Question

A stone inscription is considered to be authentic source of histroy

Answer 1

It is rather easy to find sources for writing the history of the recent past, because there is plenty of hand written and printed material on and about modern State and Society. There is also enough material in respect of medieval times.

But the real difficulty arises for writing ancient history. It is mentioned in the great Indian epic Mahabharata that “History is that ancient description which contains instructions of virtue, wealth, desire and salvation”. In other words, India’s ancient seers laid greater emphasis on those events which carried higher ideals rather than actual happenings.

In ancient Greece and Rome, there were historians to write the accounts of their times. But ancient Indians who wrote on many subjects, rarely wrote history. Most of ancient material has also been lost. It is thus a challenging task to rediscover India’s ancient past. Yet there are sources from which history is written.

These sources are divided into two main groups. They are Archaeological and Literary. The Archaeological Source can again be divided into three groups, namely, Archaeological Remains and Monuments, Inscriptions and Coins. The Literary Source can also be divided into three groups, namely, Religious Literature, Secular Literature and Accounts of Foreigners.