Indian Literature and Texts

Chachnamah, originally written in Persian, is one of the main historical sources for the history of Sindh in the seventh to eighth centuries CE.

Ordinary people told stories, composed poems and songs, sang, danced, and performed plays. Some of these are preserved in collection of stories as the Jatakas and the Panchatantras, which were written down around this time.

The Vedic, Buddhist and Jain literature of ancient India was preserved by oral tradition. It is now available in the written form. Even so, the oral tradition is still alive.

Answer - (A) - Milind Panha was the great Buddhist work consisting of dialogues between Indo-Greek King Menander and the Buddhist philosopher Nagasena. Vinaya Pitaka and Sutta Pitaka are the parts of Tripitakas. Buddhacharita is an epic poem written on the life of Gautam Buddha.

The Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist text printed in 868 AD, is widely recognized as the oldest dated printed book in the world.

Chakrapani Mishra was a Darbari pandit in court of Maharana Pratap. He was deeply inspired by the works of Varahmihra. Resource material for the book Vishvavallabha by Chakrapani Mishra is Vrihatsanhita of Varahmihra. He also authored books like Muhurtmala, Vyavaharadarsha and Rajyabhisheka.

Indraprastha is the legendary city described in the Mahabharata as the capital of the Pandavas. It is traditionally associated with the modern-day site of Delhi.

A famous Tamil epic, the Silappadikaram, was composed by a poet named Ilango, around 1800 years ago. It is the story of a merchant named Kovalan, who lived in Puhar and fell in love with a courtesan named Madhavi, neglecting his wife Kannagi

Brihat Samhita, written by Varahamihira, is a classic encyclopedic work in Sanskrit covering diverse subjects like astronomy, architecture, weather, and plants. The other options are specialized texts: Mamarakosa is a lexicon, Siddhantasiromani is mathematical astronomy, and Ashtangahridaya is a medical treatise.

Rig Veda makes a clear reference to Rishabha and Arsishtanami , the Jaina tirthankaras. Rishabha , the first tirthankar of Jainism , is known to be an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. He is mentioned in the Bhagavat Purana and the Rig Veda and Arishtanemi also called Neminatha the 22nd of the 24 Tirthankaras of Jainism a traditional religion of India.While the last two Tirthanakaras may be considered historical personages. Arishtanemi is a legendary figure. Said to have lived 84,000 years before the coming of the next Tirthankara.

Pampa known as Adikavi wrote Adipurana. Ubhayakavi Poona composed 'Shanti Purana.' Ranna wrote 'Gadayuddha' (Sahas Bheem Vijaya).

Charak Samhita is a foundational text on Ayurveda, traditionally attributed to the sage Charak. It covers various aspects of health, medicine, and disease management.

Bengali literature indebted to Sanskrit- It includes the translations of the Sanskrit epics, the Mangalakavyas and bhakti literature such as the biographies of Chaitanyadeva (the leader of the Vaishnava bhakti movement). These are easier to date because many manuscripts have been found indicating that they were composed between the late 15th and the middle of the 18th centuries. Bengali literature independent of Sanskrit- It includes Nath literature such as the songs of Maynamati and Gopichandra, stories concerning the worship of Dharma Thakur, and fairy tales, folk tales and ballads. These were circulated orally and cannot be precisely dated and were particularly popular in eastern Bengal where the Brahmanical influence was relatively weak.

Brahmanas were not allowed to eat non vegetarian food, but the popularity of fish in the local diet in Bengal made the Brahmanical authorities relax this prohibition for the Bengal Brahmanas. The Brihaddharma Purana, a thirteenth-century Sanskrit text from Bengal, permitted the local Brahmanas to eat certain varieties of fish.