describe in brirf early indian notion of history
Answers
Explanation:
Many historians believe that Indians did not believe in History writing. Though Indians had excelled themselves in science, geography, literature, architecture and many other field, History is said to be lacking in that department. But this view is not accepted by many other historians. They give examples of inscription of Kharavela of Kalinga, Rudradaman, Samudragupta, Harsha of Kannauj,Chalukyas, Palas, Rashtrakutas, etc…
Vedas are religious in form but they give out a bit of history, however shaky it may be. You can’t totally trust what is written as political character in it but you can’t be totally prejudiced against it either.
The epics, Mahabharata and Ramayana gives an echo of historical event. The Aryans were war-like people and made alliance and enemies all the times. The famous 16 Mahajanapadas also consisted Kosala, Kuru, anchala, Gandhara and Avanti, all of which are major kingdoms in these two epics.
Smritis of Manu, Yajnavalkya, Vishnu, Brihaspati, Narada, etc are good source to know about the rules followed by common people of ancient time.
Some Puranas give good historical information. The historically useful Puranas are Vishnu Purana, Vayu Purana, Matsya Purana and Bhavishya Purana. Puranas generally deal with five topics, the last one, i.e, Vanshacharita, is the most important to us for history.
Buddhist and Jain literature are also good at jotting down information about kings and their work toward the welfare of people.
After that many writers have written different books and manuscripts for their kings and about administration, for example, Arthashastra of Kautilya.
The Vedic and Janapada time sources are fairly more religious in nature than later sources where importance is given to history writing more.
Early Indian notion of history consists between the religious sources and myths that have been given to us through generations. A historian have to first question everything the sources tell them, read between the lines more than the line itself, guess a lot of things and find about one-tenth of what we actually want to know. But it’s wrong to say that we actually lack any historic data at all.
Explanation:
The notion of history is the way and methods in which history is perceived, studies, recorded and passed on through the age in a particular culture.