Module 40: Ancient Indian Historiography скачать в хорошем качестве

Module 40: Ancient Indian Historiography

In India the literary tradition for narrating the past was known as itihasa which literally meant ‘thus indeed it was’. The term Itihasa included most of the literary developments in the post-Vedic era. According to Arthasastra, the Itihasa tradition included Purana, Itivritta, Akhyavika, Udaharana, Dharmasastra and Arthasastra. According to Adipurana, Itihasa tradition included Itvritta, Aitihya, Amanya, Arsha, Suktas and Dharmasastras. Despite this tradition of representing the past India has been characterized as devoid of any tradition of history writing by the European intelligentsia and colonial historians. European intelligentsia perceived history as a form of knowledge characterised by sequential narrative and chronology, and a focus on political authority. In India, this conception of history was introduced by colonial historians. According to Romila Thapar, historical consciousness was present in embedded form in the Vedic corpus. The embedded tradition becomes somewhat more visible in the epics. The Buddhist and Jaina traditions were grounded in historical contexts because they were associated with historical persons and events. Despite these traditions of history writing, it was only text Rajtarangini composed by Kalhana which is considered to have conformed to the idea of history (in its modern sense). The different literary traditions of the ancient Indian society suggest that there existed a pluralistic tradition of history writing.