Evolution and Key Schools of Ancient Indian Historiography Explained

all right good afternoon everyone I hope you're all doing well now sources last portion C and we had to talk about two

important things first of all Indian historiography ancient Indian historiography and secondly the question

whether Indians had any sense of history or not ancient Indians did they have any sense of

History develop right so first of all the historiography of ancient India historiography the writing of History

right Historia that is history and graphy that is writing it refers to the collection

of historical opinions or interpretations

of any subject or field of

history for example national movement of independent of India for Independence against

rule maybe some other historians who may come along and may point out specific details that other schools of historians

had missed okay so historiography actually refers to the collection of historical opinions or interpretations

of any subject or field of history now when it comes to ancient Indian historiography when did the systematic

study of ancient Indian history start from the 18th century onwards Indians or Europeans Europeans

specifically con Europeans British because they had established their empire in India from that point onwards

and they needed uh complete understanding of the Indian past so that they could govern India more effectively

and exploit her economic resources in a much more efficient manner okay and thus a brand of History writing emerged

dominated by Colonial historians this is known as the imperialist

or Colonial school now the the imperialist school of ancient Indian historiography evolved

over two stages in the first stage a brand of colonial historiography emerged known

as orientalism or indology this flourished from the

British conqu west of Bengal up to the beginning of the 19th century till the uh beginning of the Industrial

Revolution or I should say till the Industrial Revolution reached a critical stage right now the changes induced by

the British Industrial Revolution and its overtaking of the Mercantile activities of the East India Company

prepared a new set of objectives for the British Empire in India in response to this the perspective of British scholar

towards Indian history also changed and the orientalist school was replaced by a new school of History writing known as

the utilitarian school okay now this school of History writing dominated the scene from dominated

Colonial historiography from roughly the beginning of the 19th century 18133 onwards right right up to

Independence now in response to the Colonial school or imperialist School of History writing some Indians also began

responding and they tried to write the wrongs of colonial historiography the colonial historians had deliberately

tried to diminish the ancient Indians achievements because they were trying to justify the establishment of British

rule negative stereotypes indak and to challenge the British rule School of History writing emerge that

was known as the Nationalist School of History

writing okay and it dominated Indian historiography from the beginning of the national movement up to Independence

after Independence the priorities of India changed India May socioeconomic

transformation the country had been torn apart on the basis of religion to secularism streng and the mistakes of

ancient Indian historiography in both the imperialist and nationalist schools they had to be corrected and the best

way forward for this was shown by the Marxist historians Marx's School emerged for the

first time during the 1950s and became the strongest pillar of Indian historiography from the 1960s onwards

even now it is quite influential however is problems and there are certain things which have been overlooked by the

Marxist historians Marxist tools investigate equi right and there are also certain flaws in the ways in which

Marxist historians have perceived Indian history for example they have taken a very top down Empire Centric approach so

many areas many peoples their histories have been ignored their their histories have been neglected and in response to

this a new brand of uh history writing emerged from the 1980s onwards known as revisionist

historiography right the history of those peop or regions which have been overlooked then

subaltern history that means the history from perspective of the Common People the history of women contribution of

women to the process of historical change feminist historiography then history of those

areas which are not given much attention by the earlier schools such as the regional histories of the deep south or

of Northeast India or of Rajasthan Etc right to Inus

and it is in this manner that ancient Indian historiography has evolved over time ever since its Inception with the

beginning of British rule up to the present now looking at each of these schools in Greater detail give the first

heading imperialist or Colonial School

uh what should be the basis of our analysis first first of all we should identify

the important Scholars associated with each school then we should talk about their

motivations or objectives in studying ancient Indian

past then we should conduct a survey of their positive contributions to the process of History

writing and finally we should point out the flaws or shortcomings in their historical

analysis which became the basis for later challenge by other schools of historians okay to yeah pattern

follow now under this heading right Imperial

list historiography evolved under British

rule in two stages A and B

orientalist or into logical school from

1757 to 1813 and later you utilitarian

School 1813 to 19407

clear subing orientalist school first of

all important Scholars associated with the school William

Jones Charles Wilkins Henry colbrook Alexander

kingham James princep Etc take why did they start studying Indian

history what were their motivations or objectives

motivations to learn about Indian

Society culture past

Customs Traditions religion and

law why in order to govern India better in order to govern India better at the same

time next point they wanted to

prepare the cultural Foundation of

British rule confined to

Bengal why because Bengal was already under their control but they did not want to expand outside Bengal

because it would have involved undertaking a great degree of expenditure right or is company priority

expenditure minimize or Revenue increase so that the profit margins may be expanded for that while British rule had

to be maintained preserved in Bengal British rule outside Bengal was not considered desirable take and how to

make British rule acceptable to the people of Bengal by trying to create the idea that

ancient Indian Society was extremely Advanced but has undergone a process of degradation Decay right because of which

the social systems that were responsible for early progress they are now silent they are now cold the engines have

stopped and the rule of the British is necessary to Kickstart this civilizational Machinery to remind the

Indians of their ancient processes of their ancient institutions and to bring them back to that early stage of

progress to provide uh an ideological justification

for British rule by highlighting

its role in Reviving ancient

Indian greatness and by highlighting the similarities

between India's native culture and Britain's foreign culture both of us belong to the same stock of

people we are both descendants of the ancient Arians right so further you can write

further an attempt was made to

highlight the similar is between Indian

and British culture clear here

right objectives motivation what were their contributions to the study of ancient

Indian history first of all they

institutionalized and systematized the

study of Indian history they set up various institution such as the Astic Society of Bengal and

the archaeological Survey of India which understood which undertook the process of analyzing the Indian past in a

systematic manner the various conventions to investigate Indian history the various methods tools uh for

example translations or excavations their interpretations Explorations Etc they

were undertaken For the First Time by this set of historians so India history writing

process they were the pioneers of histography in India

secondly they translated numerous Sanskrit Works

into modern European languages for example the opad the HTO

the bhagat Gita and the dramas of kalidas were translated into English or German or French by this school of

historians so they globalized Sanskrit literature and they were the first exporters of Indian culture and thought

to the West okay so they also played a very important role in globalizing

Indian culture and Heritage

take thirdly they also highlighted

the cultural achievements of ancient

Indians and this would prove to be highly influential later on when in the context of the national movement when

Indians were looking for inspiration and where did they look they look towards their past and investigation awareness

because of the works of the orientalist school historians so this played a crucial

role in infusing a sense of

Pride amongst Indians during the national

movement it is because of the study of history undertaken by this set of historians that we came to know about

various episodes of Indian history which of which all memory had faded for example the morans the edicts of Ashoka

the concept of dhama the works of kalidas lost systems of Indian painting art music uh drama Etc they were all

revived by this school of historians take okay so contributions were there any

flaws in their analysis of India yeah first of

all since they relied exclusively on Sanskrit literature they completely ignored the rich volumes of Tamil or or

P literature which played a very important role in understanding or which gives plays a very important role if you

want to understand ancient Indian history okay so they emphasized or exclusively relied

on Sanskrit literature to understand Indian

past does the picture

of ancient India they produced was incomplete

and distorted take now for their translations who had

they taken the help of of various priests transl

and since the Sanskrit literature was also created primarily by the Priestly class

only history writing biased bias Elite bias upper cast male

dominated bias is going to come and as in reflection of this bias the laws that they are going to create they are also

going to have that same bias Okay so an elite

bias informed by brahmanical Consciousness seed into

their historical analysis and the resulting

socioeconomic political and legal systems

introduced by the colonial historians okay

thirdly they tended to completely ignore the

contributions of Muslims in Indian

history and this created the perception that the Medieval

Age in which Islam and Muslims played a very important role in shaping Indian history was

a dark age in Indian history okay and what was the most important contributing factor for the onset of

this Dark Age it was the collapse of the ancient glorious Hindu civilization because of Islamic invasions

since they did not pay any attention to the Arabic or Persian literature of this period there was very little awareness

of the positive contribution of Muslims to Indian Society Indian history and Medieval Age was perceived largely as a

Dark Age of Indian history which had been uh brought about by Islamic invasions take

or flaws can you think of anything now they had characterized the

current Indian society as a decadent and stagnant one that means you 18th or 19 Century society that was a decadent and

stagnant one it was a backward looking one where Superstition was dominating and

Reas that Indians have always been more interested in spiritualism they have never been interested in material

progress is this correct no now that we have a proper understanding of ancient Indian history we know that proper

balance was always sought between material and spiritual happiness okay so these were the motivating factors or

these were the driving engines behind Indian history uh the historical change but most of these historians focused

upon religious Sanskrit literature they have emphasized the idea that religion and philosophy were of Greater

significance to Indians than anything else they have also so

distorted Indian history by claiming

that Indians were always more

interested in spiritualism and thus they have ignored

ancient India's great cultural political and economic achievements okay

and this became the basis for their justification of British presence in India

yeah that presence of British is going to induce this materialism among Indians their life will be more complete is this

clear so these were the flaws next stage of evolution of colonial historiography took place in

the form of the emergence of the utilitarian school important

Scholars include Lord m m minutes Wala James

Mill his son John Stewart Mill Etc objectives

motivations behind their analysis of Indian history the Emer

needs of the British economy they had to be

fulfilled one very important Economic Development had been going on in Britain ever since the second half of the 18th

century is period what was that the Industrial

Revolution and as Britain industrialized the role that India had

to play in the British economy that also started to change before this India was the supplier of finished products

especially cotton cloth to European markets India Ro perform as a supplier of raw material to

the emerging British e Industries and as a market for finished British products

to India raw Mater IAL and

markets and how would this be possible would it be possible if the British rule in India remained confined to Bengal

only no and therefore the emerging needs of the British economy dictated that the British Indian empire had to be expanded

rapidly political and Military control had to be established over large parts of India and Indians had to be

transformed into consumers of British products okay and how to do that by westernizing Indians so this

Peri period 183 onwards that there is going to be a long series of social religious re sorry social reform

legislations introduced by the British for example the ab abolition of Sati the abolition of slavery the abolition of

female infanticide Human Sacrifice Etc increasing the marriageable age for girls the spreading of Christianity the

introduction of modern education Etc to westernize Indians so that Indians become consumer consumers of

British products clear and for doing

that would the utilitarians continue to praise Indian society as being an a developed Society in the past

no contributions or more ACC they denied

the idea of Indian

civilization they said that the Indian civilization or Indian Society is barbaric in the present it is irrational

in the present and has always been like this only okay so both ancient

and modern Indian Society were described as

barbaric irrational superstitious backward

unequal and unenlightened okay they introduced a concept known

as Oriental despotism to explain the unchanging and permanent nature of Indian

Society idea of Oriental despotism it defines all Eastern systems and societies

as changeless societies that means a society where historical change does not take place politic that

is CH in thetic system no changes in the social systems institutions take place economic

progress cultural development development scientific development none of that takes place the

society is clearly divided into the common people and the ruling class and the ruling class maintain order among

the barbaric people by the use of force so coercive power becomes a very important factor for maintaining order

okay and in this way they tried to justify the establishment of British rule and their despotic rule in India

yeah despotism has been the norm for the Indian Society if the rulers introduce too much Freedom then these people are

going to fall to their default position the order is going to fail and the people would be even worse off so they

did this to justify the expansion

of British rule okay so this was another contribution or interpretation or

claw of utilitarian historiography clear now they also introduce the

concept of golden and dark

ages in Indian history right and deliberately they highlighted only those phases of Indian history as

Golden Ages contribution indigenous people forers foreigners right

phases of foreign rule

were characterized as Golden

Ages and why do you think they were doing this because they themselves were foreign rulers and they were trying to

convince themselves and the Indians that foreign rule is going to be beneficial for

Indians or the Arians they were also Outsiders in fact civilization be Outsiders sers from

Mesopotamia had come and establish That civilization so achievements of Indians were

attributed to foreigners in order to justify the expansion of British rule in India

okay then James Mill in

1817 carried out the tripartite periodization of Indian history into India's Hindu

Muslim and British ages and why had he done this to

deliberately distort and communalized Indian history

okay now another flaw of utilitarian history writing was its generalization

and oversimplification of Indian past

and why was this because many of the utilitarian Scholars did not take active interest in

actually studying Indian history they were operating from their own position Final Destination already

decide right and in order to fulfill that narrative in order to make that narrative into a reality they used to

selectively choose evidence and this has resulted in generalizations such as ancient period being called the Hindu

age medieval period being called the Muslim age

period ancient Peri were the modern leaders only Hindu no J budhist similarly Medieval

Age or M but vijar Empire also comes right why not count that so they have made generalizations and

oversimplifications of the Indian past in order to write a motivated history

clear now in response to this kind of historiography the Nationalist School

began emerging emerge emerged

from the mid 19th century

onwards what was the single biggest contributing factor for the of nationalist

histography the 19th century Indian

Renaissance or the social religious reform movements of the 19th century offshoot so write down it was an

offshoot of the 19th century Indian Renaissance it was an offshoot of the 19th century Indian

Renaissance right now 19th century social religious reformers what were they trying to

do they were trying to reform the Indian Society in response to the British conquest of India they understood that

India had been defeated by the foreigners because of some inherent weaknesses internal flaws shortcomings

which had to be overcome when they analyze the Indian political economic and social systems religious systems

identify he what is the root cause of Indian weakness the flaws of Indian Society the evils prevalent within

Indian Society so Indian renessa was itself a response to

British colonization it was born out of a

consciousness of defeat and once the 19th century reformers began identifying the factors behind

defeat where did this investigation lead them it led them to Indian past right

now what was the social religious reformers trying to do they were trying to reform Indian Society but in doing

that they also understood the need to reform Indian religion social evils or

institutions what would they have to do they would have to go back to the roots of the religion founding stage religion

PRS right what were the institutions that dominated and how we have dominated how we have deviated from those those

institutions that is why Raj Ry how did they justify their movements

religious that a modern liberal interpretation of Islam and the of the Quran and the Hadith needs to be made so

that the faith of Islam can be modified to fit the unique conditions of 19th century India and not the conditions of

7th Century Arabia when that religion was created okay so investigation which would lead them

to the Indian past clear the B so this response to British colonialism was born out of the

consciousness of defeat okay now they understood that had been defeated by the that India had been defeated by the

western civilization and they started investigating why and this led them into a deeper

investigation of the factors which led them to the Indian past so it is from this growing consciousness

of past and with the mature of the Indian Renaissance

that nationalist historiography

emerged to challenge British colonialism

now 19th century reformers what kind of a response were they framing to British

colonialism social and religious response on the other

hand nationalist historians who began emerging in the backdrop of the rising feeling of Indian Nationalism and the

maturing of the national movement what kind of response would they form an ideological

and political response these included certain important

Scholars such as as Al aler ashadi L

shast RC majumdar HC Ray ch

mg ranad Etc

Okay so how would they frame their response to British colonialism in political and

ideological terms political or cultural terms and for example

political and cultural response grounds per for example the British utilitarian historians had

alleged that India democracy India was always defined politically by the idea of Oriental

despotism so they challenged the idea

of Oriental despotism highlighted

India as the mother of democracy by shedding light on the ghas

of Mahajan period by the republics of the mahaj janpath period by the local self-governing Assemblies of Chola

Villages Etc right further they also told the untold history

of foreign invasions and the Valiant Indian

resistance Colonial historians idea establish that it was very easy for the

foreign rulers to conquer India and this has happened time and time again they had completely overlook the resistance

offered by Indians to in episodes CER or the light dollar right they glorified India's martial culture also

and highlighted the roles of personalities such

as m R Pratap or chatrapati

shivaji or Rani lakmi by

as national heroes equal attention has been given to the cultural achievements of ancient

Indians for example the literature

philosophy art and architecture of ancient and that has been emphasized

upon the religious developments in Ancient India that have been emphasized upon to

characterize India as a vibrant society as a society which was adaptable and evolving continuously it was a very

important tool to destroy the idea of Oriental despotism clear here

however there were certain flaws in the Nationalist historiography as

well K flaws that although they challenged Colonial historiography they

were unable to redefine the parameters of Indian history for example they continued so for example they

changed the nomenclature

of Indian history's periodization SEC Hindu Muslim British period mediev and

but failed to change the basis

of this periodization to ancient medieval

or modern periods dividing lines that is 126 the establishment of the Delhi

and 1757 the Battle of PL and the establishment of British rule over Bengal challenge but they were unable to

break the mold of Indian history prepared by the colonial historians

secondly they also ignored the contributions of Muslim

to Indian history and exclusively glorified

the Hindu past th for them Indian history

was Hindu history Indian culture was Hindu culture or sub foreign and this led

to the Indian Nationalism and

its historical consciousness was to be deeply tilted uh to be de deeply colored with the tinge

of Hindu cultural nationalism and in this way they had fallen very neatly into the Trap that was carefully

laid by the colonial historians they themselves contributed to the communalization of of Indian history

which split the two great communities of India apart in a permanent manner okay so they

contributed in this manner to the communalization of

Indian history okay

clear in their eagerness to find inspiring examples among historical figures which could act as role models

for modern Indians to challenge British rule they praised or glorified certain individuals as national leaders which

was problematic and inaccurate personalities such as Maharana Prat chatti or

lakmi as national heroes right problem that these people apart from Rani lakmi Maharana pratab

and chhatrapati shivaji they were fighting against other Indians so particularly

Indi as a struggle between Indians and foreigners right so they have also

participated in generalizations of Indian

history with a political motive thus leading to its distortion

and this is dangerous also why because while it strengthened nationalism it also

strengthened communalism clear to flaws clear now next set of historians Marxist School

it gained prominence from the 1950s

onwards some important Marxist Scholars who's the founder of marxist historiography in

India DD kosambi followed by RS

Sharma or con con BNS yadava d

andja Satish Chandra Iran Habib

Etc okay now what were their objectives they wanted to carry out a

scientific and systematic approve appraisal

of Indian past to

correct the flaws of existing historiography

then other objectives they were trying to fulfill through their history writing was nation building

creating a secular society creating a rational society that was Progressive and forward-looking and

bringing about social transformation by

scientifically I lighting the flaws of an ancient Indian institution so that they may be they may be reformed

okay how did they do this they applied Marxist

tools of historical materialism

and historical dialectics to study Indian history

Mark that the history of the world is the history of economic change okay and that the history of the world is the

history of class struggle so when we study historical change we study about

cultural social and political changes do these changes appear out of

vacuum mechanism driving mechanism and what is that economic change so economy becomes

the foundation or the substructure over which the super structure of historical change is

erected it is economic change which induces changes in poity society and cultural systems and practices

okay secondly the process of historical change is based on an on a relation on a

causal relationship between factors and effects between causes and effects so dialectical

process and dialectical dialog type process one type of one dimension of

historical change is in response to historical change that occurs in another field for example Improvement of

technology or changes in the climate may bring about changes in the political system as the ability of human beings

to organize to manipulate their surroundings to use their resources changes their political

organization the basis of their resource that is also going to change

now came the question of periodization of Indian history they continueed to use the

ancient medieval and modern periods to divide Indian history however the basis of division is now

going to change right Factor political change it was economic

change political change the establishment of Delhi political change the establishment

of British rule Marxist historians that historical change refers to the comprehensive

changes in the socioeconomic political and cultural systems change it is a complex process

which takes several years or even centuries right gradual process so there is a process of transformation and it is

a leny process clear orer economic change change identify

economy the beginning of land grants from the Gupta period onwards to

military officials this led to the emergence of

feudalism characterized by lower trade higher frequency of

warfare the ending of monetary economy or demonetization of the economy ending of

coinage because trade and commerce declines because the use of monetary currency disappears are cities going to

flourish no deurbanization and the rural ification and agian of India

right in this transitional phase and this process took place over a long period of

almost 500 years so 750 say 1200 C

Tu or period it has been inserted as a new phase in Indian history that is the

early Medieval Age so ancient early sorry ancient early Medieval Age leading up to the Medieval Age proper

right similarly modernity has also been redefined ches which brought about a set

of results characterized by the rise

of commercialization of production which induced the decline of

feudalism and aristocratic power was replaced gradually by the emergence of Modern Nation States

where industrialization started taking place and global trade increased which created the pathway towards imperialism

and colonialism and that is why the entire

period from 1450s to

1750s almost period this is taken to be the transition from medieval to Modern so early modern

age clear here so this is how they began to reinterpret history as a series of

comprehensive social political economic and cultural changes which are interl with each

other problems historiography laws that there are many gaps in Marxist

analysis through analyze so in these areas Marx historiography stays completely silent

for example the history of Northeast

India or the history of the Common People and their

influence on the uh ruling classes for example the

role of religion in shaping historical change

Etc take secondly the Marxist historians tend to

take a top down approach

to studying historical change huh H they focus upon the activities of the ruling class alone and

even within that periods Empires through for example medieval

period is going to be or later medieval period is going to be looked exclud exclusively through the lens of mgal

historiography so the developments taking place at Delhi or Agra they would feature most prominently in the minds of

the Marxist historians and what was happening in the peripheries for example

B they hav't Empire Centric approach

and lastly shortcoming since they are Rel depend

upon specific types of evidence such as Foreigner accounts or written records or inscriptions for analyzing the past it

gives them first of all an elite bias and secondly it prohibits them from writing about those episodes or periods

or people for whom such records are not available and therefore it results in an Elite

bias in their history writing take

now to overcome these flaws from the 1980s onwards revisionist historiography has

become prominent the foundations of the school were laid down by the writings of people

such as Ranjit guha B

CH it's some other prominent historians associated with religionist school

include let us say muzafar Alam Jan

Singh atar Ali BD chopad who

else Karen Leonard Sanjay subramanian Etc what has been their main

focus to shed light on neglected areas

of Indian history such as sub Alon history

feminist history history of the regions

Etc they have also challenge the

interpretations of other schools in a

scientific and a rational manner exam

Le BD chopad has challenged the model of Indian feudalism

to the model of Integrative

politics another example ranir chakrabarti has also

challenged the idea of Indian feudalism by pointing out that demonetization of the Indian economy did

not take place to such an extent that it would induce feudalism sh so he in fact uh compelled

AR Sharma to revise his own ideas around feudalism so he challenged the demonetization hypothesis

clear conclusion the evolution

of ancient Indian historiography is

a natural organic

and desirable process why are we saying it is desirable because there can be no final

word in history that means his IAL change would has come to an end andoral change no

so there is no final word in

history and thus it's understanding should

also keep evolving so while it is desirable historical revisionism touches

upon certain very uh sensitive issues and thus it must be undertaken in a controlled and uh systematic

manner rational basis and empirical analysis evidence based study generalizations need to be avoided

and at the same time uh process of peer review Academia objectivity

maintain that must be followed write down however

revisionism must occur in a in an objective in

empirical and open manner that is the way in which we

can conclude this topic okay take down a question discuss the

evolution of ancient Indian

historiography we stop what are the

dominant schools of ancient

Indian history 200 words 15 marks address

right uh second thing that we needed to address was did ancient Indians

have a sense of history or

not first of all we must be able to Define what we exactly mean by having a sense of

History defi Scholars based on this criteria Indians

writings hisory so we are going to use that same criteria first of

all so the Western historical

tradition features that we are going to take as being the features of a proper sense of History

for it to qualify as a work of history first of all there should be a proper sense of time its chronology

should be well established okay secondly the work must be presented in a

manner that the cause and effect relationship between different developments and events is clear right

so the cause effect relationship or causal relationship between

events must be rationally presented because God was unhappy with the people that is why he SM them with a famine

right thirdly the authorship should be

clear right and why is this because we must be able to identify author time period we should be able to

AIX the period in which this work is created we should also be able to identify the motivations behind the

writings of this particular author okay so authorship must be

clear right factual accuracy it should be free of bias

objective reporting factual accuracy and absence

of bias right

further there should be no blending of myth and history in a work of true history so there should be no blending

of myth with history and

finally the work should not be presented simply as a list of events which took place chronologically right rather the

author must give his own critical and and uh objective judgment with regards to why this historical change took place

so it should be a critical or analytical

work right now on the basis of this

criteria The Works of Greek and Roman

Scholars such as Herodotus and Livy the

Chinese dynastic records maintained by the court chroniclers

and the Arab and Persian histories especially after the emergence

of Islam they all

qualify as works of true history okay well

features available if not in their entirety then at least in a high degree

however based on this criteria Indian

literature does not qualify as true historical work

okay and using this argument Colonial

Scholars have concluded that ancient Indians lagged

a sense of History

why ancient literature characteristics

primarily literature secular or religious it was primarily religious Focus

factorization my my right so Focus was

upon creating uh mytho cosmological

narrative rather than factual accuracy

thirdly chronology status can it be considered to be

strong no it was rather weak in fact right so they are deliberately

written in the form of a prophecy and writing is also quite figurative in nature flowery language

figurative language use so factual accuracy we all right so that is why it is

considered weak when it comes to objectivity weakness biographies or Royal

geographies sorry secr person bias visible either patronage bias or religious bias

as a result of which objectivity is lacking right

further are these Works Analytical in nature yes they are but only to the degree that analytical uh

investigation drives home this EO cosmological narrative it strengthens this narrative so rationality has taken

a backseat in favor of Mythology right so critical analysis is weakened due to mythological

analysis right and th Colonial Scholars that crer for any work to qualify as a work

of true history ancient Indian literature does not fulfill that criteria thus it would be safe to say

that Indians did not have any sense of history clear

now this became a major field of debate post Independence right and pioneering

work Roma toer right that any work which displays consciousness of the

past is presented in an organized framework with a proper understanding of

time its scale and progression is a work of history irrespective of the

way in which it is presented

so it does not matter factually accurate mythologized account characteristics so any work

would qualify as a work of history any work that displays consciousness of the past is presented

with an organized framework has an organized framework and displays an understanding of time is a work of

history irrespective of the way in which it is presented

take she has also said that there are two types of

historical consciousness externalized history right for example the writings

of the Greek and Roman Scholars Roman Scholars Chinese dynastic records or the Arab and Persian histories just

characteristics so they are works of externalized History they have been written only for the purpose of

preserving historical developments for posterity conscious m embeded

history historical reporting is done but it is not the priority historical reporting has a

lower priority clear so

India history embedded history embedded history right so ancient Indian

literature is a form of embedded history

which is visible in writing such as the vdas

the ithas puran tradition

right the the stes

Etc do we not find mention of peoples States tribes locations rulers in these

works right for example vas May a clear pattern establish of the Eastward migration of Arians from the early to

the later Vic age in the ithas puran tradition we get to know about the various Maha janas which flourished in

the in the gantic valley and even in the Indus Valley in the dantis we come face to face with many great Kings of ancient

India Deeds glorify whose donations and charitable Works have been praised by these

Scholars historical consciousness do we find the concept of time do ancient Indian historians or

ancient Indian Scholars reflect understanding of time or not for example

literature two features the mananas right Sara pratia Etc so they are they had a complex

understanding of time which was both cyclical as well as linear in nature organized

framewor begin establish and did they display

consciousness of the past or not yes they did

so it qualifies as embedded history but at the same time Roma taper

also pointed out that but there were other Indian Works which had been completely

overlooked by the foreign Scholars by the colonial Scholars

Jess the bardic narratives BS these are

minals historys achievements the form of songs and poems recite for

example chra Ras right so IC

narratives these are oral histories preserved

by Royal BS such as BS

CH mards panas

Etc right so when the colonial historians came face to face with the such oral Traditions you

that they do not qualify as works of History inces come because it is not it is a

popular medium right people right so it would be easier to manipulate this kind of work this

organized literary work rather than Bic narratives but they have been ignored Roma taer makes the argument that such

narrative should not be ignored rather they should be taken uh when we are talking about whether Indians had a

sense of history or not best type of externalized History here which records the details of the

great achievements of their Royal patrons in a systematic manner okay they also talk about foreign Invaders they

also talk about the other conflicts or struggles that the patrons had to undergo right so organized manner

narrative then she also points out another source of externalized History which existed in India but sadly no

longer exists discoveries she says that both the AR shastra as well as H

sang mention that all Kings of India used to maintain Royal

archives and archives historical records which has been recorded systematically in a

chronological manner however sadly these records

seem to have disappeared but they should also be

taken into account because if we take them into account then narrative change accus

further Roma taper says that when analyzing India's embedded history it is necessary to let go to

abandon the eurocentric approach she's made making the argument that why should Colonial historians be

considered to be the custodians of History writing un history writing parameters Define

right and on the basis of that Indian literature reject so we need to let go of our eurocentric approach towards

history writing when analyzing ancient Indian history and if we do that it becomes clear

that ancient Indian Scholars

had very different priorities and

tastes as compared to Western Scholars

that for an Indian Scholars the purpose of writing was not to record facts for posterity for the future

Generations but it was purpose of

writing was to equip the read

with the four puras

DH Earth K and mo so its purpose was to