Ancient Indian Literature and How They Shape The World to This Day
- Feb 2
- 7 min read
From Zeus and Hades to Apollo and Juno, the world has always taken a massive interest in ancient religious literature. There however, are religious literary texts so ancient that they predate the Greeks and Romans by millions of years: ancient Indian Hindu literature.
Hindu literature is not merely a collection of religious hymns. It is a vast treasure trove of philosophy, mathematics, linguistics, and epic storytelling. While these texts originated in a specific geographical context, their impact did not stay confined within the borders of India. Instead, these ideas traveled across Silk Road trade routes, crossed the Himalayan passes, and sailed over the Indian Ocean to influence thinkers from Athens to Silicon Valley. To understand the modern world, one must understand the ink that was spilled in ancient Bharat.
Table of Contents:
The Vedas: The Dawn of Inquiry
To understand how these texts shaped the world, we must first look at the Vedas. Composed between 1500 and 500 BCE, the Vedas are among the oldest Indo-Aryan texts in existence.
While they are the liturgical core of Hinduism, their impact on global thought is much broader than religion. There are 4 titles that come under Vedas: The Rig Veda (the oldest, contains hymns to deities), the Yajur Veda (containing the mantras and procedures of prayer), the Sama Veda (known as the Veda of melodies and chants) and the Atharva Veda (daily procedures of life).
The Rig Veda, in particular, contains the Nasadiya Sukta, or the Hymn of Creation. It is a piece of literature that dares to ask questions rather than provide rigid dogmas. It asks who truly knows how the universe began.
The Upanishads and the Western Mind
The Upanishads, which form the philosophical conclusion of the Vedas, took these inquiries even deeper. These texts introduced the world to the concepts of Brahman (the universal soul) and Atman (the individual soul). The mantra: Aham Brahmasmi, or I am Brahman: the universe, the absolute, is based on this concept and realisation. In the 18th and 19th centuries, when these texts were translated into Persian and later into Latin and German, they sent shockwaves through the Western intellectual community.
Arthur Schopenhauer, one of the most significant German philosophers, famously remarked that the Upanishads were ‘the solace of his life and would be the solace of his death’. The idea that the individual is connected to the cosmos influenced the Transcendentalist movement in America. Without this ancient Indian literature, the landscape of modern Western philosophy and environmental ethics would look starkly different.
The Ramayana: The Epic of Idealism and Influence
Composed by the sage Valmiki, this epic follows the journey of Rama, the prince of Ayodhya. While it is a story of duty and devotion, its cultural impact is so vast that it redefined the social fabric of an entire continent.
In Southeast Asia, the Ramayana takes on different forms depending on the local culture and language as those regions are directly connected to the incidents elaborated in the epic. The Kakawin Ramayana of Java and the Ramakien of Thailand are testaments to how vast this civilization was and how intense its impact was in every region that was even remotely associated with the happenings. If you travel to Cambodia or Indonesia today, you will find the stories of Rama and Sita etched into the walls of ancient temples like Angkor Wat and Prambanan. It is not just literature and literary influence, it is the shared history of an ancient civilization.
The Mahabharata: The World’s Greatest Mirror
If the Ramayana is the epic of the "ideal," the Mahabharata is the epic of the "real." Attributed to the sage Vyasa, who is said to have given inputs to Lord Ganesha who actually wrote the epic, it is one of the first recorded instances of ghostwriting in the universe besides being the longest epic ever written, nearly ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined.
Within its sprawling narrative lies the Bhagavad Gita, a 700 verse dialogue that has become a global handbook for ethical living. The Gita’s message of performing one's duty without attachment to the results has influenced multiple renowned scholars and leaders. Upon witnessing the first atomic bomb test, Oppenheimer famously quoted the Gita, signaling how an ancient text provided the only language strong enough to describe the dawn of the nuclear age. The Mahabharata reminds the world that every conflict is internal before it becomes external.
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Linguistics and the Science of Sound
Panini’s Ashtadhyayi, written around the 4th century BCE, is a foundational text in linguistics.
Panini created rules of grammar for Sanskrit that are so logical and rule based that modern computer scientists often compare it to programming languages. His work on the structure of language influenced the development of modern linguistics in the 19th century through scholars like Ferdinand de Saussure. Every time we study linguistic structure today or develop natural language processing for AI, we are standing on the shoulders of an ancient Indian grammarian.
Mathematics in Prose: The Gift of the Shunya
Shunya represents zero throughout the decimal system. The mathematical discoveries originated from Indian literature and scientific texts which included the Bakshali Manuscript and the works of Aryabhata. The Islamic Golden Age emerged from the Siddhantas literature because translators converted Indian mathematical texts into Arabic at Baghdad. The new numeral system spread to Europe, which replaced Roman numerals and enabled both the Renaissance and the scientific revolution. The modern world literally does not function without the "nothingness" defined in ancient Indian texts. It operates as the fundamental system that drives both our computer operations and our banking transactions.
The Panchatantra: The World's Fables
We must also talk about the Panchatantra.People see the Panchatantra as simple animal fables but it contains advanced teachings about wise behavior. The stories which Vishnu Sharma wrote were created to help three young princes learn about political matters and human relationships and friendship. This collection is one of the most frequently translated non religious manuscripts in history. The West received the work through various versions which included the Arabic Kalila wa Dimna and later it became the basis for Aesop's Fables. The Panchatantra and the Kathasaritsagara developed the story structure which tells one story through another story. The technique established a new storytelling method which reached the Arabian Nights and Boccaccio's Decameron and currently shapes global literature storytelling methods.
Why This Legacy Matters Today
The ancient Indian literary works shaped the world through their existence as ancient texts. The work created an impact across all cultures because it presented a total understanding of human existence. The work demonstrated to humanity the methods of counting and speaking and governing and self-examination. The work provided people with a vocabulary to express their inner self and a structure to organize their thoughts.
The present state of international literature serves as a connection between its remarkable historical period and its dynamic upcoming period. The same themes appear in contemporary thrillers and children's picture books because both genres share similar storytelling elements. The ethical conflicts found in the thriller movie reflect the dharma questions which appear throughout the Mahabharata. The clever crows and lions from the Panchatantra stories became the whimsical animals which appear in present-day children's literature.
A Quick Look at the Global Reach:
Text | Primary Contribution | Global Influence |
Vedas | Intellectual Skepticism | Foundation of Scientific Inquiry |
Upanishads | Monism and Unity | Transcendentalism and Modern Philosophy |
Ramayana | Ethical Heroism | National Epics of Southeast Asia |
Mahabharata | Complex Psychology | Global Ethics and Ethical Frameworks |
Ashtadhyayi | Formal Grammar | Modern Linguistics and Coding Logic |
Panchatantra | Frame Story Device | Aesop's Fables and Middle Eastern Folk Tales |
Siddhantas | Zero and Decimals | The Scientific Revolution and Modern Computing |
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Key Takeaways
If you feel a spark of curiosity about these ancient works, you do not need to be a Sanskrit scholar to appreciate them. Here is how you can start your own journey:
Read the Epics as Literature: Start with modern retellings of the Ramayana or Mahabharata to understand the characters before diving into the academic translations.
Explore the Fables: The Panchatantra is a great way to introduce children to the concept of ethics and strategy through engaging stories.
Look for Philosophy: Pick up a copy of the Bhagavad Gita or the Upanishads for moments when you need to pause and reflect on the bigger picture of life.
Engage with History: Visit museums or literary festivals to see how these ancient texts are being reimagined for the 21st century.
The literature of India is not just words woven together for vanity, it is the ancient text that fuels the world. It is in the way we calculate our taxes, the way we structure our sentences, and the way we dream of better worlds.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How old is ancient Indian (Hindu) literature?
Ancient Indian literature spans over several millennia. The earliest layers of the Vedas are believed to have been composed around 1500 BCE, while texts like the Upanishads, epics, and scientific treatises continued to evolve over centuries. This makes Hindu literature one of the longest continuously developing literary traditions in the world.
2. Are these texts purely religious in nature?
No. While many of these works have spiritual foundations, they also explore philosophy, ethics, politics, linguistics, mathematics, astronomy, and psychology. Texts like the Panchatantra, Ashtadhyayi, and Siddhantas are secular in purpose and practical in application, influencing governance, language systems, and science.
3. Did ancient Indian literature really influence the Western world?
Yes. Through trade routes, translations, and scholarly exchanges, Indian ideas reached the Islamic world and later Europe. Concepts like zero, decimal notation, monism, grammar systems, and narrative structures were absorbed into global knowledge systems, shaping modern science, philosophy, and literature.
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