Editing Awadhi language (section)

==Literature==
{{See also|List of Awadhi-language poets}}

=== Late-medieval and early-modern India ===
In this period, Awadhi became the vehicle for [[epic poetry]] in northern India.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Grierson|1904|p=13}}</ref> Its literature is mainly divided into: bhaktīkāvya (devotional poetry) and premākhyān (romantic tales).

====Bhaktīkāvyas====
The most important work, probably in any modern [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan language]], came from the poet-saint [[Tulsidas]] in the form of ''[[Ramcharitmanas]]'' (1575 C.E.) or "The Lake of the Deeds of [[Rama]]", written in [[Doha (poetry)|doha]]-[[Chaupai (poetry)|chaupai]] [[Metre (poetry)|metre]]. Its plot is mostly derivative, either from the original ''[[Ramayana|Rāmāyaṇa]]'' by [[Valmiki]] or from the ''[[Adhyatma Ramayana|Adhyātma Rāmāyaṇa]]'', both of which are in [[Sanskrit]].<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Saxena|1971|pp=11–12}}</ref> [[Mahatma Gandhi]] had acclaimed the ''Ramcharitmanas'' as "the greatest book of all devotional literature" while western observers have christened it as "the Bible of [[Northern India]]".<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Lutgendorf|1991|p=1}}</ref> It is sometimes synonymously referred as 'Tulsidas Ramayana' or simply 'the Ramayana'.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Lutgendorf|1991|p=12}}—Since the Ramcaritmanas is a text in the Ramayana tradition, for which the Sanskrit epic of Valmiki is the accepted archetype, it is commonly referred to simply as "the Ramayan" and many popular editions bear only this name on their spine and cover, perhaps adding above it in small print: "composed by Goswami Tulsidas".</ref>
{{multiple image
| align = right
| header_background = #FDF5E6
| header = Illustrations to the [[Ramcharitmanas]] of [[Tulsidas]]
| direction = vertical
| footer_align = center
| image_style = border:none;
| total_width = 280
| image1 = 5_Illustration_from_the_Ramcharitmanas_of_Tulsidas_(1532–1623)_Jodhpur,_c._1775;_62.7_x_134.5_cm_Mehrangarh_Museum_Trust.jpg
| image2 = 7 Rama's Army reaches Lanka from the Ram Charit Artist Unknown, ca. 1780, 63x125.8cm Mehrangarh Museum Trust.jpg
| footer = (a) Death of Vali: [[Rama]] and [[Lakshmana]] Wait Out the Monsoon, (b) Rama's Army Crossing the Ocean to Lanka.
| alt1 =
| caption1 =
| caption2 =
}}
[[Tulsidas]]'s compositions ''[[Hanuman Chalisa]]'',<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MX1SDwAAQBAJ&q=awadhi&pg=PT151|title=Hanuman Chalisa: Verse by Verse Description|last=Padam|first=Sandeep|date=21 March 2018|publisher=Notion Press|isbn=978-1-64249-611-6|language=hi}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UFE4DwAAQBAJ&q=hanuman+chalisa+awadhi&pg=PA42|title=Lucknow Poetica|last=Shamim|first=Dr Rupali Saran Mirza Dr and Amna|date=14 November 2016|publisher=Idea Publishing|page=42|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tlduDwAAQBAJ&q=hanuman+chalisa+awadhi&pg=PA11|title=Sri Hanuman Chalisa: Commentary on the Praises to the Eternal Servant|last=Vishwananda|first=Paramahamsa Sri Swami|date=13 March 2018|publisher=BoD – Books on Demand|isbn=978-3-96343-015-2|page=11|language=en}}</ref> ''Pārvatī Maṅgala'' and ''Jānakī Maṅgala'' are also written in Awadhi.<ref name="Saxena 1971 12">{{Harvcoltxt|Saxena|1971|p=12}}</ref>

{{Verse translation|lang=awa|अंडकोस प्रति प्रति निज रूपा।
देखेउँ जिनस अनेक अनूपा॥
<u>अवधपुरी</u> प्रति भुअन निनारी।
<u>सरजू</u> भिन्न भिन्न नर नारी॥|In each universe I saw my own self,
As well as many an object beyond compare;
Each universe had its own <u>Ayodhya</u>,
With its own <u>Saryu</u> and its own men and women.|italicsoff=y|attr1=[[Tulsidas]], 7.81.3 chaupai, [[Ramcharitmanas]]|attr2=Translation by R.C Prasad<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Tulasīdāsa|1999|p=747}}</ref>}}
{{Verse translation|lang=awa|सिंधु तीर एक भूधर सुंदर।
कौतुक कूदि चढ़ेउ ता-ऊपर॥
बार-बार रघुबीर सँभारी।
तरकेउ <u>पवनतनय</u> बल भारी॥|On the sea-shore there was a mountain lovely,
He hopped to its peak sportively;
Over and again, the Lord he did recall
And the <u>Son of Wind </u>darted with energy no small.|italicsoff=y|attr1=[[Tulsidas]], 5.1.3 chaupai, [[Ramcharitmanas]]|attr2=Translation<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Rao|first=I. Panduranga|date=1998|title=Review of The Beautiful Verses (Ram-Charit Manas, "Sunder-Kand" and Hanuman Chalisa of Goswami Tulsidas rendered into English verse)|journal=Indian Literature|volume=41|issue=1 (183)|pages=240–241|issn=0019-5804|jstor=23341337}}</ref>}}

The first Hindi vernacular adaptation of the 'Dasam Skandha' of the ''[[Bhagavata Purana]]'', the "Haricharit" by Lalachdas, who hailed from Hastigram (present-day Hathgaon near [[Raebareli district|Rae Bareilly]]), was concluded in 1530 C.E. It circulated widely for a long time and scores of manuscript copies of the text have been found as far as eastern Uttar Pradesh and [[Bihar]], [[Malwa]] and [[Gujarat]], all written in the [[Kaithi]] script.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Orsini|2014|p=200}}—"That Brahmin ''kathavachaks'' were not the only tellers of the story is proved by the first Hindi vernacular adaptation of the Dasam Skandha, the Haricharit in the Chaupai Doha by Lalach Kavi, a ''Kayastha'' from "Hastigram" (present-day Hathgaon) near Rae Bareilly, concluded in 1530 (VS1587)."</ref>

''Satyavatī'' (ca. 1501) of Ishvaradas (of Delhi) under the reign of [[Sikandar Lodi|Sikander Lodi]] and ''Avadhabilāsa'' (1700 C.E.) of Laladas were also written in Awadhi.

Awadhi appeared as a major component in the works of ''Bhakti'' saints like [[Kabir]], who used a language often described as being a ''pancmel khicṛī'' or "a hotch-potch" of several vernaculars.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Vaudeville|1990|p=260}}–The first editor of the ''Kabir Granthavali'', S.S Das, also stresses the composite character of Kabir's language, giving examples in his introduction, of ''vanis'' composed in Khariboli (i.e. Standard Hindi), Rajasthani, and Panjabi, besides Awadhi.</ref><ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Vaudeville|1990|p=264}}–Among the dialects or languages "melted" in the Hindavi language, the most important is Avadhi, mentioned above. The language of Kabir himself an Easterner, retains old Eastern forms, especially the old Avadhi forms.</ref> The language of [[Kabir]]'s major work ''[[Bijak]]'' is primarily Awadhi.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Vaudeville|1990|p=260}}–Chaturvedi has shown that the same ''pada'' may be found with more characteristic Avadhi forms in the ''Bijak'', with more Khari-boli in the Guru Granth and with Braj forms in the Kabir Granthavali.</ref><ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Vaudeville|1990|p=259}}–According to Grierson, however, there is not a single word typical of the Bhojpuri language in the Bijak. According to him, the basic language of the Bijak is old Avadhi...</ref>

====Premākhyāns====
{{multiple image
| total_width       = 200
| caption_align     = center
| align             = right
| direction         = vertical
| image_style       = border:none;
| image1            = Queen Nagamati talks to her parrot, Padmavat, c1750.jpg
| caption1          = Queen Nagamati talks to her parrot, [[Padmavat]], 1750 C.E.
| image2            = Meister des Madhu-Malati-Manuskripts 001.jpg
| caption2          = Lovers shoot at a tiger in the jungle. From the mystical Sufi text [[Madhumalati]].
| alt1              = 
| header            = Illustrations to Awadhi [[Sufi]] texts
| header_background = #FDF5E6
}}

Awadhi also emerged as the favourite literary language of the Eastern Sufis from the last quarter of the 14th century onwards. It became the language of ''premākhyāns'', romantic tales built on the pattern of Persian ''[[Mathnawi (poetic form)|masnavi]]'', steeped in Sufi [[mysticism]] but set in a purely Indian background, with a large number of [[Motif (narrative)|motifs]] directly borrowed from Indian lore. The first of such ''premākhyān'' in the Awadhi language was Candāyan (1379 C.E.) of Maulana Da'ud.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Vaudeville|1990|p=263}}</ref> The tradition was carried forward by [[Malik Muhammad Jayasi|Jayasi]], whose masterpiece, the [[Padmavat|Padmāvat]] (1540 C.E.) was composed under the reign of the famous ruler [[Sher Shah Suri]]. The Padmavat travelled far and wide, from [[Arakan]] to the [[Deccan Plateau|Deccan]], and was eagerly copied and retold in [[Persian language|Persian]] and other languages.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Orsini|2014|p=213}}</ref>

Other prominent works of Jayasi such as Kānhāvat,<ref>{{Citation|last=Hawley|first=John Stratton|title=Did Surdas Perform the Bhāgavata-purāṇa?|date=2015|work=Tellings and Texts|page=212|editor-last=Orsini|editor-first=Francesca|series=Music, Literature and Performance in North India|edition=1|publisher=Open Book Publishers|isbn=978-1-78374-102-1|quote=Then there are the Ahirs whose performances of the Krishna story fascinated Malik Muhammad Jayasi, as he tells us in his Kanhavat of 1540;...|editor2-last=Schofield|editor2-first=Katherine Butler|jstor=j.ctt17rw4vj.15}}</ref> Akhrāvaṭ<ref name="Saxena 1971 12"/> and Ākhrī Kalām<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Singh|first=Virendra|date=2009|title=An Avadhi language account of an earthquake in medieval North India circa AD 1500|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/296774084|journal=Current Science|volume=96|pages=1648–1649}}</ref> are also written in Awadhi.
{{Rquote
| text = I'll tell you about my great town, the ever-beautiful Jais.<br />
In the ''[[Satya Yuga|satyayuga]]'' it was a holy place, then it was called the "Town of
Gardens."<br />
Then the ''[[Treta Yuga|treta]]'' went, and when the ''[[Dvapara Yuga|dvapara]]'' came, there was a great rishi
called ''Bhunjaraja''.<br />
88,000 rishis lived here then, and dense ... and eighty-four ponds.<br />
They baked bricks to make solid ghats, and dug eight-four wells.<br />
Here and there they built handsome forts, at night they looked like stars
in the sky.<br />
They also put up several orchards with temples on top.<br />
<br />
Doha: They sat there doing tapas, all those human'' avataras''.They crossed this world doing ''homa'' and ''japa ''day and night.
| author = [[Malik Muhammad Jayasi|Jayasi]]
| source = Kanhavat, ed. Pathak (8), 7–8.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Orsini|2014|p=209}}</ref>
|right}}
The Awadhi romance Mirigāvatī (ca.1503) or "The Magic Doe", was written by Shaikh 'Qutban' Suhravardi, who was an expert and storyteller attached to the court-in-exile of Sultan Hussain Shah Sharqi of [[Jaunpur district|Jaunpur]].<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Kutban|2012|p=9}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Harvcoltxt|Saxena|1971|p=15}}</ref> Another romance named [[Madhumalati|Madhumālatī]] or "Night Flowering Jasmine" by poet Sayyid Manjhan Rajgiri was written in 1545 C.E.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Manjhan|2001|p=xi}} —"Manjhan's birthplace Rajgir is in the present-day state of Bihar, not far away from Patna in northern India, and the poem itself is written in Awadhi or eastern Hindavi".</ref>

[[Amir Khusrau]] (d. 1379 C.E) is also said to have written some compositions in Awadhi.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Jafri|first=Saiyid Zaheer Husain|date=2016|title=Sectional President's Address: 'MAKING' OF THE COMPOSITE CULTURE IN PRE-NAWABI AWADH|journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress|volume=77|page=148|issn=2249-1937|jstor=26552634}}</ref>

=== Modern India ===
The most significant contributions to the Awadhi literature in the modern period have come from writers like [[Ramai Kaka]] (1915–1982 C.E.), Balbhadra Prasad Dikshit better known as ‘Padhees’(1898–1943 C.E.) and Vanshidhar Shukla (1904–1980 C.E.).  

‘Krishnayan’ (1942 C.E.) is a major Awadhi epic-poem that Dwarka Prasad Mishra wrote in imprisonment during the [[Indian independence movement|Freedom Movement of India]]. In 2022 Dr. [[Vidya Vindu Singh]] has been awarded [[Padma Shri]] for her contribution in Awadhi literature.{{clear}}