Nepali literature

Nepali Literature  refers to the literature of Nepal written in the Nepali language. The Nepali language has been the national language of Nepal since 1958. The Nepali language has also been recognized as a 'major Indian literary language' by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters.The Nepali language evolved from Sanskrit and it is difficult to exactly date the history of Nepali literature since most early scholars wrote in Sanskrit. It is however possible to roughly divide Nepali literature into five periods.

Pre-Bhanubhakta Era 

It is thought that Nepali literature has existed in verbal folklore for the past hundreds of years; however there exists no evidence of a written literary work before the Bhanubhakta. Before Bhanubhakta, writing was done in Sanskrit, and because it was a language accessible by high-caste Brahmins only at that time, many Nepali people were not involved in literature. A few scholars have argued that poet Suwananda Daas was the first literary figure in the history of Modern Nepal. Motiram Bhatta (1923–1953) revived the legacy of Bhanubhakta and publicized the contributions of the latter. Motiram played such a fundamental role in the legacy of Bhanubhakta that some allege that Bhanubhakta was just a fabrication of Motiram's mind.