| * Boldface
titles indicate works in the anthology. |
TEXTS
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CONTEXTS
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6th–8th centuries Poet-leaders of the south Indian devotional
(bhakti) movements dedicated to Siva compose Tamil hymns to him,
later collated/compiled as in the Tevaram
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1100–1200 Basavanna and Mahadeviyakka, leaders of the Virasaiva
Hindu religious movement, write poems (vacanas) of social
criticism and devotion to God in Kannada, a major spoken language of
south India
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ca. 1275 Amir Khusrau, a Muslim Sufi (mystic) poet from Deccan
in central India, writes poetry in Urdu
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1288 Venetian traveler Marco Polo visits India
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14th–16th centuries Vidyapati and other poets of the Vaisnava
religious sect of Bengal write bhakti (devotional) lyric poems
in Bengali on the love of the god Krishna and the herdswoman Radha
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ca. 1336 Vijayanagar, last major Hindu kingdom in India, is
founded in central India
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1350 Thai kingdom of Ayuthia, named after Ayodhya, the capital
of the Hindu epic hero
Rama, is established
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1398
Central Asian conqueror Timur The Lame (Tamerlane) sacks
Delhi |
| 1399
Krittivasa's version of the ancient Hindu epic the
Ramayana
in the Bengali language |
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ca. 1400–1448 Mystic poet Kabir writes poems of social criticism
and spiritual quest in Hindi, the major spoken language of north India
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1400 Paper is introduced from Persia
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1498 Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrives in India,
signaling the beginning of the European commercial and colonial
presence there
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| 16th century
One of India's most popular poets, Rajput woman saint
mystic Mirabai,
writes lyric songs of love for the Hindu god Krishna |
ca. 1500 Guru Nanak founds Sikhism, a monotheistic religion
synthesizing elements of Hinduism and Islam, in north India
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ca. 1500–1533 Mystical teacher Chaitanya of Bengal spreads the
cult of devotion to the Hindu God Krishna in north India
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1510 The Portuguese establish a colony at Goa in western India
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ca. 1526 Central Asian Muslim invader Babar seizes power in
Delhi and establishes the Mogul empire in north India
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1542 Jesuit Francis Xavier reaches India
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1556–1605
Jalâluddin Akbar, preeminent Mogul emperor, patronizes
miniature painting and translations of texts from Indian
languages to Persian, and proclaims Din-e-Ilahi a new
universal religion |
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late 16th century The scriptures of the Sikh religion are
compiled in the Adi Granth
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1565 The fall of the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar
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1574 Tulsidas begins Ramcaritmanas (Sacred Lake of the
Deeds of Ram), India's most popular version of The
Ramayana, in a dialect of Hindi
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| 1580–1588
The Mogul emperor Akbar commissions illustrated Persian
translations of the Sanskrit epics the Ramayana
and the Mahabharata
and the Sanskrit animal fable collection Pañcatantra
• Akbar's court poet Abu'l Fazl writes
the Persian Akbar-Nama (The Chronicle of Akbar)
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1600 Queen Elizabeth grants the British East India Company a
charter for trade in India
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