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Gujarati forms one of the most ancient Indian languages. Poetry and prose makes the two major categories of Gujarati literature. Poetry emerged as means to express religious verdicts and beliefs in the early 6th century. Gujarati literature had a great contribution starting from the ancient Muzaffarid dynasty extending a period of 1391 to 1583. Literary researchers believe that the ancient Gujarati writings were contributed as a whole by Jaina authors. Their contributions were later poised as Rasas, Vilasas and Phagus. Rasas includes the extensive heroic, narrative as well as romantic poems. Bharatesvara Bahubalirasa writteb by Salibhadra Suri, Revanagiri Rasa of Vijayasena, Gautama Svamirasa of Vinayaprabha and some of the remarkable examples of Gujarati literature in that period.
During the period 1767 to 1852, legendary artist Dayaram gave birth to religious, romantic and ethical lyrics named as Garbis. His major respected works include Bhakti posana, Ajamila Akhyana and Rasika Ballabha. During the mid nineteenth century, Giridhara created the Gujarati version of Ramayana. Other legendary figures of this period include Vallabha, Dhira Bhagat, Haridas, Parmanand, Brahmanand and Divali Bali. Premanand who is renowned as Gujarati Mahakavi have put forwards numerous classic works during late seventeenth century. The aadi kavi of Gujarat is Narasimha Mehata who started his journey in the arena literary poems during sixteenth century. The three popular literary figures who outweighed the Gujarati literature in seventeenth and eighteenth century are Akshayadasa, Premananda Bhatta and Syamaladasa Bhatta.
The pioneers of contemporary Gujarati literatures are Dalpatram and Narmada Shankar. The popular Venacharitra that depicts the unbelievable domination over laughter and comedy is authored by Dalpatram. The Narmakosa, the first dictionary in Gujarati was a creation of Narmada Shankar. He also contributed many classic poems in Gujarati language and also translated some important English prose into this regional language. His masterpiece poems include Vana varnana, Virasimha and Rukmini Harana. Gujarati poetry developed during the period after Indian Independence portrays a greater level of subjectivity and offers innovative philosophical thoughts and images. The popular poets during this period embrace Mohamed Sheikh, Chinu Modi, Adil Mansuri, Suresh Joshi and Harinder Dave.
The first woman devotional poet in Gujarati is Meera Bhai. The modern woman poets who adapted new dictions to their work are Chaitanya Divatia, Anniben Sariyya, Sonalnun Swapna and Culbanki. Heeraben Pathak forms a popular woman Gujarati poet modern period. Gujarati women got into world of prose writing in early 20th century. The humorous works of Vidyagauri Neelkanth is included in the Hasyamandir published by her husband Ramanbhai Neelkant. Sharda Mehta forms another popular Gujarati figure and created the biography of Florence Nightingale. The two popular woman playwrights include Dhiruben Patel and Rambhaben Gandhi. The plays such as Aarati and Insaaf make a classic plays that middle class family life with humorous thoughts.
The Gujarati script originally followed the Devnagari scripts. The modern literatures in Gujarati had more ethical values and the popular legendaries includes Gulabdas Broker, Vishnuprasad Trivedi, Chandrakant Baxi and Raghuvir Choudary. Gujarati literature also includes great works of Gandhian writers who were closely connected with Mahatma Gandhi. Major writers in this class include Kaka Saheb, Mahadev Desai, Swami Anand and Ramanayan Pathak. Gujarati literature during all the three eras showed a steady rise with innovative thoughts and expression of Gujarati people. We may expect more outstanding works in the future to mark this regional literature with a golden line.
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