POINTS TO REMEMBER

. Charcoal, because of its high content of carbon, is the most common material utilised for
radiocarbon dating.
. The study of coins is called numismatics.
. Ancient coins were made of copper, silver, gold or lead. . The Guptas issued the largest number
of gold coins. . Most of the Mauryan, post-Mauryan and Gupta inscriptions have been published
in a series of collections called Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum.
. The earliest inscriptions are found on the seals of Harappa belonging to about 2500 BC, but the
earliest inscriptions deciphered so far were issued by Asoka.
. Firuz Shah Tughlaq found Asokan inscription in Meerut and Topra (Haryana).
. Mahabharata possibly reflects the state of affairs from the tenth century BC to the fourth
century AD.
. Kautilya's Arthashastra is divided into 15 books. It provides rich material for the study of
ancient Indian polity and economy.
. The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea (in Greek), by an unknown author, Ptolemy's Geography (in
Greek) and Pliny's Naturalis Historical (in Latin) provide valuable data for the study of ancient
geography and commerce.
. Manusmriti was translated into English and was called 'A Code of Gentoo Law'. Williams Jones
translated Abhijnanasha-kuntalam into English in 1789. Wilkins translated the Bhagavad Gita
into English in 1785.
F. Max Mueller, a German scholar, provided the greatest push to Indological studies.
. History of the Dhilrmasastra was written by Pandurang Varman Kane.
. AI-Beruni's Kitab-ul-Hind is considered the finest foreign account of medieval India.
. Minhaj-us-Siraj's Tabaqat-i-Nasiri gives useful information regarding the slave dynasty of
Delhi, while Zia-uddin Barani's Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi gives the history of the first six years of
Firuz Shah Tughlaq's reign.
. The reigns of Bengal Sultans, especially of the 14th to 16th centuries, have been explained
solely on the basis of epigraphic sources (inscriptions).

PERIODISATION

In a strictly logical view, the history of any country is an indivisible unity in which ideas, events,
and personalities act and react on one another, often in an obscure and intangible manner. But
such complex wholes do not lend themselves to clear exposition or convenient study until they
are broken up into manageable units, and this process is bound to be somewhat arbitrary and
conventional. Indian history is broadly divided into ancient, medieval and modem periods.
However, there are further divisions of these periods.
Man lived through scores of centuries in India as elsewhere before recorded history begins. And
though the Indus Valley Civilisation has yielded some hundreds of pictographs, particularly on
seals, they have not yet been deciphered, and therefore historians generally include that
civilisation also in pre-history or, better, proto-history. Though that civilisation may be shown to
have contributed History of India some notable elements to the historic civilisation of India, the
continuous history of the country is seen as beginning mainly after the settlement of the Aryans
around 1500 Be. The Aryanisation of the Deccan and the Far South must be put much later.
The period 1500-1000 BC is called the early Vedic period, the details of which we get from the
Rigveda. Then starts the later Vedic period (Circa 1000-600 BC) in which the rest of the three
Vedas (Sama, Yajur and Atharva), the Brahmanas, the Aranyakas, the Upanishads, etc. were composed. Around 600 BC starts the Buddha period or the period of Mahajanapadas when small
kingdoms appeared, and this continued till the establishment of the Mauryan empire (322 BC).
The Mauryan period (322 BC-185 BC) was followed by the period of foreign invasions (Greeks,
Shakas, Pahlavas, Kushanas, etc.). This period is mainly known for the Shaka, Kushana and
Satavahana rules. The following period is known as the Gupta period (320 AD-6oo AD). In the
post-Gupta period (600-1206 AD) there appeared and disappeared numerous dynasties including
those of the Rajputs, Palas, Pratiharas, Rashtrakutas, and Senas, among others.
It is d 'Sp led whether the medieval period began with the establis ent of Muslim rule in India.
Many scholars believe th certain characteristics of the medieval period, e.g., feudalism, appeared
towards the end of the Gupta period.
The period in which India had Muslim rulers can be broadly divided into the Delhi Sultanate
(AD 1206-1526) and the Mughal period (AD 1526-1857). But there is overlapping between the
medieval period a..'ld the modem period. By the time of the Battle of Plassey (AD 1757),
Mughal rule had almost decayed, and towards the end of t};le 18th century modem education,
and modem political and socio-economic ideas had begun to percolate into the country. The
period AD 1857-61 is significant in that British paramountcy came to be clearly established.
British rule in India came to an end on August 15, 1947, and with that ends our concern for
periodisation.

CHANGING TRENDS IN HISTORICAL WRITINGS

Ancient Indians, it is generally held, lacked historical sense. Of course, they did not write

'history' in the manner it is done today, or in the way the Greeks did. But on closer examination,
we do find some sort of historical sense amongst the ancient Indians. Though encyclopaedic in
content, the Puranas provide dynastic history up to the beginning of the Gupta rule. They
mention the places where events took place and sometimes discuss their causes and effects. The
authors of the Puranas were not unaware of the idea of change, which is the essence of history.
The Puranas speak of four ages called krita, treta, dvapara and kali. The importance of time, a
vital element in history, is indicated. Several eras, according to which events were recorded, were
started in ancient India. The Vikrama Samvat began in 58 BC, the Shaka Samvat in AD 78, and
the Gupta era in AD 319.
Inscriptions record events in the context of time and place. During the third century Be, Asokan
inscriptions record events of his reign. Similarly, in the first century BC, Kharavela of Kalinga
records a good many events of his life, year-wise, in the Hathigumpha inscription.
Indians display considerable historical sense in biographical writings, though these are fraught
with eulogies and exaggerations. Banabhatta's Harshacharita is a typical example. Sandyakara
Nandi's Ramcharita (twelfth century AD) narrates the story of the conflict between the Kaivarta
peasants and the Pala prince, Ramapala, resulting in the latter's victory. The Mushika Vamsa,
written by Atula in the eleventh century, gives an account of the dynasty of the Mushikas which
ruled in northern Kerala.
Although educated Indians retained their traditional history in the form of handwritten epics,
Puranas and semibiographical works, modem research in the history of ancient India started in
the second half of the eighteenth century, partially because of the natural interest of the British
and other Western scholars and partially because of the needs of the colonial administration.
In the wake of the 1857 Revolt, it was strongly realised by British rulers that they needed a deep
knowledge of the manners and social systems of an alien people over whom they had to rule.
Similarly, the Christian missionaries wanted to find out the vulnerable points in the Hindu
religion to win converts and strengthen the British empire. To meet these needs, the ancient
scriptures were translated on a massive scale under the editorship of Max Mueller. Altogether
fifty volumes, some in seven parts, were published under the Sacred Books of the East series.
Although a few Chinese and Iranian texts were included, the ancient Indian texts predominated
in the series.
In the introductions to these volumes and the books based on them, Max Mueller and other
Western scholars made certain generalisations about the nature of ancient Indian history and
society. They stated that the ancient Indians lacked a sense of history, especially the factor of
time and chronology, and were accustomed to despotic rule. The 'natives', it was opined, were
engrossed in the problems of spiritualism or of the next world, and were least bothered about the
problems of this world. The caste system was considered to be the most vicious form of social
discrimination. The Western scholars stressed that the Indians had neither experienced feelings of
nationhood nor any kind of self-government.
Many of these generalisations appeared in the Early History of India by VA Smith (1843-1920),
who prepared the first systematic history of ancient India in 1904. Smith's approach to history

was pro-imperialist: he emphasised the role of foreigners in ancient India. Alexander's invasion
accounted for almost one-third of his book. India was presented as a land of despotism which did
not experience political unity until the establishment of British rule.
In sum, British interpretations of Indian history served to denigrate Indian characters and
achievements, and to justify the colonial rule. Indian scholars who received Western education
were irked by colonialist distortions of their past even as 'they were distressed by the contrast
between the decaying feudal society of India and the progressive capitalist society of England.
Many, therefore, started writing ancient Indian history in a nationalist tone, advocating social
reform and self-government. There were others who adopted a rationalist and Objective
approach.
To the rationalist category belongs Rajendra Lal Mitra (1822-1891), who published some Vedic
texts and wrote the Indo-Aryans. He produced a forceful tract to show that in ancient times
people took beef. In Maharashtra, RG. Bhandarkar reconstructed the political history of the
Deccan of the Satavahanas and the history of Vaishnavism and other sects. A great social
reformer, through his researches he advocated widow marriage and castigated the evils of the
caste system and child marriage. V.K. Rajwade went from village to village in Maharashtra in
search of Sanskrit manuscripts and sources of Maratha history; these sources came to be
published in twenty-two volumes. The history of the institution of marriage that he wrote in
Marathi in 1926 continues to be a classic because of its solid base in Vedic and other texts, and
also because of the author's insight into the stages of the evolution of marriage in India. P.V.
Kane (1880-1972), a great Sanskritist wedded to social reform, wrote the History of the
Dharmashastras published in five volumes, which is an encyclopaedia of ancient social laws and
customs. It enables us to make a study of social processes in ancient India.
The Indian scholars keenly studied the past to demonstrate that India did have its political history
and that the Indians possessed expertise in administration. D.R Bhandarkar (1875-1950), an
epigraphist, published books on Asoka and on ancient Indian political institutions. H.C.
Raychoudhury (1892-1957) reconstructed the history of ancient India from the time of the
Mahabharata war (tenth century BC) to the end of the Gupta empire (6th century AD). However,
his writings show a streak of militant Brahmanism when he criticises Asoka's policy of peace. A
strong element of Hindu revivalism appears in the writings of RC. Mazumdar (1888-1980).
Most writers on early Indian history did not give adequate attention to South India. K.A.
Nilkanta Shastri (1892-1975) took the initiative when he wrote the History of South India. Under
his leadership, several research monographs were produced on the dynastic history of South
India.
Until 1960, political history attracted the largest number of Indian scholars, who also glorified
the histories of their respective regions on dynastic lines.Those who wrote history on a pan-India
level were inspired by the idea of nationalism. The nationalist historians gave much less
importance to Alexander's invasion and placed stress on the importance of the dialogue of Porus
with Alexander and Chandragupta Maurya's liberation of north-western India from Seleucus.
Some scholars such as K.P. Jayaswal (1881-1937) and AS. Altekar (1898-1959) overplayed the
role of the Shakas and the Kushanas. However, K.P. Jayaswal exploded the myth. of Indian

despotism and showed that republics existed in ancient times and enjoyed a measure of selfgovernment.
A Sanskritist by training, AL. Basham (1914-86) questioned the wisdom of looking at ancient
India from the modem point of view. He believed that the past should be read out of curiosity
and pleasure. His book The Wonder That Was India (1951) is a sympathetic survey of the various
facets of ancient Indian culture and civilisation, and is free of the prejudices that prevail in V.A
Smith or other British writers. It is a shift from political to non-political history. The same shift is
evident in D.D. Kosambi's books. His treatment follows the materialist interpretation of history.
Kosambi presents the history of ancient Indian society, economy and culture as an integral part
of the development of the forces and relations of production.
During the last twenty-five years, there has been a seachange in the methods and orientation of
those working on ancient India. Greater stress is now laid on social, economic, and cultural
processes and on relating them to political developments.