathi (Kavya-viveka, Kavikula-kalpataru and Kavya-prakasa), Keshavadasa (Rasika-priya and Kavi-priya), Mati Ram (Rasaraja), Deva, Kulpati Misra, Bhikari Das, Ghanananda (Sujana-sagara, Rasa-Kelivalli and Kripa-kanda), Bodha, Thakur, Vrinda, Vaital, Giridhar etc. are the leading name of this age.
    
    
• Adhunikkal
  
  
  • The Adhunikaal i.e. Modern Period in Hindi literature started in the middle of the 19th century.
    
    
  • Evolution and proliferation of Khariboli prose is the most important development of this period.
    
    
  • Adhunikkal has been divided into four phases viz. Bharatendu Yug (1868-1893), Dwivedi Yug (1893-1918), Chhayavada Yug (1918-1937) and the Contemporary Period (1937 onwards).
    
    
  • Bharatendu Harishchandra (1849-1882) is considered as the Father of Modern Hindi Literature as he brought in a modern outlook in Hindi literature.
    
    
  • Bhartendu Harishchandra, Radhakrishna Das, Pratapnarayan Mishra, Balkrishna Bhatta, Badrinarayan Chaudhuri, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi (1868-1938), Ayodhya Sinha Upadhyay (1865-1947), Maithali Sharan Gupta (1886-1964), Ram Naresh Tripathi (1889-1962) and Gopala Sarana Sinha (1891-1960), Makhanlal Chaturvedi (1888-1968), Balkrishna Shama Navin (1897-1959), Siyaram Sharan Gupta (b.1895), Jayashankar Prasad, Surya Kant Tripathi 'Nirala' (1897-1963), Sumitranandan Pant (1900-1977), Mahadevi Verma, Subhadrakumari Chauhan (1904-1948) etc. are the important litterateurs of this age.