Indian Literature: Sanskrit, Persian and regional literature

The Dasbodh of Samarth Ramdas (17th century) gives advice on devotion to Rama, self-discipline, effort and worldly conduct in the form of a guru–shishya dialogue. Ramdas founded the Samartha sampradaya and many maths, and tradition links him with Shivaji. Jnaneshwar wrote the Jnaneshwari, Eknath the Eknathi Bhagavat and Bhavartha Ramayana, and Tukaram is known for his abhangs.

Babur wrote his memoirs, the Baburnama (Tuzuk-i-Baburi), in his mother tongue, Chaghatai Turkish (Turki). They were translated into Persian under Akbar by Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khanan in 1589. The Akbarnama of Abul Fazl, Jahangir's own memoir (Tuzuk-i- Jahangiri) and Lahori's Padshahnama on Shah Jahan's reign were written in Persian, the language of the Mughal court.

Krittibas Ojha (15th century) retold the Ramayana in Bengali verse (Shri Rama Panchali), the most popular Bengali Ramayana. Krishnadasa Kaviraj's Chaitanya Charitamrita (late 16th–early 17th century) is the authoritative Bengali biography and theology of Chaitanya. The Mangalkavyas are Bengali narrative poems in praise of popular deities such as Manasa (the snake goddess), Chandi and Dharma — devotional village epics, not Persian chronicles.

Ziauddin Barani wrote a Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi (completed under Firuz Tughlaq; Shams-i-Siraj Afif wrote another work of that name). Gulbadan Begum, Babur's daughter, wrote the Humayun-nama at Akbar's request. The Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh is by Abdul Qadir Badauni, a critic of Akbar's religious policy — Abul Fazl wrote the official Akbarnama. Minhaj- us-Siraj wrote the Tabaqat-i-Nasiri for Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud.

Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth Guru, compiled the Adi Granth with Bhai Gurdas as scribe and installed it at the Harmandir Sahib, Amritsar, in 1604. Besides the Gurus' hymns it contains the bani of bhagats from varied backgrounds — Kabir, Namdev, Ravidas, the Sufi Sheikh Farid and others — written in the Gurmukhi script. Guru Gobind Singh added his father Guru Tegh Bahadur's hymns (the Damdama recension) and, before his death in 1708, vested Guruship in the Granth. All three statements are correct.

Amir Khusrau (1253–1325), disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya, served several Delhi sultans. His Khazain-ul-Futuh ('Treasures of Victories'), also called Tarikh-i-Alai, is an ornate Persian prose account of Alauddin Khalji's reign and conquests, including the southern campaigns. Qiran-us-Sadain describes the meeting of Bughra Khan and his son Kaiqubad; the Nuh Sipihr ('Nine Skies') praises India, its people and its languages under Mubarak Shah Khalji; the Tughlaq Nama narrates Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq's rise.

The premakhyan (Sufi romance) tradition — Qutuban's Mrigavati, Manjhan's Madhumalati and Jayasi's Padmavat (1540) — uses a quest for a beloved as an allegory of the seeker's path to the divine. Bulleh Shah (18th century), a Qadiri Sufi of Kasur, wrote Punjabi kafis mocking ritualism. Waris Shah's Heer (1766) is the classic Punjabi version of the Heer– Ranjha legend; it is in Punjabi, not Persian, which is why it became a folk text recited across Punjab.

Sanskrit tradition groups the court epics into two triads. The Brihattrayi comprises Bharavi's Kiratarjuniya (Arjuna's encounter with Shiva as a hunter), Magha's Shishupalavadha (Krishna's slaying of Shishupala) and Shriharsha's Naishadhiyacharita (the story of Nala and Damayanti). Kalidasa's Raghuvamsha and Kumarasambhava, with the Meghaduta, form the Laghutrayi ('lesser three'), a label of length and difficulty for students, not of quality.