Sources of the Ancient Indian history – Part 2There are certain specificities involved in engaging into the study of the past, and in assessing the role of sources. There were pre-literate societies in existence in different pockets of India, even as written records came into existence. The pre-literate past is significant in the history of ancient India, and can be best brought to light and explained by professional archaeologists. Archaeologists with the assistance of anthropologists, particularly physical anthropologists can provide at least some knowledge on how human beings actually evolved into modern man. This necessitates a meticulous and careful study of the remains of human skeletons. Dating of these phases is done through complex scientific tests. Even where human skeletal remains of the remote past are not available, archaeologists are able to locate the presence of human beings, by a study of the rudimentary tools of ancient times; as such tools were after all fashioned by human beings. The earliest tools were merely ad hoc ones fashioned out of stones, boulders or even branches of trees, to serve an immediate purpose. Later stone implements began to be fashioned, that were of particular types. The transformation from what is termed as core stone tools, to flake stone tools speaks of the very slow passage from the relatively older Paleolithic times to the more advanced Mesolithic and Neolithic times. The archaeological site at Bagor, in Bhilwara district in Rajasthan, provides an insight into the manner in which archaeologists have succeeded in revealing significant data about the remote past, on the basis of field archaeological materials. Bagor is a Mesolithic site (Middle Stone Age). It has been thoroughly excavated by the Deccan College archaeologists in Pune. The site reveals that the earliest people in Bagor were essentially hunters and gatherers. This conclusion is based on the discovery of a large number of animal bones found at the site, which belong to the category of wild animals, and bear clear injury marks, indicating, that these were hunted animals. In the later part of the history of Bagor, we find that the animal bones were essentially of domesticated animals, not hunted wild animals. Increasing dependence on domestication of animals led to a gradual reduction of their earlier practice of hunting, although it was not given up, which led V. N. Mishra (the excavator) to term it a “Mixed Economy”. It also reveals that people began to live at a particular place for a longer period of time, unlike the hunter-gatherers who were essentially nomadic people. This site has revealed the remains of cattle pens, and huts or dwelling houses made not of permanent materials but of perishable materials. Only the post holes remain, but it is enough to indicate that people had started to prefer living for a longer time at a particular spot, rather than remaining nomadic groups or constantly mobile groups. Archaeologists also take a close look at pottery, in their efforts at figuring out the history of these ancient societies. At the beginning pottery was hand-made; often with baskets being used as moulds. The transformation from handmade to wheel-turned pottery marked a major technological step forward. The different types of pottery, their colour, particular designs and motifs painted on them, speak of different archaeological cultures. Similarly the use of metal technology starting with copper and bronze and later iron, found in the archaeological context, speak volumes of the enormous transformation, and technological advancement that people underwent with the introduction of metal. In tracing the gradual change in the way of life of human communities in the past, archaeologists pay close attention to burials if and when found. Where a large number of burials are available, the skeletal remains can be tested to indicate the age of death of these persons, as well their life expectancy at a that remote period. In many burials skeletons were interred along with what is called grave goods, or various types of objects often of ritual significance, such as, pottery, metal implements, and sometimes even precious and semi precious gems. The elaborate use of grave goods is usually taken as a marker of the beginning of social differentiation from a relatively simpler social life. The entire history of the Harappan civilization was that of the first urban society in the subcontinent. Knowledge about this civilization is entirely dependent on archaeological material, as the Harappan script is yet to be deciphered. The study of this civilization presents an example of how the views of archaeologists‟ undergo changes in keeping with the revelation of more and more archaeological evidence. About thirty years ago, this civilization was classified as pre-Harappan, Harappan and post-Harappan, indicating that the pre Harappan and post Harappan cultures were sharply different from the Harappan civilization itself, and indicating thereby that the Harappan civilization did not grow out of existing indigenous conditions. Now with the greater availability of archaeological material, and highly sophisticated analytical tools, archaeologists classify this culture as Early Harappan, Mature Harappan, and Late Harappan, indicating thereby the complex process of evolution of an urban society and culture, as well as pointing out that, what is termed a civilization can never arrive all of a sudden. It has to undergo a slow evolutionary process from the early to mature. Even when the Harappan civilization declined, and the cities broke up, certain cultural traits percolated, and continued to lead to a different formation, thus earning the term late Harappan. The archaeological scenario in the Indian sub continent is a complex one. The Harappan civilization in its full bloom, witnessed a complex large scale expansive urban society, while the rest of the sub continent did not experience such a complex urban cultural society. There appears to be no single arrow line in the story of urban development in India, contemporary to the time of the Harappan civilization, According to information that archaeologist have made available, and intelligible to us, it appears that there existed different cultural traditions. Archaeologists usually work along with archaeo-chemists, paleo-botanists, zoologists, geographers, and geologists. Archaeological exploration requires team effort, and extreme care at the excavation sites, to ensure that no destruction of evidence occurs. Unearthed archaeological objects require cautious recording, as well as photographic documentation of its original state of lying, in the context of other archaeological objects, and the recording and dating of its layer, in terms of other associated objects. Thus archaeological activities require great precision, and involve a highly technical exercise, which is best left to the world of professional archaeologists. Field archaeology is not only relevant to the study of the pre- literate phase, but is as valuable for those about which there exist written documents and textual information. In ancient India the political scenario seems to be the more apparent and visible part. One of the great authors of ancient Indian political history, H C Raychaudhury, in his famous „Political History of Ancient India‟, lamented that India had not produced a Herodotus or a Thucydides, to hand over political annals, and court chronicles to later generations, which has fraught the understanding of the political history of ancient India with enormous difficulties. Knowledge of political history is essential for a proper understanding of the sequence of events taking place, along with the progress and emergence of different aspects of history. Chronology involves the story of dynasties, (how one dynasty succeeds another, and the accounts of great political personalities), and their political successes, mostly in the form of wars. The beginning, formation, expansion along with the contraction or demise of a political power also forms the subject matter of political history. In order to know about the earliest known important political event in ancient times, we have to turn to the Rig Veda, which describes the victory of Raja Sudas over his ten adversaries who formed a confederacy against him on the banks of river Purushni (present day Ravi in Punjab). The Rig Veda refers to this in several places although it is not a text on political history. This reveals that the composers of the Rig Veda hymns, while essentially engaged in religious themes, could not remain indifferent to an important political event and therefore referred to this important war. According to Romila Thapar it was perhaps from this tendency to write even partially about important political events, that the „Itihasa Purana tradition‟ took shape. The list of genealogies or the Itihasa Purana section of the Puranas, consisted of pseudo- prophesying. F E Pargiter once tried to reconstruct the dynastic history of the Kali age on the basis of this section in the Puranas. The Puranic lists contain names of different well known political personalities like the Maurya rulers, the Sunga rulers, the Satavahanas or the Andhrabhrityas. But the main obstacle that one confronts in the context of the Puranas, is that there is no uniformity in the lists of kings mentioned, with different Puranas speaking of different numbers of rulers of the same dynasty. The information contained is almost impossible to date. Thus though the Puranic traditions are valuable, they need to be verified in the light of other available sources. It was in view of these limitations that H.C. Raychaudhury preferred to depend on the Pali canonical texts when writing the „Political History of Ancient India‟. It is from the inscriptions of Darius in the Iranian language, and from Herodotus, „the father of history‟ that we get to know about Achaemenid rule in the Indus basin, and certain important personalities of ancient Indian history. We know from Persian sources that Puskarasarin was ruling over Gandhara (around Taxila in the north-west) when Darius I conquered some of the border areas of the north-western part of the subcontinent. A number of important political personalities who were contemporary to the Buddha, like Bimbisara, Ajatashatru, Prasenajit (of Kosala region), Chandapradyota (Avanti region) are also known through these non-indigenous sources. At present however more concrete information is available in the form of the Asokan inscriptions, which are contemporary records in the form of Asoka addressing his subjects directly. When we come to the Maurya period, we therefore stand on firmer ground, due to the availability of Asokan edicts, as well as the accounts of Greek and Latin writers known as Alexander‟s historians, some of whom accompanied Alexander or just wrote about his campaigns. These authors are also referred to as the Classical authors. They mentioned the end of the Nanda dynasty and the gradual rise of Chandragupta Maurya as the founder of a new dynasty, in their accounts. The combination of Greek and Latin texts, along with the evidence provided by Asoka‟s inscriptions, helps the historians to get a reliable account of the foundation, and growth of the Magadhan Empire of the Mauryas. The contemporaneity of any source is very crucial to forming a more or less accurate idea of historical developments. India‟s epigraphic tradition begins with Asoka‟s inscriptions. At present the availability of various types of inscriptions, particularly the eulogies or „prashastis‟ provide valuable information about the political history of India. There are rulers who are known to us only through such prashastis, like Kharavela, the Chedi king, from the Hathigumpha inscription, Samudragupta, the great Gupta conqueror, known largely from his two inscriptions including the famous Allahabad prashasti, and Pulakesin II from the Aihole inscription. But the problem with prashastis, is that they were composed with the deliberate intention of glorifying a particular ruler, so that one has to be cautious not to take the details furnished at face value. This is amply illustrated by the instance of the conflict between Harshavardhana and Pulakesin II (7 th century CE.), which is recorded in the famous Aihole prashasti of the latter, as well as by the renowned Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang. The court poet of Pulakesin II stated that the king had defeated Harshavardhana, the Uttarapathaswami (lord of the entire north of India). The poet actually meant to eulogise the victory of his patron and heighten his glory by saying that he had defeated a formidable rival (although Harshavardhana‟s control of territories hardly suggest that he ruled over the entire northern region). Available sources should therefore be dealt with with a critical approach. Inscriptions are indeed of great value in tracing the political history, primarily because they are dateable. They generally use some kind of regnal reckoning, either in terms of regnal years of the ruler, or in terms of some well known eras, like the Saka era (identified with 78 CE) or the Vikramasamvat, (starting from 57 BCE), which enable historians to easily convert them into the Christian Era, and fix the chronological position. Moreover, the use of a particular era is indicative of a political process, as in the case of the northern part of Bengal, which we know was definitely under the occupation of the imperial Gupta rulers for about a century from 440CE. Inscriptions found from here, have dates in accordance with the Gupta era, or Gupta samvat. But after 550CE, we come across some of the rulers in the eastern part of the Bengal delta (presently Dacca, Faridpur, Vikrampur area), who suddenly stopped using the well established Gupta era, and started issuing inscriptions in their own regnal years instead. This refusal to use the Gupta era and preferring instead, the use of their own regnal years, is a marker of their independent, sovereign political position. The distribution or the find spots of inscriptions is a major indicator of the territorial extent of a dynasty, ruler, or empire (as in the case of the Asokan Empire). Similarly when a land grant is issued by a ruler, it indicates the extent of the control of that particular ruler, as provided by the instance in 959 CE. of Krishna III, a powerful Rashtrakuta ruler of the Maharashtra region, issuing a land grant relating to land in Satara, from Arkot district, of present Tamil Nadu. This naturally indicates that Krishna III, had been successful in conquering a part of Tamil Nadu, (Arkot area) by defeating the Cholas, and that he had established his headquarters in the heartland of Tamil territory, while the primary stronghold of his power base was Maharashtra, indicating, that the entire region, from Maharashtra to the northern part of Tamil Nadu was in his possession. This illustrates how an inscription can enlighten us about the political fortunes of a ruler. Coins too provide valuable information about political history. The issuing of coins is considered as a marker of the sovereign political existence of a ruler. In the 1 st century CE when the Satavahana ruler Gautamiputra Satakarni won a resounding victory over his arch rival the Saka ruler Nahapana (first century CE.), it was mentioned in the Nasik prashasti. A classic confirmation of this victory comes in the form of thousands of coins originally issue by Nahapana, with his name and portrait on it, which had been over struck or re-struck with the name, symbol and the motifs of Gautamiputra Satakarni (Jugalthembi coin hoard). This could only have been possible if Gautamiputra Satakarni had defeated his Saka adversary. Coins and inscriptions thus perform a significant role in reconstructing the story of political events.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 23:09:09 +0000
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