literature p li canon medieval period literature kannada telugu appeared th th centuries respectively later literature marathi gujarati assamese odia bengali maithili appeared thereafter literature various dialects hindi persian urdu began appear well bengali poet rabindranath tagore became india 's first nobel laureate literature contemporary indian literature two major literary awards sahitya akademi fellowship gyanpith award eight gyanpith awards awarded hindi kannada followed five bengali malayalam four
Humanities Languages and literature Indian Literature