Paragraph on “How did literature begin?” complete paragraph for Class 9, Class 10, Class 11 and Class 12

How did literature begin?

Literature was created for the amusement of the creator, or an audience, or to please man’s gods. Man has, from very early times, tried to satisfy his gods in order to obtain an abundance of things necessary for a good and happy life. So literature of prayer and praise is probably the oldest of all. Priests became responsible for remembering the proper literature to be used towards the gods. Also, since man has always been involved in fighting, the literature of war is an obvious area of early development, chief warriors singing battle-songs telling of past glories and heroes.

This early literature was composed in poetry form, not prose. People spoke in prose, as they do today, but for their literature they used poetry. This was essentially because poetry was easier to remember, but also because it was felt that words for ordinary day-to-day matters should not be used in exactly the same way for matters of high religious or tribal importance. So, for these, a `higher’ or more ornate and important-sounding, language was used — poetry.