Baal Sahitya ka Swaroop evam Samvardhan ke Aayam

Children’s literature is the child’s own expression and philosophy. A child, from birth itself, is endowed with divine qualities; attachment–hatred, discrimination, deceit, hypocrisy, etc., are never dear to him. Undoubtedly, a child is the pure creation of God. The revered Goswami Tulsidas Ji is of the view that the one who has a pure mind is most beloved to God. The ancient heritage of children’s literature—Panchatantra, Hitopadesha, Kathasaritsagara, Singhasan Battisi, etc.—may not appear explicitly in the form of independent children’s literature, but its fulfillment took place through these texts. The learned author of Panchatantra, and perhaps the first sage to pay attention to child psychology, Pandit Vishnu Sharma, composed the Panchatantra with the aim of imparting education through entertainment. In the introductory part of the stories in Hitopadesha, the author’s view is noteworthy: childhood is the right time for acquiring knowledge. Just as a line drawn on a new vessel does not easily get erased from it, in the same way the impressions that fall upon a person in childhood remain throughout life; they never disappear. The present research paper is a brief examination of the nature and development of children’s literature.