Historical writing on Ancient India
Earliest Writings on India:
The earliest works like the Epics and Puranas have little connection with
history and even the later works like those of Kalhana or Bilhana abound in
poetic imagination. Thus it indicate that India has no history which can be
compared with that of Greece or Rome nor historians of the caliber of
Herodotus
Still India was known for long to the rest of the world through the
references made by the merchants, missionaries and ambassadors who
came here from different parts of the world e.g. those of Sir Thomas Roe,
Francois Bernier and so on
Important writings and approaches:
1) The Orientalists writings
2) The Utilitarian writings
3) The Evangelical writings
4) The Imperialist writings
5) The German and French writings
6) The nationalist writings
7) The writings of the post independence period
1)The Orientalist writings:
The scholars of the 18th century generally were called the
orientalists or Indologists.
The increased administrative requirements of the East India
Company made it administrators and others to show keen interest
in Indian literature, customs, laws and culture.
Charles Wilkins, WilliamJones, H.T Colebrooke and H.H Wison
belonged to this group called Orientalist or Indologists. They not
only codified the laws but also studied classical Sanskrit literature,
religion and philosophy.
The Asiatic society of Bengal set up in 1784, the Bombay Asiatic
Society in 1804 and the Asiatic society of Great Britain in 1823
provided a stimulus to the study of India’s past .
Even the interest aroused in the study of India’s past spread to
the universities of Europe.
A few scholars including Prof. Max Muller did commendable work
on Sanskrit literature others related without even visiting India.
The orientalists discovered an affinity between Sanskrit and some
of the European languages and consequently established a
common Indo- European heritage.
A major contribution of the orientalists were the translation of
ancient Indian literary and philosophical works like Manu
Dharmashastra,Bhagavadgitha, Shakuntala and Hitopadesha into
English.
Orientalists also spoke much about “ the unchanging the Indian
villages and communities” as the natural background for the
Indians being truthful, gentle and of metaphysical disposition.
It is to be admitted that 18 century scholars relied more on
pundits for source materials and due to this reason the works of
orientalists became less analytical and critical
2) The Utilitarian writings:
James Mill who belonged to this group published his book in
1817 titled “ History of British India” in three major sections :
Hindu, Muslim and British periods.
By these divisions Mill sowed the seeds of communal
historiography unknowingly and it is more than that the same
divisions became the much accepted time-based frame work for
the study of Indian history till the modern period
In the three major sections of this book James Mill upheld the
unchangeableness of the Indian society from the arrival of the
Aryans to that of the British .
3) The Evangelical writings
The writings like those of those of Charles Grants maintained
that pre-British period India was essentially backward and
attributed this backwardness to Hindu religion and advocated
Christianity as the way to progress.
One can see this trace of the Anglicist bias of Charles Grant in
the famous ‘ Minute of Indian Education(1835) by Thomas
Babington Macaulay.
The rise of despotic rulers, frequent conquests and the
consequent continuous subjugation became the theme of the
writings of the late 19th and 20th centuries.
Most of the historians of this period were administrators and
their common argument was that the British administration
facilitated the progress of the Indian society for the better.
Mill’s periodization of Indian history was further strengthened
by the writings of Christian Lessen in the mid 19th century.
Lassen called the three phases in Indian history-the
Hindu,Muslim and Christian civilizations following Hegel’s
identification of the Geek, Roman, Roman and Christian
civilization in Europe.
3)The imperialist writings;
The most popular writer among the British administrators was
Vincent Smith.
He came to India as a civil servant in 1869 and retired in 1900.
The important books of Vincent Smith are 1) Early history of India(
1904) and 2) Oxford History of India (1919)
In his writing the emphasis is more on heroes and empire and it is
noticeable
That is why, the rule of Ashoka, Samundragupta and
Chandragupta II are depicted as the glorious while small rulers of
smaller kingdoms are treated as dark ages.
The more important aspects is that unchangeable society loses its
significance in Smiths’s perception of Indian society.
What is more glaring in Smith’s writings is an attempt to provide a
historical justification for the exploitative British rule in India.
British scholars claim to have begun the writings on ancient Indian
history based on literary sources and they are also credited with
the beginning of archeology in India.
The decipherment of the Brahmi script in 1837 by James Princep,
the systematic study of monuments by Alexander Cunningham
and the study of numismatics gave a new dimension to the study
of ancient Indian history.
The emphasis in study was still on writing the political and
dynastic history of India despite the diversified study of sources.
5) The German and French writings:
The writers of this group looked at the ideological base of Indian
society as different from that of egalitarian order of contemporary
Europe.
Generally these writers were sympathetic to the early Indian
traditions e.g. the writings of Auguste Comte, Max Webber and
Louis Dumont.
6) The Nationalist writings:
The early Indian writings did not a new perception. on Indian
history and their writings were narratives of dynastic and political
history.
Scholars of 1920’s and 1930’s began to challenge the British
views on ancient Indian history under the influence of the Indian
reformist leaders, the writings ofH.C Rayachaudari, R.C
Majumbdar, R.K Mookerjee and H.C Ojha.
They glorified the ancient Indian past in their writings and
maintained that the ancient Indian society was comparatively
unchanging over the period from 1000 B.C to 1000 A.D but then it
was prosperous and culturally superior to that of western
civilization.
Scholar like R.K. Mookerjee refuted the imperialist views that the
Indians were devoid of nationalism and upheld that the
Chandragupta Mauraya’s fight the against the Geeks was inspired
by nationalism.
Some of the views of the nationalists, like the glorification
Ashoka’s policy of non- violence, comparison of Samudragupta
with Napoleon, description of the rule of Guptas as the golden
age of Indian history were accepted for long time but are now
subjected to criticism .
K.P Jayaswal explained in his ‘Hindu Polity’ that ancient India
republics based on democratic and representative government
were similar to Greek political institutions.
The explanation of K.P.Jayaswal came as an answer to Smiths’s
biased attempt to exaggerate the impact of Geece on India.
Similarly A.K Kumaraswami attacked the superiority of Greek art
in his “History of Indian and Indonesian Art” (London,1927) and “
“The Dance of Shiva” ( New York, 1928) by upholding the spiritual
side of Indian art in contrast to the physical beauty of Greek art.
The discovery and interpretation of Kautilya’s Arthashastra in
1905 not only removed the suspicion about the political
disinterestedness of the ancient Indians in political matters and
institutions but also parallels of the political institutions of Europe
in ancient India e.g. the mantriparishad ( council of ministers)
mentioned in the Arthashastra with the privy council of Britain,
the concept of Kautilyan kingship with its constitutional
monarchy.
Glorification of the past and a trend of self-analysis:
Some of the Indian scholars such as Rajendra Lal
Mitra,Ramakrishan Gopal Bhandarkar and Vishwanath Kasinath
Rajwade adopted a rational attitude to the past in their writings.
They attacked the social evils of the Indian society on the basis of
the ancient Indian texts.
The controversies and debates that aroused in the nationalist
writings led to the study of social and economic history and
there was also a shift of focus from the royal class to the common
masses- peasants, labourers, women, tribal etc.
The position of women in Ancient India by A.S .Altekar, ‘ Origin
and Growth of Caste in India by N.K Datta, ‘ The Agrarian System
in Ancient India by U.N.Ghosal, ‘History of Dharmashastra’ by P.V
Kane etc. were some of the notable works of this type..
The study of the different aspects paved the way for the
compartmentalization of history like political ,social,
economic ,religious, art, literature etc.
No deviation from Mill’s periodization of history :
However, more important point in these nationalist writings is to
be remembered that there was no deviation from Mill’s
periodization of history.
In the late 1930’s and 1940’s a form of militant Hinduism
generated by the waves of communalism also influenced the
study of ancient and medieval Indian history .
The ancient period continued to be Hindu culture.
The theory of ‘Greater India “or Expansion of Indian culture,
particularly in south Asia was popularized. This pride in the past
an inevitable offshoot of nationalism flows as an undercurrent in
the ‘History and culture of the Indian people series edited by
R.C.Majumdar and published by the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.
Thus, indirectly the nationalist writing provided an ideological
basis to the freedom.
Development of Regional and local history:
The nationalist writings also developed an interest in the regional
and local history and consequently regional studies were
undertaken.
R.C.Majumdar’s, ‘ The early history of Bengal’, A.S Altekar’s, ‘ The
Rashtrakutas and their times’, V.R.R. Dikshitar’s, ‘ Studies in
Tamil literature and history, ‘Nilakanta Shastri’s, A history of
south India,’ and ‘ The Cholas and ‘The Pandyan kingdom are
some such works on regional history. Apart from these study
became very significant for throwing light on the cultural
diversities of different regions of the subcontinent.
7 The writings of the Post-Independence period:
Systematic study and a departure from the traditional history:
The important development of the post independence period
was the systematic study of social organizations, political and
economic institutions.
It was marked by a departure from the traditional political-
dynastic history and was based on a critical analysis of the
primary sources, literary, archeological and anthropological
evidence.
There was vast field work and material remains like
pottery ,implements, bones, bricks, grains etc. became the
sources of history.
Some of the historian particularly, Domodar Dharmanand
Kosambi, a mathematician used the Marian model while other
historians adopted the perspective of history as a social
science discipline .
Kosambi’s, ‘Introduction to the study of Indian history(1957)
and ‘Culture and Civilization of ancient Indian in Historical
Outline’ (1965), analyse and explain ancient Indian history in
Marxian terms ,i .e. the history of society, economy and
culture was an integral part of the development of the forces.
Hence medievalism need not be identified with the advent of
Islam but with the end of Gupta rule towards the end of the
6th C.A.D. when there arose many feudal principalities.
The decrease in the volume of trade in the post Gupta period
led to a relatively closed village economy and emergence of a
feudal agrarian set up with serfdom at the bottom and it also
led to the growth of regional cultural units which developed
their own languages, art and architecture.
Thus Kosambi considers the end of the 6th century and the
beginning of the 7th century as the watershed between the
ancient and medieval period.
Therefore Kosambi’s works contributed a new dimension to
the methodology of Ancient Indian history and a new oulook.
R.S Sharma’s ,Aspects of political ideas and institutions in
ancient India’, Sudras in Ancient India’, ‘Indian Feudalism’,
‘Material Culture and Social Formation in Ancient India,’ and
‘Urban decay’ throw light on the unknown quarters like fall of
Roman trade its impact on Indian society, ‘rise of feudalism,
decline of urban centres.
Romila Thapar’s, the first woman historian, ‘Ashoka and
decline of the Mauryas’ explains Ashoka’s dharma as a code of
moral rules which he used to control the diversified people
of that time.
In her ’ lineage to State’ she maintains that the spread of
urban centers and material culture led to the formation of
states in ancient India.
The other prominent works of Romila Thapar are ‘ History of
India’ and ‘Ancient Indian Social History’.
Changing approaches to Indian history
Carbon-14 ( New trends in methodology):
The different phases of the Palaeolithic, Neolithic and Chalcolithic
are traced with archeology and anthropology gaining ground as
the main sources of information.
Studies on iron age and iron technology are undertaken
The Carbon-14 analysis is used to fix the ages of different remains.
It is based on the fact that a special radioactive variety of carbon,
called carbon-14 is present in every organic substance in a
constant proportion to ordinary carbon -12.
After the death of the tissue, the carbon-14 gradually
degenerates, at a rate of 50 % in 5500 years while carbon 12
remains unaltered.
Consequently, the proportion of carbon-14 to 12 furnishes an
indication of the antiquity of an substance of the organic origin.
Dr. Libby of Chicago invented this method
In India , carbon dating are done at the Tata Institute of
Fundamental research, Bombay
Here ,the measurement is based on the half value of c-14 -5770
years.
The link between the Roman trade and the growth of south Indian
kingdoms has been established by the study of archeological
sources, coins ,Greek –Roman writings.
The material remains- the pottery especially the northern black
polished ware- helped the study of trade and commerce in pre-
Mauryan and Mauryan periods i.e. from 5th to 3rd century B.C.
Thus there has been a welcome change in the methodology of the
study of ancient Indian history.
The different methods adopted have enriched the historiography.
