Make a sketch of a tree and provide all the sources of history of medieva period as leaves and write importance of it.
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Historians and their sources
The sources used by historians in the period 700 to 1750 (the Medieval Period) were quite different from the ones used in the period of Gupta dynasty and Hashavardhana. There is definitely some continuity in the sources used by the historians of both the distinct periods. For example, for obtaining information they still relied on
Coins
Inscriptions
Acrhitecture
Textual records
But there is also significant discontinuity in the sources used by the historians of both the distinct periods. Some of the changes in the sources are as follows:
Dramatic increase in the number and variety of textual records. These slowly displaced other types of available information.
Paper became cheaper and more widely available as opposed to the earlier periods when people used to write on barks of birch trees, hides, walls of caves, etc. due to non-availability of paper.
Use of Paper
Paper was used to write holy texts, chronicles of rulers, letters and teachings of saints, petitions and judicial records, and for registers of accounts and taxes. Manuscripts were collected by wealthy people, rulers, monasteries and temples. They were placed in libraries as well as archives. These manuscripts and documents were rich and vital sources of information for the historians. But they were difficult to use.
Copying manuscripts
Since printing press was not available in the ancient times, scribes copied manuscripts by hand. This was a challenging task because there are instances where the handwriting is not very clear and legible. Hence, while copying they were forced to guess what was written. Consequently there are small but significant changes in the original record and the copied record. Over many rounds of copying, these small differences got accumulated and became big enough to bring about a substantial difference in texts. This is a serious matter because we rarely find the original manuscript of the author today. We are therefore dependent on the copies made by later scribes. Hence historians have to read many copies of manuscripts, i.e. different versions of manuscripts before concluding what was originally written.
The sources used by historians in the period 700 to 1750 (the Medieval Period) were quite different from the ones used in the period of Gupta dynasty and Hashavardhana. There is definitely some continuity in the sources used by the historians of both the distinct periods. For example, for obtaining information they still relied on
Coins
Inscriptions
Acrhitecture
Textual records
But there is also significant discontinuity in the sources used by the historians of both the distinct periods. Some of the changes in the sources are as follows:
Dramatic increase in the number and variety of textual records. These slowly displaced other types of available information.
Paper became cheaper and more widely available as opposed to the earlier periods when people used to write on barks of birch trees, hides, walls of caves, etc. due to non-availability of paper.
Use of Paper
Paper was used to write holy texts, chronicles of rulers, letters and teachings of saints, petitions and judicial records, and for registers of accounts and taxes. Manuscripts were collected by wealthy people, rulers, monasteries and temples. They were placed in libraries as well as archives. These manuscripts and documents were rich and vital sources of information for the historians. But they were difficult to use.
Copying manuscripts
Since printing press was not available in the ancient times, scribes copied manuscripts by hand. This was a challenging task because there are instances where the handwriting is not very clear and legible. Hence, while copying they were forced to guess what was written. Consequently there are small but significant changes in the original record and the copied record. Over many rounds of copying, these small differences got accumulated and became big enough to bring about a substantial difference in texts. This is a serious matter because we rarely find the original manuscript of the author today. We are therefore dependent on the copies made by later scribes. Hence historians have to read many copies of manuscripts, i.e. different versions of manuscripts before concluding what was originally written.
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