Contents ANCIENT HISTORY 1. Indian Tradition of History Writing ..................................................................................3 2. The Geographical background of Indian History .............................................................7 3. Pre-Historic Period ...........................................................................................................12 4. Chalcolithic Period in India .............................................................................................18 5. Emergence of Civilization ................................................................................................22 6. Vedic Civilization .............................................................................................................35 7. Later Vedic Phase ............................................................................................................41 8. The Philosophy of India ...................................................................................................45 9. The Buddha and Mahavira ..............................................................................................48 10. Emergence of Janpad Mahajanpad King and Kingdom ................................................56 11. The Gupta Empire and After Guptas .............................................................................71 12. The Mauryas .....................................................................................................................77 13. Kingship and Social Life in Eastern India and South India ..........................................82 14. The Age of Sung and Satvahana Dynasty ......................................................................87 15. The Ancient History of South India ................................................................................92 16. Society and Culture in Post Harsha period ....................................................................97 17. Cultural Interaction with South East Asia ...................................................................103 MEDIEVAL HISTORY 1. Major Dynasty in Early Medieval India .......................................................................109 2. Sufi and Bhakti Movement ............................................................................................117 3. The Delhi Sultanate in Medieval...................................................................................127 4. Formation of Mughal Empire ........................................................................................140 5. The Rise of Sikh and Maratha .......................................................................................167 MODERN HISTORY 1. Indian States and Society in the 18th Century ............................................................177 2. Trade to Treaty ...............................................................................................................185 3. The British conquest during 1757 to 1818 on Indian States .......................................193 4. The Structure of Economic and Administrative policies of British Empire (1757-1857) ...........................................................................................201 5. The Changing World on Visual Arts .............................................................................209 6. Colonialism and The City ..............................................................................................216 7. Education System in British India ................................................................................221 8. Tribels and Visions of Golden Age ................................................................................227 9. Administrative Organisation and Social Structure in British Administration ...................................................................................................232 10. The Revolt of 1857 ..........................................................................................................239 11. Economic Impact of British Rule ...................................................................................246 12. British Raj and National Movement 1857-1905 British Rule ......................................250 13. Religious and social Reform in New India After 1857 .................................................260 14. The Making of National Movement ...............................................................................269 15. The Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement ................................................278 16. National Movement for Independence ..........................................................................286 17. India after Independence ...............................................................................................290 1 ANCIENT HISTORY Indian Tradition of 1 History Writing One of the most interesting aspect of the study of history is knowing the history of history writing itself. It gives you an idea how history itself can be moulded by interpretation. How same data and the same evidence get completely different meaning in the hands of different scholars. In this chapter, we are going to learn precisely this aspect of ancient Indian history. We shall study when and how the writing of ancient Indian history began and how it progressed, traversing different paths over a long period of time. Many foreign scholars opined that Indians had no sense of history writing and whatever was written in the name of history is nothing more than a story without any sense. This appears to be a very harsh judgement. To say that Indians had no consciousness about their own history and no sense of writing history is simply incorrect. The knowledge of history was given a very high place in ancient India.·It was accorded sanctity equal to a Veda. Atharvaveda, Brahmanas and Upanishads include Itihas-Purana as one of the branches of knowledge. Kautilya in his Arthashastra (fourth century B.C.) advises the king to devote a part of his time everyday for hearing the narrations of history. According to the Puranas, following are the subject matters of history: sarga (evolution of universe), pratisarga (involution of universe), manvantantar (recurring of time), vamsa (genealogical list of kings and sages), and vamsanucharita (life stories of some selected characters). The Puranic literature is very vast and we have 18 main Puranas, 18 subsidiary Puranas and a large number of other books. It is interesting to note that in all the Puranas royal genealogies are dealt with the reign of Parikshit, the grandson of Arjun, as a benchmark. All the earlier dynasties and kings have been mentioned in past tense. While the latter kings and dynasties have been narrated in future tense. This may be because of the fact that the coronation of Parikshit marks the beginning of Kali Age. Many scholars think that this also points to the fact that perhaps the Puranas were completed during the reign of Parikshit. In the context of the Puranas it may be remembered that in ancient India, Itihas was looked upon as a means to illuminate the present and future in the light of the past. The purpose of history was to understand ‘and inculcate a sense of duty and sacrifice by individuals to their families, by the families to their clans, by the clans to their villages and by the villages to Janapada and Rashtra and ultimately to the whole humanity. History was not meant to be an exhaustive compendium of the names of the kings and dynasties and their achievements etc. It was treated as a powerful vehicle of awakening of cultural and social consciousness. It was perhaps, for this reason that the narration of Puranas were a part of the annual ritual in every village and town during the rainy season and at the time of festivals. The Puranas may not satisfy the modern definition of historiography or those who wrote it may not have been aware of the “historian’s crafts”, but they were fully aware of the purpose of their work and the purpose of history itself. Many historians like F.E. Pargitar and H.C. Raychaudhury have attempted to write history. On the basis of genealogies of various dynasties given in Puranas. The Greek ambassador Megasthenese (in the court of Chandragupta Maurya c. 324-300 B.C.) testifies the existence of a list of 153 kings whose reigns had covered a period of about 6053 years up till then. Kalhana’s Rajatarangini is another work of history which is indeed a solitary example of its kind. It enjoys great respect among the historians for its approach and historical content. Early Foreigners When we look at the writings on history of ancient India beyond the Indian frontiers, we find that earliest attempts were those of Greek writers. Most notable are Herodotus, Nearchus, Megasthenese, Plutarch, Arrian, Strabo, Pliny the Elder, and Ptolemy. However, except for Megasthenese all others have touched Indian history in the true sense very marginally. They were concerned mostly with the northwestern part of India and primarily the areas which were either part of the Persian and Greek Satrapies or Alexander’s Ancient History 3 campaign. Megasthenese wrote extensively in a book called ‘Indica’ which is no longer available to us. We know about Megasthenese’s, wtings through various extracts if the writings of Diodorous, Strabo and Arrian. It is very clear that Megasthenese had little understanding of Indian society and social systems., For example, he mentions that Indian society comprises of seven castes