Turkish rule in India brought number of new art and culture of the central Asia region to India. After establishing rule in India number of new art and culture were emerged from which some were borrowed and some were emerged from the blending of the Indian and Turkish culture. The finest art emerged was the growth of literature during the Delhi Sultanate. During this age, different literature in different languages were emerged like Sanskrit language, Arabic and Persian language, and other regional languages.
Also Read : Kingdom of Kashmir during Medieval Period
Gujarat and Rajasthan Kingdoms of Medieval India
Sanskrit Literature
Many scholars like Ramanuja, Madhava, Vallabha etc. followed the tradition of the great Shankara who works in the field of Advaita philosophy in early Medieval period. They wrote number of works in Sanskrit. Some of the available texts like Ramayana and Mahabharata belonged to the time period from 11th – 12th century onwards. Besides philosophy, Sanskrit works like prose, Kavya, drama, fiction, medicine, astronomy and music etc., were also written during this period.
Large number of commentaries and digests on the Hindu law (Dharmashastra) were prepared during the time period form 12th century to 16th century. The great Mitakshara of Vijnaneshwar, which forms one of two principles of Hindus school of laws, cannot placed earlier than 12th century. The works produced in the South India mainly followed by Bengal, Mithila and western India under the patronage of Hindu ruler. Hemachandra Suri, a Jaina scholar, also contributed to Sanskrit literature.
Arabic and Persian Literature
In India, the use of Arabic was largely confined to a narrow circle of Islamic scholars and philosophers. Firq-i-Firuzshahi, a work in Persian, was Islamic law book prepared during the reign of the Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq. The most famous Fatawa-i-Alamgiri (digest of law) was prepared during the reign of Aurangzeb. Lahore emerged as the first centre for cultivation of Persian language.
Amir Khusrau who was born in c. 1252 at Patiali in the Uttar Pradesh, he took pride of being an Indian. He wrote large number of poetic works. He created a new style of Persian which came to be called Sabaq-i-Hindi (style of India). He also wrote works in Hindi like Khaliq Bari. During the period of Delhi, Barani, Minhaj Siraj, Afif and Isami were most famous historians.
Zia Nakhshabi (died in c. 1350) was the first who translated Sanskrit stories in Persian. Tuti Nama which was written during the reign of Sultan Muhammad Bin Tughlaq, translated from Persian to Turkish. During Firoz Tughlaq, many books on medicine and music were translated into Persian.
Growth of Regional Languages
Various regional works were produced during this period in different languages like Hindi, Bengali and Marathi. The vernacular languages also promoted by the Bhakti saints as they preached in local languages. Tamil, Kannada Marathi were also used for administrative purposes. Vijayanagara rulers patronized the literature in Telugu. The regional language of Marathi was prospered during the reign of Bahmanis and Bijapur Kingdoms.
Maladhar Basu was a scholar of Bengali language who also translated Bhagavat Gita into Bengali. Mulla Daud was the author of Chandrayan. Mashavi was the Persian form of poem also emerged during this period.
Thus, the Turkish and Afghan rule the regional literature and fine arts were grow in large scale which result in the multi-lingual society of the modern-day India.