The cultural, political and historical map of Indian during the 11th century is vastly different from the contemporary 20th century, with India playing host to foreign invasions, military conquests, changes in weaponry and mode of warfare, changing conventions of socio-economic inert-relations and of course, the birth, growth and development of all the modern Indian languages and literatures written in them. The Middle Ages in India were an incessant period of perpetual flux and fluctuation. Ordinary life during medieval period was far rosy from as is assumed now, and even more far from literature; on the contrary, life was exceedingly complex, undergoing fast changes. The continuous influx of migratory population brought with it different beliefs, customs, practices and life-styles, turning major portions of India into an ablaze pot. The spread of philosophical movements or the sublime popularity of these genres, cultivated innate resources and responses to external forces were bettered to be prepared for the worse. The end result to this period a vibrant kaleidoscope of language and literature, that absolutely mirrored and reflected upon these themes of competition between two dominant religions: Hinduism and Islam. Medieval Indian literature wholly banked upon these themes, creating its own distinctive history in the long run.

Medieval period was also recognised by umpteen social movements, which out-and-out assayed to contest the prevailing orthodoxy and dogmatism, that was propagated by the so-called keepers of both Hindu and Muslim religions. These reformist movements accomplished heavy-weight mass support and were in totality clubbed under the idiom `Bhakti Movement.` The key players of the Bhakti Movement were Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikh religion, Kabir and numerous Sufi saints. They together echoed religious harmony and ostracised intolerance, Casteism and pomposity. These reformers, armed with their writings, verses or oral preachings, played a sizeable role in bridging the emotional chasm between practitioners of two predominant religions of India of that age. This aided in the essential pluralistic trait of India to re-emerge in the historical perspective, all of which were once again mirrored in the striking medieval Indian literatures.

Though orthodoxy ruled in medieval India and consequently trammeled the process of learning and hence scientific and academic pursuits to some extent, yet, medieval Indian literature bears its very first proof in authoritative biographies written. Baburnama by Mughal Emperor Babur himself, depicts Hindustan with grand prose, though with a rather distorted view. Ain-i-Akbari and Akbarnama by Abul Fazal are some of the only other instances of the vast body of biographies mothered during the Mughal era. Furthermore, the verses of the Sufi saints and other saint poets of the Bhakti movement in medieval India, produced a literature for the first time, which was `sensitive to the aspirations of the masses`. Numerous regional languages like Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Bengali, etc., also achieved their distinguishing identities during the Mughal era, which in later eras, helped to generate a vast body of classic regional literature.

After a brief period of pre-literary authorships like inscriptions and official documents of a factual disposition, the new languages which entered into a stage of full-fledged development started translating, adapting and trans-creating literary works from ancient languages like Sanskrit. One of the features of early medieval Indian literature is several of these languages is the revitalisation which constitutes intrinsically a re-creation of the classics of ancient Indian literature. Epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata received a rebirth in these newly formulated languages. Other ancient works like Panchatantra and numerous other Puranas and myths, came to be retold. Creating an inter-relation between these classics and modern languages, the authors like Kampan in Tamil, Krittivas Ojha in Bengali, Sarala Das in Oriya, Ezhuttacchan in Malayalam, Tulsi Das in Hindi and Nannaya in Telugu, stood out for the common mass. As a substantial piece of information, this phase of medieval Indian literature provides a parallel to the literature of the Renaissance in Europe in the 15th-16th century, when the Graeco-Roman classics were retold and re-interpreted in a cotemporary expression.

Geography was yet another significant factor in the evolution of these medieval Indian literatures. The migratory nature of population in the early centuries were substituted by more or less settled living, and the reactions to the objects of nature, landscapes, seasons, flora and fauna have a lot to do with the conditioning of Indian literature during Middle Ages. The vocabulary and imagery of the writers were immensely influenced by the geographical location of the community to which the writer belonged, as is evidenced by the language and style of early Manipuri writers, as an example. The rivers of India were greatly celebrated in medieval Indian literature, be it Brahmaputra, Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Kaveri or Sutlej. Apart from apparent and explicit references, there were subtle ways in which nature penetrated into literary works. The hills of Manipur, the rivers of Upper India, the desert of Rajasthan, the panorama of Konkan and Kerala, the snow-topped peaks of Kashmir - all of these have furnished staple poetic themes for medieval literature.

The regional grouping of literatures on the basis of ethnic similarity or geographical proximity or through mutual give-and-take is yet another feature established in medieval Indian literature. Both thematic and stylistic aspects had aided to form this proximity. Assamese, Bengali and Oriya manifest this; Assamese, Bengali and Maithili too, or even Gujarati, Hindi and Rajasthani. It is also noticed that at times the same writers made use of differentl languages. Tamil and Malayalam form another sub-group in this manner; Kannada and Telugu are the last to join this group. Even more unique in medieval Indian literature was the fact that these features were not merely superficial, they hint to deeper, underlying, complex aesthetic preferences and preconceptions. The multiple versions of the Heer-Ranjha story in Punjabi, of Sassi and Punnu in Sindhi, of Radha and Krishna in Oriya or Hindi or Sanskrit, of man and God in Sufi poetry in Kashmiri, Punjabi or Urdu, are materialisations of continuous give-and-take between groups of speakers of these languages.

Yet another significant feature in medieval Indian literature is the complete disappearance of women writers related to a work on a massive scale - long epics or full-scale drama. Yet the mystical thought of Lal Dyad, the devotional commitment of Mira Bai, the metaphysical reach of Avvayyar, the spirit of dedication of Akkamahadevi and the crystalline sadness of Habba Khatoon are among the high points of medieval Indian poetry.

Several of the medieval Indian literature and their earliest works in many of the various regional languages were sectarian, designed to advance or to celebrate particular unorthodox regional beliefs. Illustrations are the Caryapadas in Bengali, Tantric verses of the 12th century and the Lilacaritra (circa 1280), in Marathi. In Kannada (Kanarese) from the 10th century and later in Gujarati from the 13th century, the first strictly indigenous works comprise Jain romances. Ostensibly portraying the lives of Jain saints, these are actually popular tales based on Sanskrit and Pali themes. Other examples in medieval Indian literature include in Rajasthani, relating about the bardic tales of chivalry and heroic resistance to the first Muslim invasions, such as the 12th century epic poem Prithirajaraso by Chand Bardai of Lahore. Most important of all, for later medieval Indian literature, were the first tinctures in the vernacular languages of the northern Indian cults of Krishna and Rama. Included in this phase are the 12th century poems by Jayadeva, named the Gitagovinda (The Cowherd`s Song). and approximately 1400, a group of religious love poems written in Maithili (eastern Hindi of Bihar) by the poet Vidyapati were a decisive influence on the cult of Radha-Krishna in Bengal.

During the same period, the pathbreaking Bhakti Movement founded in South India was led by 63 nayanars (devotees of Shiva) and 12 Alvars (devotees of Vishnu). The most famous shaiva bhakta cults were the 4 Nalvar, namely - Snndarar, Appar, Sambandarand Manikkavasagar. Their devotional hymns, intrinsically linked with medieval Indian literature, are known to be doused in complete ecstasy and lyrics. The hymns of the 12 Alvars are held together as the Nalayira Divya Prabandham and chanted in temple rituals. Chief amongst them however is Andal, the only female Vaishnava saint and her hymns express the bridal mysticism in Hindu religion.

The path of devotion ushered by these mystics would later go on to influence Ramanuja and Madhavacharya philosophy. The Virashaiva Movement was incidental to spread the philosophy of Basavanna. Even the Haridasa Movement circularised from present day Karnataka had presented themselves in two groups - Vyasakuta (proficient in Vedas, Upanishads and Darshans) and Dasakuta (sect who conveyed the message of Madhavacharya through local Kannada language). Medieval Indian literature, however it had been influenced, was ultimately pivoted around this Bhakti Movement and its various unusual first-time revolutions by revolutionists. The Bhakti movement also resulted in a proliferation of Kannada poetic works in praise of Vishnu. Eminent poets in this category comprise Purandara Dasa and Kanaka Dasa, whose contributions to Carnatic music were invaluable and still irreplaceable.

The spread of Bhakti Movement in North India was spontaneous and was centred around Lords Rama and Krishna. However, all forms of Bhakti Movement, both for the Muslims and Hindus, peacefully coexisted and were immeasurably popular with the masses. The period within 14th - 17th century A.D. witnessed the wave of Bhakti Movement sweeping across North India and teachers of this movement were saints like Vallabhacharya, Mira Bai, Kabir, Tulsidas, Tukaram and various other unknown entities, lost with the gradually accumulating sands of time. All of these personas were substantial to amplify the scope of medieval Indian literature, who penned in vernacular prose and poetry in the ethnic language of the state, employing simple language to express their devotional ecstasy and rapturous transformation.

Even seminal works in the regional languages on the theme of Bhakti are explored in Shyama Sangeet in Bengal, which were composed by Ram Prasad Sen and are still considered an integral part of Bengali culture. Dedicated to Goddess Kali, they medieval Indian literary outbursts are defined as allegorical mediums of spontaneous expressions. It is alleged that Ram Prasad Sen use to held one-on-one dialogues with the Mother Goddess Kali through his poetry. Another Bengali leader in Bhakti movement was Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who defined his system of philosophy as "achintya bheda bhed" (inconceivable and simultaneous oneness and difference). Chaitanya`s philosophy presently is taught globally at the Hare Krishna movement.

As a final closing feature to medieval Indian literature, perhaps is the most contemporary and ahead of times aspect of love and war. Conflicts and tensions of all kinds dominated the atmosphere in umpteen medieval literatures in India. Love, not only the love of God or of fellowmen, but love in the domestic scenario, more precisely, the lover-and-beloved relationship. This was the staple theme in ghazals and mathnavis, in kirtans and padas, in tirhutis and abhangas. Some of the great romances from foreign sources as well as native sources came to be retold again and again in several languages. Apart from the old wars recounted in epics and puranas, war as an aspect of `contemporary experience` also aroused the imagination of the medieval poet. The heroic sentiment is especially strong in Punjabi, Rajasthani, Tamil and Marathi literatures. In matters of love, the failure of love was as much a source of inspiration as the triumph of love. There exists an implicit glorification of the tragic in all the folk narratives on Heer-Ranjha or Sassi-Punnu or Yusuf-Zulaikha legends.