Sources of Ancient Indian History
Sources of ancient Indian History can be described under the following five headings:-
- Literary Sources: -The The ancient Indian literature were mostly religious in nature eg. the Puranas and the epics.
-Vedic literature has no trace of political history but has a reliable glimpses of culture and civilisation of the age.
-The epics like Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Jaina and Buddhist religious texts supply us with some important historical material with doses of religious messeges.
-Upanishadas: Main source of Indian philosophy; also called "Vedantas"
-Jaina Parisistapravana, Buddhist Dwipavamsa and Mahavamsa contain traditions which supply us some historical materials. - Gargi Samhita , a book on astronomy, the grammer of Panini and Patanjali also contain materials that help us in the recontruction of the history of the ancient period of India.
-Kautilya's Arthasastra and Manusmriti talk not only panegyrics of kings and emperors but also political treatises dealing with the principles of administration. It was a work of the Maurya period. -Vishakhadatta's Mudrarakshasa gives a glimpse of Maurya society and culture.
-Similarly, events of the Pushyamitra Sunga's reign are mentioned by Kalidasa in Malvikagnimitram.
-Among the personal accounts of ancient period, Banabhatta's Harshacharita , dealing with the character and achievements of Harshvardhana as also history of his times, Bakpatiraja's Gaudabaho describings how Yasovarman conquered Gauda deserves special mention.
-Poet Bilhana described the history of the reign of Chalukya king Vikramaditya VI in his Vikramanka Charita .
-Sandhyaakar Nandi's Ramacharita is a description of the reign of Rampal, a king of the Pala dynasty of Bengal.
- Kalhana's Rajatarangini is a valuable book on the history of the kings of Kashmir.
-Likewise, Padmagupta's Nabasahasanka Charita, Hem Chandra's Dwasraya Kavya , Nyaya Chandra's Hammir Kavya , Ballal's Bhoja Prabandha contains important historical materials.
- Archaeological Evidence :
-The credit for excavating the pre-Aryan past goes to Sir William Jones of Asiatic Society of Bengal (established on 1st January 1784).
-General Sir Alexander Cunningham, one of its Royal Engineers, dugged out the ruins of ancient site of pre-Aryan culture.
- Cunningham, the Father of Indian Archaeology
-In 1901, Lord Curzon revived and enlarged the Archaeological Survey and appointed John Marshall its Director General.
-In 1921 by Daya Ram Shahni was the biggest achievement of Archaeological Survey of India under Marshall, the first relics of which were noticed by Cunningham. The cities discovered were named Harappa and Mohenjodaro and the civilisation as the Indus Valley Civilisation.
In 1922, an Indian officer of the Archaeological Survey, R.D.Banerjee, founded further seals at Mohenjodaro in Sindh, and recongnized that they were remains of a pre-Aryan civilisation of great antiquity.
- Inscriptions :
-Inscriptions are the most reliable evidence and their study is called epigraphy .
-Inscriptions in Prakrit, Pali, Sanskrit, Telgu, Tamil and other languages have been discovered. But most of the inscriptions are in Brahmi and Kharosti scripts.
-James Prinsep, the Secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal succeeded for the first time in deciphering the Brahmi script.
- Coins :
-The study of coins is known as numismatics.
- The image of Samudragupta playing on a lyre gives us an idea of his love of music.
- Samudragupta's Aswamedha coins and Lion-slayer coins gives us an idea of his ambition and love of hunting.
- Accounts of the Foreigners :
-A great deal of our knowledge of ancient Indian History are supplemented by the writing of foreigners.
The below table gives a brief survey of important literary works of foreign scholars, mentioning the subjects their works deals with.
Literary Works of Foreign Authors
| Author | Book | Subject | |
| Magasthenes(G) | Indica | Valuable information on administration and socio-economic of Mauryan India | |
| Ptolemy(G) | Geography | Geographical treatise on India in 2nd Century AD | |
| Pliny(G) | Naturakus Historia | Accounts trade relations between Rome and India in 1st Century AD | |
| Anonymous(G) | Periplus of the Erythrean Sea | Records personal voyage of Indian coasts in 80 A.D. | |
| Fa-Hien(C) | Record of the Buddhist Countries | Records the Gupta Empire in the 5th Century AD | |
| Hiuen Tsang(C) | Buddhist Records of the Western World | Describes the social, economic and religious conditions of India in the 5th and 7th Century AD. | |
| I-tsing(C) | A record of the Buddhists religion as practised in India and Malay Archipelago. | Studies the Gupta period under Sri Gupta in the 7th Century AD. | |
| Hwuili(C) | Life of Hiuen Tsang | Accounts Hiuen Tsang's travel in India. |
G-Greek,C-Chinese
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