examine the language-religion interface in the medieval period of India. Write in about 150 words.

With the medieval period came a major shift in the language-religion interface in India. Till then, all the major religions were usually expressed in their single language, Sanskrit was the language of Hinduism, Ardhamagadhi of Jainism and Pali of Buddhism. Each of these languages had the power to completely express their respective religions. However, in the medieval period, mystics and saints from various parts of the country, started arguing for the legitimacy of vernacular languages for the expression of religion, challenging the hegemony of classical religious languages. They started writing their religious poetries in vernacular languages specific to their regions, like Tamil, Marathi, Awadhi, Rajasthani, etc. These saints were the reformists who on one hand liberated religion and religious practices from the hold of single classical languages, often the possession of the elite; also raised the status of vernacular languages in the context of religious conduct, opening the access to religion for the masses.With this even the scriptures were made accessible to the masses in the language they spoke. For example: Jain scriptures were translated into Kannada and Hindi. The impetus for the translation of religious texts into vernacular languages came from many reasons – a) in order to make them accessible for the common masses who usually were not literate in the classical languages, which were used mostly by the elites of their respective religion, like: Brahmins within Hinduism could receive a formal training in Sanskrit, whereas the lower castes were devoid of it; b) the Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries had started escalating their activities in India of converting the local population into Christianity. Thus, converting the canonical religious texts into the language of the masses became a pressing need.

Hello candidate,

India is the land of a variety of languages and different States, where each of the States have their own language and local languages.

In the medival period, there were various princely states and kingdoms such as the Rajputs of Rajasthan speaking Mewari language, Marathas of Maharashtra spoke Marathi language, Nawabs of Bengal spoke Bengali language, and such as different regions spoke their own language.

Hope it helps you!!