Page 66 - DLIS006_INFORMATION SOURCES AND SERVICES

Unit 4: Information Services and Products

detail nor brought the intelligent perspective of this work. The book holds one’s interest well Notes
enough for a complete read by scholars of the history of information science as well as being
useful as stand-alone chapters or snippets of detail. The indexing is quite helpful and facilitates
the use of the book as a reference tool. A History of Online Information Services is recommended
for information science and computing collections as well as anyone interested in the history of
information retrieval.

Caselet Indian Literature through the Ages

ndian literature includes everything which is included in the word ‘literature’ in its
broadest, sense: religious and mundane, epic and lyric, dramatic and didactic poetry,
Inarrative and scientific prose, as well as oral poetry and song. In the Vedas (3000 BC-
1000 BC), when one finds such expressions, “I am standing in water but I am very thirsty”,
one marvels at the continuity of a rich heritage which is both modern and traditional. It is,
therefore, not very correct to say that ancient Indian literature includes only the religious
classics of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Jain narrative literature in the Prakrit language
is full of erotic stories and realism.
Vedic poets are called the rishis, the seers who visualized the archetypal truths of cosmic
functioning at all levels of existence. The Yajur Veda is related to yajna, which is not just
sacrifice, but also means creative reality. Vedic ritual is preserved in literary texts called
the Brahmanas. The main division of the contexts of these extensive texts is twofold – the
ritualistic injuction and discussions on the meaning of Vedic ritual and all that is related
to it.

The word Purana means ‘that which renews the old’ and is almost always mentioned
alongwith Itihasa. The Puranas were written to illustrate and expound the truth of the
Vedas. The fundamental abstruse philosophical and religious truths are expounded through
popular legends or mythological stories. The Sanskrit language is divided into the Vedic
and the classical. The great epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and the Puranas are
part of the classical period, but are discussed separately because of their enormity and
importance, and are undoubtedly the precursors of Sanskrit Kavya (epic poetry), nataka
(drama) and other literature. Classical Sanskrit literature includes the Kavyas (epic poetry),
the Nataka (drama), lyric poetry, romance, popular tales, didactic fables, gnomic poetry,
scientific literature on grammar, medicine, law, astronomy, mathematics, etc. Classical
Sanskrit literature is on the whole secular in character. During the classical period, language
was regulated by the rigid rules of Panini, one of the greatest Sanskrit grammarians.
Pali and Prakrit were the spoken languages of Indians after the Vedic period. Prakrit in the
widest sense of the term was indicative of any language that in any manner deviated from
the standard one, i.e. Sanskrit. Pali is archaic Prakrit. In fact, Pali is a combination of
various dialects. These were adopted by Buddhist and Jain sects in ancient India as their
sacred languages. Lord Buddha (500 B.C.) used Pali to give his sermons. All the Buddhist
canonical literature is in Pali which includes Tipitaka (threefold basket). The Indian people
speak languages belonging to major four distinct speech families: the Austric, Dravidian,
Sino-Tibetan and Indo-European. In spite of these four different language groups, there is
an Indian characteristic running through these language groups, which forms one of the
bases of that certain underlying uniformity of life described by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
as unity in the midst of diversity.

Source: http://ccrtindia.gov.in/literaryarts.htm

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