A tiny fragment of the Indian population was literate in medieval times. But a large portion knew poetry, composed poetry and transmitted poetry. These poems are thus major cultural outputs.

Education in India underwent a major transformation in the nineteenth century during British rule, particularly after the intervention of Thomas Babington Macaulay in 1835.

Stories shape culture. The Mangal Kavyas is one such example. They are folk narratives that emerged in Bengal between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries.