Part 1 — Classical Texts to Modern Fiction

Introduction

"Books and Authors" is a staple General Awareness topic in SSC and RRB exams, testing knowledge of ancient Indian classical texts, modern Indian literary works, autobiographies of national leaders, prize-winning contemporary works, and pairs of well-known international works and their authors. This note organises the material by category for efficient revision.

Ancient and Classical Indian Texts

The Vedas — Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda, Atharvaveda — are the oldest sacred texts of Hinduism, composed in Vedic Sanskrit; the Rigveda is the oldest of the four. The Upanishads are philosophical texts forming the concluding portion of the Vedas (hence "Vedanta"), dealing with concepts like Brahman and Atman. The Ramayana, attributed to sage Valmiki, and the Mahabharata, attributed to sage Ved Vyasa, are India's two great epics; the Bhagavad Gita forms part of the Mahabharata (Bhishma Parva), presented as Krishna's counsel to Arjuna. Kalidasa, often regarded as classical Sanskrit literature's greatest poet-dramatist (associated with the Gupta period court), authored Abhijnanasakuntalam (Shakuntala), Meghaduta (Cloud Messenger), Raghuvamsa, and Kumarasambhava. Chanakya (Kautilya/Vishnugupta), minister to Chandragupta Maurya, authored the Arthashastra, a treatise on statecraft, economics, and military strategy. Panini authored the Ashtadhyayi, a foundational Sanskrit grammar text. Patanjali is credited with the Yoga Sutras. The Panchatantra, attributed to Vishnu Sharma, is a celebrated collection of animal fables.

Medieval and Bhakti-Sufi Era Literature

Amir Khusrau (13th–14th century), a poet at the Delhi Sultanate court, is credited with pioneering developments in Hindavi/early Urdu poetry and is traditionally associated with Qawwali music. Tulsidas authored the Ramcharitmanas, an Awadhi-language retelling of the Ramayana, among the most widely read religious texts in North India. Kabir, a Bhakti-Sufi poet-saint, is known for his Dohas (couplets) emphasising religious syncretism. Guru Nanak and successor Sikh Gurus' compositions form the Guru Granth Sahib, Sikhism's central scripture. Abul Fazl, court historian of Akbar, authored the Akbarnama (including its statistical volume, the Ain-i-Akbari), a key primary source for Mughal administrative history.

Modern Indian Literature (in English and Translation)

Rabindranath Tagore, the first non-European Nobel laureate (Literature, 1913), for his English translation of Gitanjali; also authored the words and music of India's national anthem (Jana Gana Mana) and Bangladesh's national anthem (Amar Shonar Bangla), and wrote extensively in Bengali across poetry, novels (Gora, Ghare Baire), and short stories. R.K. Narayan is celebrated for his fictional South Indian town Malgudi, featured in works like Swami and Friends and The Guide (later adapted into a landmark Hindi film). Mulk Raj Anand is known for social-realist novels like Untouchable and Coolie. Raja Rao authored Kanthapura. These three — Anand, Narayan, and Rao — are often collectively cited as pioneers of Indian English fiction. Arundhati Roy won the Booker Prize (1997) for The God of Small Things, her debut novel. Kiran Desai won the Booker Prize (2006) for The Inheritance of Loss. Aravind Adiga won the Booker Prize (2008) for The White Tiger. Salman Rushdie won the Booker Prize (1981) for Midnight's Children, which later also won the "Booker of Bookers" (best novel among all Booker winners, awarded on the prize's 25th and 40th anniversaries). Vikram Seth authored A Suitable Boy, one of the longest novels published in English. Jhumpa Lahiri won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (2000) for Interpreter of Maladies, a short-story collection.

The Jnanpith Award

The Jnanpith Award is India's highest literary honour, awarded annually by the Bharatiya Jnanpith organisation for outstanding contribution to Indian literature (across all recognised Indian languages). G. Sankara Kurup (Malayalam) was the first recipient in 1965. Notable multiple-category coverage includes authors in Hindi, Bengali, Kannada (which has produced the highest number of Jnanpith winners among Indian languages, including Kuvempu, D.R. Bendre, V.K. Gokak, Shivarama Karanth, U.R. Ananthamurthy, Chandrashekhara Kambara, and Girish Karnad), and other regional languages.

Nobel Prize Winners Connected to India (Literature and Beyond, Selected)

Famous Political/Economic Treatises