1 Handout of the plenary lecture to be delivered at the Conference on India as a Linguistic Area: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysuru, 2025, April 11-12. Bharat as a literary area: an introduction to the contact and convergence of literature P Sreekumar Central University of Kerala Abstract: Through the contact of languages, the literature of languages is in consistent contact and convergence. This is a pioneering discussion on this phenomenon of literature in contact and convergence in Bharat, primarily based on Malayalam. Firstly, the sociolinguistic context of language contact in which literature comes into contact and convergence are presented. Further, Contact and convergence literature is defined, and contact and convergence literary studies is presented based on convergence literature in Malayalam. Based on this, Bharat is defined as a literary area, and the primary methodology of contact and convergence study of literature is also introduced. Content 1. Introduction 2. Context of literary contact 2.1. Multilingualism 2.1.1. Literary Multilingualism 2.1.1.1. Complete literary multilingualism 2.1.1.2. Partial literary multilingualism 2.1.1.3. Illiterate multilingualism 2.2. Absence of linguistic and cultural purity 2.3. Social dynamics 2.4. Lingua franca 2.5. Translation 3. Language contact of Malayalam 3.1. Multilingualism in Malayalam 3.1.1. Literary Multilingualism in Malayalam 3.1.1.1. Complete Literary Multilingualism in Malayalam 3.1.1.2. Partial Literary Multilingualism in Malayalam 3.1.2. Illiterate Bilingualism in Malayalam 3.2. Absence of Linguistic and Cultural Purity in Malayalam 3.3. Social Dynamics in Malayalam 3.4. Lingua Franca in Malayalam 3.5. Translation in Malayalam 4. Convergence literature in Malayalam 4.1. Convergence Classification 4.1.1. Convergence of Form 4.1.2. Convergence of content 4.1.3. Convergence of character 4.1.4. Convergence of Ideas 4.2. Character of Convergence 5. India as literary area 5.1. Methodology of contact and convergence literature 6. Summary References