SOURCES OF ANCIENT INDIAN HISTORY

1.   Literary Sources : Vedic, Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit and other literature and foreign accounts.

2.   Archaeological : epigraphic, numismatic and architectural remains, archaeological explorations and excavation

•     study of development of scripts: palaeography
•       study of inscriptions: epigraphy
•       study of monuments, material remains: Archeology

•       study of coins: numismatics

LITERARY SOURCES

Indian Tradition of History Writing.

• Many foreign scholars opined that Indians had no sense of history writing and whatever was written in the name of history is nothing more than a story without any sense.
• But this appears to be a very harsh judgment. Because the knowledge of history was given a very high place in ancient India. It was accorded sanctity equal to a Veda.
• Atharvaveda, Brahmans and Upanishads include Itihas-Purana as one of the branches of knowledge.
• Kautilya in his Arthashastra (fourth century B.C.) advises the king to devote a part of his time every day for hearing the narrations of history.

• But this appears to be a very harsh judgment. Because the knowledge of history was given a very high place in ancient India. It was accorded sanctity equal to a Veda.
• Atharvaveda, Brahmans and Upanishads include Itihas-Purana as one of the branches of knowledge.
• Kautilya in his Arthashastra (fourth century B.C.) advises the king to devote a part of his time every day for hearing the narrations of history.

Puranic Literature

• The Puranic literature is very vast.
• 18 main Puranas, 18 subsidiary Puranas and a large number of other books.
• According to the Puranas, following are the subject matters of history :
• Narration of Puranas were a part of the annual ritual in every village and town during the rainy season and at the time of festivals. It was treated as a powerful vehicle of awakening of cultural and social consciousness.
• In all the Puranas royal genealogies are dealt with the reign of Parikshit, the grandson of Arjun, as a benchmark.
• All the earlier dynasties and kings have been mentioned in past tense.
• While the latter kings and dynasties have been narrated in future tense.
• This may be because of the fact that the coronation of Parikshit marks the beginning of Kali Age.
• Many scholars think that perhaps the Puranas were completed during the reign of Parikshit.
• In the context of the Puranas it may be remembered that in ancient India, History was looked upon as a means to illuminate the present and future in the light of the past.
• The purpose of history was to understand and inculcate a sense of duty and sacrifice by individuals to their families, by the families to their clans, by the clans to their villages and by the villages to Janapada and Rashtra and ultimately to the whole humanity.
• History was not meant to be an exhaustive compendium of the names of the kings and dynasties and their achievements etc.
• The two great epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, may also be used as a source. It is generally held that there have been constant interpolations in these works.
• The Puranas may not satisfy the modern definition of historio-graphy or those who wrote it may not have been aware of the “historian’s crafts”, but they seem fully aware of the purpose of their work and the purpose of history itself.

Ramayana, Valmiki

• Composition started in 5BC. passed through five stage. fifth stage in 12AD.
• 24000 verses.
• As a whole, this text seems to have been composed later than Mahabharata.

Mahabharata, Vyas

• Reflects the state of affairs between 70BC to 4AD.
• Originally 8800 verses, collection dealing with victory.
• Later raised to 24000 verses- came to be known as Bharata after Bharat tribe
• Mahabharata also known as  Satasahasri Samhita.
• Didactic portion from Post Maurya, Gupta times.

Puranic Literature: Limitations

1.   Most of the ancient literature is religious in nature, and those which are claimed to be history by Indians, i.e., puranic and epic literature, contain no definite dates for events and kings.

2.   In the Puranas and epics, we find genealogies of kings and sometimes their achievements. But it is difficult to arrange them in chronological order.

3.   Puranic literature helps tracing Lord Ram of Ayodhya around 2000B.C. but the extensive exploration in Ayodhya donot show any settlement around that date. Similarly, Lord Krishna can be traced to 200 BC-300AD. But excavations in Mathura, donot attest his presence. Counter argument: The epics Ramayana and Mahabharata have undergone several editions through ages, hence difficult to tie up with specific era.

Vedic Literature

• The Four Vedas : We cannot find much trace of political history in the Vedas, but can have reliable glimpses of the culture and civilization of the Vedic period.
• Vedic literature are entirely in a different language, which can be called the Vedic language. Its vocabulary contains a wide range of meaning and at times different in grammatical usages.
• It has a definite mode of pronunciation in which emphasis changes the meaning entirely.
• Four vedas in the chronological order are ; Rig veda, Yajur veda, Samaveda and Atharvaveda.

Vedanga

Six vedangas (limbs of Vedas) were evolved for the proper understanding of the Vedas.

1.  Siksha (phonetics)

2.  Kalpa (rituals)

3.  Vyakarna (grammar)

4.  Nirukta (etymology)

5.  Chhanda (metrics)

6.  Jyotisha (astronomy)

Sutra

• Each vedanga has developed a credible literature around it which are in the sutra form i.e., precepts.
• This is a very precise and exact form of expression in prose which was developed by the ancient Indians.

Later Vedic Literature

Brahmanas       elaborate on vedic rituals.

Aranyakas        give discourses on different spiritual and philosophical problems.

Upanishads      Secret knowledge imparted by the guru to his pupils. It specify philosophical knowledge and spritual learning.

Sulvasutra       prescribe measurements for sacrificial altars. Mark the beginning of study of geometry and maths.

Srautasutra      account of royal coronation ceremonies.

Grihyasutra      domestic rituals with birth, naming, marriage, funeral etc.

Jain and Buddhist Literature

• Since the modern historians have discarded most of the dynasties mentioned in the Puranas, Mahavira and Buddha are considered historical personalities, only those portions of the puranic dynastic lists have been accepted which are supplemented and supported by the Buddhist and Jaina literature.

Jataka Stories

• These are Buddhist books.
• Before he was born as Gautama, the Buhddha passed through more Than 550 births, in many cases in animal-form.
• Each birth story is called Jataka. There are more than 550 such stories.
• Throw light on socio-economic conditions between 5BC to 2BC.

Dhamasutras and the Smritis

• These are rules and regulations for the general public and the rulers
• It can be termed in the modern concept as the constitution and the law books for the ancient Indian polity and society. These are also called Dharmashastras.
• These were compiled between 600 and 200 B.C.
• Manusmriti and Arthashastra are prominent among them.

Kautilya’s Arthashastra

• A book on statecraft was written in the Maurya period.
• The text is divided into 15 chapters known as books.
• Different books deal with different subject matter concerning polity, economy and society.
• Even before the final version of Arthashastra was written in the fourth century B.C. by Kautilya, there appeared a tradition of writing on and teaching of statecrafts because Kautilya acknowledges his debt to his predecessors in the field.
• Mudrarakshusha, by Vishakhadatta, gives a glimpse of society and culture.

Notable writers

Kalidasa                  Malavikagnimitra tells the love story of Malavika a maiden of Queen and Agrimitra the son of Pushya mitra Shunga dynasty which followed the Mauryas. Abhgyanshakuntalam: glimpse of Guptas.

Bhasa and Sudraka  written plays based on historical events.

Banabhatta              Harshacharita throws light on many historical facts

Vakpati                   wrote Gaudauaho, based on the exploits of Yasovarman of Kanauj.

Bilhana                   Vikramankadevacharita describes the victories of the later Chalukya king Vikramaditya.

Kalhana                   His book Rajatarangini. It is a chronicle of the Kings of Kashmir. It was written in Sanskrit language.

Biographical Writings

• Kumarapalacharita of Jayasimha,
• Kumarapatacharita or Duayashraya Mahakauya of Hemachandra,
• Harnmirakavya of Nayachandra,
• Navasahasankacharita of Padmagupta,
• Bhojaprabandha of Billal,
• Prithvirajacharit of Chandbardai.
• Limitations : These writers made lot of exaggerations to please their patron kings.

LIMITATIONS OF INDIAN LITERARY SOURCES

1.   Printing was not known. Everything was written on soft materials like birch bark, palm leaf, paper etc.

2.   Since the old manuscripts become fragile in course of time, they had to be manually copied. But At the time of copying, some errors tend to creep in or sometimes even additions are made.

3.   Alexander’s Invasion finds no mention in Indian sources. We’ve to reconstruct his exploits entirely on basis of Greek sources.

4.   Many of them religious in nature- while they give some idea on prevailing social conditions but hard to put it in context of time and place.

Sangam Literature

• Earliest Tamil text
• Kings and chiefs patronized poets.
• These poets assembled in colleges and compiled poems over a period of 3 to 4 centuries. This is  Sangam literature.
• Describes many kings and dynasties of South India.
• This literature generally describes events upto the fourth century A.D.
• Total 30,000 lines of poetry
• Arranged in eight Anthologies called Ettuttokai
• Two main groups, Patinenkilkanakku (18 lower collections) and the Pattupattu (ten songs). The former is older than the latter.
• Some kings and events are supported by inscriptions also.

Foreign Accounts

Greek Ambassadors :

• Ambassadors were sent to Pataliputra by Greek kings.
• Notable: Megasthenese, Deimachus and Dionysios.
• They mention Sandrokottas (Chandragupta Maurya)- help fixing his date of accession at 322BC. This helps as sheet-anchor in Ancient Indian Chronology.

Historians :

• Notable :  Herodotus, Megasthenese, Nearchus, Plutarch, Arrian, Strabo, Pliny the Elder, and Ptolemy (Geography).
• They were concerned mostly with the north western part of India and primarily the areas which were either part of the Persian and Greek Satrapies or Alexander’s campaign.

Megasthenese :

• The Greek ambassador (in the court of Chandragupta Maurya c. 324-300 B.C.)
• Megasthenese wrote extensively in a book called Indica which is no longer available to us.
• We know about Megasthenese’s Writings through various extracts of the writings of Diodorous, Strabo and Arrian.
• These fragments of Indica, provide valuable information on Maurya Administration, social classes and economic activities.
• The existence of a list of 153 kings whose reigns had covered a period of about 6053 years uptill then.
• Indica is not free from credulity and exaggerations.
• Megasthenese had little understanding of Indian society and social systems. For example, he mentions that Indian society comprised of seven castes (jatis).
• Discrepancies because he did not know any Indian language, was not a part of Indian society and psyche.

Greek Writers

Darius         India figures in his foreign inscriptions.

Ctesian        got Info of India from through the Persian sources.

Herodotus    in his “Histories” gives us much information about Indo-Persian relations.

Arrian          detailed account of the invasion of India by Alexander on the basis of information from those who accompanied the campaign.

anonymous   Book: “Periplus of the Erythrean Sea” by an anonymous author, who was a Greek, settled in Egypton the basis of his personal voyage of Indian coast in about A.D.80. He gives valuable information about the Indian coasts.

Ptolemy        wrote a geographical treatise on India in the second century A.D.

Greek Limitations

1.   Most of the Greek writing about India are based on secondary sources resulting in numerous errors and, contradictions.

2.   Except for Megasthenese all others have touched Indian history in the true sense very marginally.

3.   They were ignorant of the language and the customs of the country and their information is full of unbelievable facts and fancies.

4.   The works of Megasthenese and other Greeks of those who accompanied Alexander, have been lost and are available only in fragments as quoted in later works.

Chinese Travelers

• visited India from time to time- as Buddhist pilgrims and therefore their accounts are somewhat tilted towards Buddhism. Three important pilgrims were

Notable Chinese writers

Fa-Hien             Came in India in 399 A.D. in the reign of Gupta ruler Chandragupta II ‘Vikramadity’ He was the first Chinese travel to come to india.