Indian History-Ancient India
Contents:
- Sources of Ancient Indian History
- Literary Sources
- Archaeological Sources
- Coin Types
- Culture and Civilisation
- The Stone Age: An Introduction
- Indus Valley Civilisation
- Vedic Culture (1500 BC-600BC)
- Later Vedic Period (1000 BC-600 BC)
- Mahajanapada Period (600 BC-325 BC)
- Magadha Empire
- Haryanaka Dynasty (544 BC-412 BC)
- Shishunaga Dynasty (413 BC-344 BC)
- Nanda Dynasty (344 BC-323BC)
- Foreign Invasions
- Religious Movements (600 BC-400 BC)
- Maurya Period (322 BC-185BC)
- Post-Maurya/Pre-Gupta Period (185BC-319 AD)
- Kanva Dynasty (73 BC-28 BC)
- Satavahana Dynasty (60 BC-225 AD)
- The Cheti Dynasty of Kalinga
- Foreign Successors of Mauryas
- Gupta Period (319 AD-540 AD)
- The Hunas (500 AD-530 AD)
- Vakatakas (3rd Century AD-5th Century AD)
1. Literary Sources : Vedic, Sanskrit,
Pali, Prakrit and other literature and foreign accounts.
2. Archaeological : Epigraphic, numismatic
and architectural remains; archaeological explorations and excavations.
• Study of development of scripts: Palaeography.
• Study of inscriptions: Epigraphy.
• Study of coins: Numismatics
• Study of monuments, material remains: Archaeology.
LITERARY SOURCES
• Winternitz writes in his work History of Sanskrit Literature, “It has never been the Indian way to make a clearly defined distinction between myth, legend and history; histography in India was never more
than a branch of epic poetry.”
Puranic Literature
• The Puranic literature is very vast.
• 18 main Puranas, 18 subsidiary Puranas
and a large number of other books.
• In all the Puranas royal genealogies are dealt
with the reign of Parikshit, the grandson of Arjun, as a benchmark. This may be because of the fact that the coronation of Parikshit is considered to be the beginning of Kali Age.
Ramayana, Valmiki
• The composition of Ramayana started in
5BC. It passed through five stages, the fifth
stage being 12AD.
• 6000 verses to 12000 verses and finally
24000 verses.
• As a whole, this text seems to have been
composed later than Mahabharata.
Mahabharata, Ved Vyas
• Reflects the state of affairs between
70BC to 4AD.
• Originally 8800 verses, collection dealing
with victory.
• Later raised to 24000 verses- came to be
known as Bharata after Bharat tribe
• Final compilation: 1 lakh verses and came to be known as Mahabharata or
Satasahasri Samhita.
• Didactic portion from Post Maurya, Gupta times.
Vedic Literature
• The Four Vedas : We cannot find much trace
of political history in the Vedas, but can have reliable glimpses of the culture and civilization of the Vedic period.
• Vedic literature are entirely in a different language, which can be called the Vedic language. Its vocabulary contains a wide
range of meaning and at times different in
grammatical usages.
• It has a definite mode of pronunciation in which emphasis changes the meaning entirely.
Later Vedic Literature
Brahmanas elaborate on vedic rituals
Aranyakas give discourses on different spiritual and philosophical problems.
Upanishads culmination of the vedas
Sulvasutra prescribe measurements for sacrificial altars. Mark
the beginning of study of geometry and maths.
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