3. How are sources of history for the ancient and
medieval periods of Indian history different from
the sources for the modern period?
Answers
Explanation:
The major difference is shown in the “period” itself.
The modern history is given to us by the modern historians where either they might me contemporary to that period, in which the common script got developed, or from the administrative or judicial records of the British or may be from the both.
Now come to Medieval History.
It's a period where Indian subcontinent is under the monarchs. We reconstructed the history depending on the court poets, travellers to different courts, some works were extracted from other travellers accounts and translated to other languages.
Hence, we can't rely on them completely. Court poets always praise the kings by whom they are patronised. And for translation works, god knows how it got translated.
In ancient India,
We couldn't decipher it's script. During IVC we have to rely on the cave paintings which can be interpreted in many ways. And during Maurya's and Gupta's, the same problem as of the medieval rulers.
How the history got reconstructed is an important thing. And thus, complete reliability on something like that can be problematic.