(i) India is a land where many languages are spoken. There are as many as 325 languages dialects spoken in India. For example, while Hindi is the main language in Uttar Pradesh, the people of this state speak in as many as eighty five dialects which are regional variations of Hindi.

(ii) Our literature is both religious as well as non-religious in content, dealing with themes from the life of the people or the court.

(iii) The Vedas written in Sanskrit form a part of our religious literature while texts like the Mrichakatika literally the story of the Toy Cart of Shudraka deal with worldly themes.

(iv) A rich range of regional variations exists especially in the re-telling of our major epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

(v) Valmiki wrote the Ramayana known as the 'Adi Kavya' in Sanskrit. Tulsidas wrote the Hindi version which is popularly known as Ramcharitamanas.

(vi) The court poet of the Cholas called Kamban wrote the Ramayana in Tamil while the popular folk version of the Ramayana in Telugu was written by a peasant woman called Molla.

(vii) Even the style of writing the text is influenced by the social situation of the writer. For example while Kamban uses the language and imagery of the elite ruling class Molla writes like a peasant woman and in describing the sunset she says that the sun went down the sky like a worker tired after the day's labours.