Component-I (A) – Personal Details

Component-I (A) – Personal details: Prof. P. Bhaskar Reddy Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati. Prof. P. Bhaskar Reddy Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati . & Dr. K. Muniratnam Director i/c, Epigraphy, ASI, Mysore. Dr. V. Selvakumar Tamil University, Thanjavoor. Prof. P. Bhaskar Reddy Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati. 1 Component-I (B) – Description of module: Subject Name Indian Culture Paper Name Indian Epigraphy Epigraphy as a Source for the Social, Economic and Module Name/Title Cultural History of India Module Id IC / IEP / 04 Knowledge of English Pre requisites Basic knowledge on of Indian history Understanding Social, economic and Cultural History Objectives Finding out how epigraphy is useful for reconstructing Social, economic and cultural history Keywords Cultural History, Epigraphy, Inscriptions E-text (Quadrant-I) : 1. Introduction Epigraphical documents (i.e. inscriptions found on stones and copper plates) are the most important source for the historical period. However, the data from the inscriptions cannot be used in isolation or in a selective manner and the dataset needs to be analysed collectively and correlated with literature, archaeology, art historical vestiges, languages and oral traditions, for a better understanding of history. In the earlier module, we exclusively focused on how epigraphy is useful for the reconstruction of the political history. In this module, let’s look into how epigraphy is useful for understanding the social, economic and cultural history of India. As students of history, you need to look at the inscriptions and the dataset that they offer, very critically. By carefully reading the inscriptions and understanding the meanings of the words, the multiple dimensions of history can be brought to light. History is not only the study of the kings and their deeds; the life-ways and beliefs of the common people have to be studied and brought out through the use of proper historical research methods. The focus on the whole society is important. The study of epigraphy is important, since we get direct access to the words and concepts of the ancient period in the epigraphic texts. Therefore, having knowledge in the languages of the inscriptions is very essential. Meaning and sources of the words, processes and the concepts found in the texts of inscriptions have to be focused. History is divided into various branches based on their themes. But, we cannot fragment history into political history, social history, economic history and cultural history, at one level. History is one and it has to be studied holistically; however, the divisions are necessary to give a specific focus on certain areas. The interrelationships among the social, economic, political and cultural spheres should not be forgotten and they have to be properly 2 investigated. This module is divided into social, economic and cultural components, and then the sources and their importance are discussed. Objectives The objective of this module is To understand the various divisions of history such as social history, economic history and cultural history. To know how epigraphical sources are useful for the reconstruction of social, economic and cultural history. 2. Types of History Before understanding the usefulness of epigraphical sources for history, we need to understand the various divisions of history. History is divided into political history, economic history, social history, cultural history, environmental history and intellectual history (Chattopadhyaya 2009). There could be more divisions such as environmental history, urban history, and history of gender, marginalized groups and religion. These are interrelated divisions and they should not be seen as islands. History should also be studied holistically focusing on various perspectives such as social formations and political economy. There is a lot of overlap in the areas of research of these branches. We need not go into the issue of whether these divisions are appropriate at this juncture. They exist, and there exist academic societies and journals focusing on these components. These divisions do give specific focus and offer frameworks to look into different aspects of history. For example, the Marxist approach focuses on socio-economic analysis of class relations and social conflicts based on materialist interpretation of historical development. Multiplicity of approaches should be welcomed in any branch of knowledge. Some of the historical perspectives focus on the elites and others on the subalterns. The focus of various themes of history is most often confined to political, social and economic components and these are interrelated areas of history. 3. Social History According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, social history “concentrates upon the social, economic, and cultural institutions of a people.” Noted historian Eric Hobsbawm (1971) traces the changes in the meaning and definition of social history. He says that at “first, it referred to the history of the poor or lower classes, and more specifically to the history of the movements of the poor ("social movements").” Later “the term was used to refer to works on a variety of human activities difficult to classify except in such terms as "manners, customs, everyday life." Thirdly, ’"social" was used in combination with "economic history." He argues that “None of the three versions of social history produced a specialized academic field of social history until the 1950's, though at one time the famous Annales of Lucien Febvre and Marc Bloch dropped the economic half of its subtitle and proclaimed it purely social.” He adds that “On the other hand social history challenged dominant historical narratives” “constructed around the history of politics and the state” “stressing instead social change as a core dimension” Eric Hobsbawm (1971). 3 According to C. Conrad (2001) “The term ‘social history’ refers to a sub-discipline of the historical sciences on the one hand and to a general approach to history that focuses on society at large on the other hand.” It deals with “the structures of societies and social change, social movements, groups and classes, conditions of work and ways of life, families, households, local communities, urbanization, mobility, ethnic groups.” We need not get into a long discourse on this subject, since our intention is not to produce an analytical study on social history (see Chattopadhyaya 2009); rather the aim is to demonstrate the utility of the epigraphical sources for reconstructing the social history. However, the argument is not that the theoretical perspectives are not important; but it is beyond the scope of this module. Social history, in general, focuses on the composition of the society, various social groups, elites and the subalterns, and the social hierarchy that existed in the society and the social institutions and related issues. Some of the themes that we deal with as part of social history could also fall in cultural history. 4. Economic History Economic history focuses on the development of economic activities such as production, distribution and consumption. It focuses on the economic processes. It studies the economic activities such as trade and commerce, merchants and economic institutions. According to Baines “Economic history is the study of history using economic concepts.” “Economic history is concerned with how well mankind, over time, has used resources to create wealth, food and shelter, bread and roses” (Baines 2016). Persson says “Economic history traces the efficiency characteristics of institutions by studying the development of commodity and labour markets, financial intermediaries (banks), the legal framework of contract enforcement, property rights, openness to trade and international capital flows.” (Persson 2010:1-2). Economic processes are intimately linked with social history, cultural history and political history. Carla M Sinopoli in her work titled Political Economy of Craft production in South India (2003) has investigated the nature of craft production during the Vijayanagar period in South India. She defines political economy “as the relations between political structure and systems and the economic realms of production, consumption and exchange.” Political decisions influence the economic realm and cultural traditions too influence the political activities. 5. Cultural history Jacob Burckhardt is considered as the founder of the cultural history tradition and he is known as father of cultural history. Cultural history may be defined differently depending upon the theoretical orientation of the researcher (Burke 2010; Källén 2013). We are rather focusing on the components of culture as reflected from inscriptions. It greatly overlaps with social history. Cultural History explores the modes of operation and functioning of a culture and its change through history. Culture history could focus on arts, ways of life, religions and belief systems. The focus of this module is on the importance of epigraphy for cultural history. 4 Although a few of the historians may look at the society, culture and economy as distinct areas, many of the human activities are interrelated and they overlap in all these three spheres. Humans perform activities and they may overlap with number of spheres; the academics see them as part of different spheres. Numerous temple inscriptions refer to the donation made to a temple for lighting a lamp (out of belief, culture). The donations were made in the form of gold and its interest is used for

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