LITERARY SOURCES | ANCIENT INDIA

How do indigenous literary sources help in the study of social and economic history of ancient India? Illustrate with examples.

Examine the literary sources for the study of socio-economic history of ancient India.

Discuss the importance of literary sources in the study of the social and economic history of ancient India.

Critically examine the importance of foreign literary sources for the study of the social and economic history of ancient India.

 

Sources are divided into archaeological and literary sources.

Archaeological sources include inscriptions, monuments, coins and other antiquitites.

Literary sources include contemporary works written by court historians, autobiographies, surveys and accounts of the empire, court bulletins and newspapers, religious, literary and foreign accounts.

The earliest literature of India is purely of a religious kind. However, the scholars through their patience and hardwork could succeed in extraction from it useful bits of historical information. As regards the sacred literature, reference may be made to the Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda and Atharvaved. Out of the four vedas, the Rigveda is the most ancient and gives a lot of information regarding the history and the political system of the Aryans. It also gives us historical information relating to the progress of the Aryans in India their internal divisions and wars with the ‘Dasyas’. The Brahmanas are a prose commentary on the Sahitas or the Vedic hymns. The Aryankas and the Upanishads contain the philosophical meditations of the learned sages on god, the soul and the world. They give us a picture of the religious thought of the Aryans. Besides there are six vegangas which were intended to help the understanding of the Vedic text. In course of time special schools of thought came into existence for a systematic study of the various branches of Vedic knowledge. Those schools evolved special texts of their own known as Sutras. The Kalpasutras are manuals on rituals and there are four divisions of them. The Srautasutras deal with the rules relating to big sacrifices. The Grihyasutras deal with rules relating to domestic rights. The Dharmasutras deal with Dharma or Law. The Sulvasutras deal with the measurement and the building of places of sacrifice and fire altars.

The two great epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharata are the most famous books in Sanskrit next to the vedas. These epics contain what we may call the rudiments of history. Even the greatest critics do not deny the fact that the stories told in the epics may be magnified echoes of some historical events. The epics throw light on the political and social conditions of the people in their times. The Aryans had developed by then a large number of small kingdom along the banks of the Gangas and the Jamuna and their tributaries. The Aryans were warlike and were constantly forming alliances and waging wars. Though the power of the king was growing, big empires had not yet come into existence.

The Brahmasastras like the Smritis of Manu, Yajnavalkya, Vishnu, Brihaspati, Narada and others, also give us a lot of information about the Hindu society. They lay down the rules according to which the Hindus were required to conduct their lives. Punishments were also provided for the breach of those rules. According to Dr. Buhler the Manusmriti was composed between 200 BC and 200 AD. The other Smritis must have been written after that period.

The traditions preserved in ancient Indian literature notably the Puranas form the main source of information for the history of the earliest period and for the period before the 6^th century BC, they constitute our only source. According to Dr. Winternitz, the Puranas are valuable to the historians as a source of political history on account of their genealogies, even though they can only be used with great caution and careful discrimination. The Puranas, 18 in number, which are said to have been recited by the ’Suta’ Lomahsana or his son (Sauti), Ugrasravas. These Puranas throw light on all aspects and phrases of Hinduism.

The Poet Bana knew the Puranas very well and mentions that he attended a reading of the Vayu Purana in his native village. Kumarila Bhatla relies on the Puranas as a source of law. Shankara and Ramanuja referred to the Puranas as ancient and sacred texts. Al-Beruni was familiar with the Puranas came into being as early as the first century of the Christian era. There is a resemblance between the Buddhist Mahayana texts of the first century of the Christian era and the Puranas. All of the 18 Puranas are not equally important for historical purposes. As source material for History we depend largely on the Vishnu Purana, Vayu Purana, Matsya Purana, Bramha Purana and Bhavishya Purana. Dr. V. A. Smith has shown that the Vishnu Purana is very reliable as regards to the Andhra and Saisunga dynasties. The Vayu Purana describes the rule of Guptas as it was under Chandragupta I.

The Puranas help us in rebuilding the History of Ancient Indian geography in which we come across the names of a number of cities which existed in their times. According to N. Mukhopadhyaya the Puranas form an important portion of the religious literature of the Hindus, and together with the Dharmashastras and Tantras, govern their conduct and regulate their religious observance at the present day. According tot Pradhan, ‘the puranas profess to give us the ancient history of India. In doing so they begin form the earliest Rigvedic period describing genealogies of Kings who established kingdoms and principalities and thus parcelled out and ruled ancient India’.

Inspite of their utility in reconstructing the history of ancient India, the Puranas contain certain serous shortcomings. History is mixed up with fables and folk lore. The legends int eh Puranas are religious and not historical. They sometimes treat contemporaneous dynasties or rulers as successive, or omit some of them entirely. The Puranas are silent about the Kushanas, Indo Greeks, Indo Parthians, etc. Dr. Altekar points out that in the dynastic lists, the Puranas themselves do not say that each successor in the list was a son or relative of his predecessor. No dates are given and even names of kings are often inaccurate.

The Buddhist Literature give a lot of information regarding the period which immediately preceded the accession of Bimbisara. It throws light on many topics which are not dealt with by the Brahmanical writers. The Buddhist literature is found in two languages – Pali and Sanskrit. The Pali Buddhist Literature is divided into three Pitakas – The Vinaya Pitaka, the Sutta Pitaka and the Abhidamma Pitaka. Besides the religious literature of the Buddhists, there is a mass of non religious literature. The most important among these is the ‘Milinda Panha’ (Questions of King Milinda). It is names after the Greek King Menander. It discusses a number of questions and disputed points of Buddhism. The ‘Dipavamsa’ and ‘Mahavamsa’ are the chronicles of Ceylon. The ‘Lalitavistara’ and ‘Vaipulya Sutras’ are important works in Sanskrit dealing with Buddhism. The Lalitavistara contains the story of the life of Buddha. The Vaipulya Sutras deal with Buddhist doctrines in 9 books.

The Jatakas deal with the previous births of Buddha. According to the Buddhists, Gautama Buddha had to pass through a series of births before he was born as a Sakya Prince and got enlightenment. About 549 Jataka stories have been collected and published. The Jatakas are of unique importance as they represent the entire life and thought of their age. They give us supplementary information which help us to check up information available from Brahmanical works. The Jatakas throw light on the political, social, economic and religious condition of the people. The Jatakas have been assigned to the 2^nd or 3^rd century BC. According to Dr. Winternitz, ‘the Jatakas were of inestimable value, not only as regards literature and art, but also from the point of view of the history of civilization for the period of the third century BC.

Jain literature also contains a lot of historical information. Prof. Jacobi and Dr. Banarasi Das have done a lot of work on Jain literature.

Several literary and other secular works supplement our knowledge of ancient India. The Mudraakshas of Visaka Data gives the story of Chandragupta Maurya and Chanakya. It explains how the Nandas were overthrown and Chandragupta became the King of Magadha. The Arthashastra of Kautilya (Chanakya) contains a lot of information regarding the system of administration. It also gives an idea of the social and religious life of the people.

Patanjali’s Mahabhasya and Panini’s ‘Ashtahyayi’ are works of Sanskrit grammar, but there are occasional references to Kings, republics and other political events.

Certain writers brought out their literary works based on the lives of their royal patrons:

Banabhatta, the great master of Sanskrit prose, wrote ‘Harsha-Charita’ – the life of Emperor Harsha.

Two poets Vakpati and Bhilana, described the exploits of Yashovarman and Vikramaditya of the later Chalukya dynasty in two epic poems, the ‘Gaudavalsa’ and the ‘Vikramankadeva Charit’.

We also have a curious poetical work the ‘Rama Chatia’ in which the author uses throughout verses of double entendre, which taken one way describes the story of Ramayana and taken the other way describes the story of King Ramapala of Bengal. The other biographical works are ‘Kumarapala Charita’ of Jayasimha, ‘Kumarapala Charita’ of Hemchandra, Hammira Kavya of Naya Chandra, Navasashanka Charita of Padmagupta, Bhojaprabandha of Ballal, Prithvirajavijay by an anonymous writer, and Prithviraja Charita by Chand Bardai.

The various dramas written during this period also throw light on the political, social, economic, religious, and cultural aspects of ancient India.  The dramas of Kalidasa, such as ‘Shakuntala’ give useful information about the social life of the people. The two dramas of Bhasa known as ‘Svapnavasavadatta’ and ‘Pratijna Yaugandharanya’, give us interesting information about the political conditions of India in the time of King Pradyota of Ujjain. The three dramatic works ascribed to Harsha throw interesting light on the history of seventh century AD. Those plays are the ‘Nagananda’, the ‘Ratnavali’ and the ‘Priyadarsika’.

In Rajatarangini, Kalhana narrates the career of each King in chronological order. He gives a fair amount of detail, showing scrupulous impartiality in his criticism of men and events. Thus, he exhibits soundness of judgment and healthy liberality in his general expression of views. Gradually approaching nearer to his own age, Kalhana’s history becomes fuller and more filled with interesting accounts of men and things. It ceases to be merely a chronicle of dry details and faithfully presents the ebb and flow of national life, the periods of glory and misery and the greatness and weakness of men and rulers. Thus, Kalhana presents in his Rajatarangini all those minute details which make history a record of intense human interest, faithfully portraying the march of events through which a people works out its own destiny.

Kalhana’s Rajatarangini not only gives the History of Kashmir in a chronological order but also reflects Kalhana’s views on what he considered to be good government. According to Kalhana, the King should be strong rigidly controlling his underlings but benevolent towards his subjects and sympathetic towards their wishes. He should choose his advisors wisely and listen to their advice. At many places Kalhana has expressed his disapproval of the Damaras, the petty feudal chiefs who had reduced Kashmir to anarchy and misery. Kalhana was strongly opposed to bureaucracy.

As regards local history, references may be made to a large number of chronicles of Gujarat. These include well known works like Rasmala, Kirtikaumudi of Somesvara, Sukritasamkirtana of Arisimha, Prabandhachintamani by Mertunga, Parbandhakosa by Rajasekhara, Hammiramdamardana of Jayasimha, Sukritakirtikallolini of Udayaprabha, Vasantavilasa of Balachandra and others. These are treasure houses of stories and fables as well as historical anecdotes. The two biographies of Kumarapala and these chronicles enable us to trace the history of Gujarat, especially under the Chalukyas.

There are also local chronicles of Nepal, which merely contain a list of kings and the duration of their reigns, with only a few details here and there. The earlier portion of these Vamavalis, as they are called, is purely mythical, but there seems to be an historical basis for the accounts relating to the period commencing from the first century AD.

In the Dravidian language there are many historical references to the political history of India from the second century AD onwards. The Tamil Sangam works of the second and third centuries, gives us useful information about the South Indian civilization. In Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam there are many poems which give us useful information about the history of South India.

Foreign Sources

The accounts of any country and its people by foreign observers are of great interest to the historian of the country for they enable him to know what impression it made upon the mind of such observers and to estimate with greater confidence the part played by it in the general history of the world.

For the proper study of ancient Indian History, Greek sources are greatly important. India was known to the Greeks even before Alexanders invasion. But it is very unfortunate that most of this evidence is available to us only in fragments.

The first to write a book on India was Scylax, whom Darius sent in about 517 BC on a voyage of exploration to find out the course of the Indus. Next came the two great writers Herodotus and Clesias. Herodotus (484-406 BC) who, though much more exact, deals more with a great deal of fairy tales. However, he refers to the conquest of a small part of India by Darius and has also made some useful observations about the peoples of northwest borders of India. Clesias’ accounts are full of fables.

The historian who came in wake of Alexanders invasion are more exact than the previous writers. They are Nearchus, Onericritus, and above all the celebrated Megasthenes, the ambassador of Seleucus Nikator, in the court of Sandracottes (Chandragupta Maurya). The work of Megasthenes ‘Indica’ extend only in fragments to quoted by other authors, contains some useful information about the people and social system of India. It is a comprehensive work on India, apparently divided into 4 books describing the country, its soil, climate, animals and plants, its government and religion, the manner of the people and their arts. Although the work of Megasthenes is both interesting and authentic, it cannot but be charged with serious defects and shortcomings. This may be due to the fact that he was a foreigner and failed to understand the language, the customs and manners of the people.

Among the Greek accounts a special reference may be made to the classical writers, who through their writings throw useful light on the Geography and natural history of India. The earliest of them is the anonymous author of the ‘Periplus of the Erythraean Sea’. He was a Greek settled in Egypt, who made a voyage to the Indian coast about 80 AD, and left a record of its ports, harbors and merchandise. Ptolemy wrote a geographical account of India in the second century AD on scientific lines. Since he has derived most of his data from secondary sources, necessarily some errors have crept in but on the whole if gives some useful information. Pliny gave an account of the Indian animals plants and minerals in the first century AD. These classical accounts most of which have been translated into English were generally prompted by a spirit of exploration of unknown lands and reflect great credit on their authors and the scientific spirit of the age in which they lived.

The Chinese travellers who visited India in different periods of History have left their accounts about India which are of great help in reconstructing the ancient Indian History. From the beginning of the Christian era trade and cultural relations between Indian and China were of the most intimate kind and lasted for well over a thousand years. From about 400 AD onwards there was a regular stream of pious Chinese pilgrims pouring into India. Some of these were great scholars, who visited nearly the whole of the subcontinent and spent years in studying Indian learning at the famous universities of the age. About sixty pilgrims have left valuable records of their travels in India. Three of them, Fa Hein (fifth century AD), Hieun Tsang and It-sing (seventh century AD) are better known than others. They have recorded their experiences in fairly bulky volumes which are preserved in their original forms and have bee translated into English.

All three of them spent a number of years in India and learnt its language. Fa Hein and Hieun Tsang travelled widely almost all over the country. However, these eminent Chinese visitors were all devout Buddhist monks, whose journey to India was merely a pilgrimage to holy lands. Thus, their outlook was purely religious. Neither Fa Hein or ItSing refer to secular matters, except very incidentally nor do they mention the name of the King or Kings whose dominions were visited by them. However, Hieun Tsang gives some interesting information about his royal patron Harshavardhana and other contemporary kings of India. He also briefly refers to the political condition of the kingdoms through which he passed and devotes an entire chapter to a general account of India. Further the works of the Tibetan Lama Taranatha, the Dulva’ and some aspects of the ancient Indian History. The Chinese travellers through their writings have rendered great service by depicting the state of Buddhism in India.

The Arab travellers, geographers and historians were attracted by India from eight century AD. The early Arab writers deal with the country and its inhabitants rather than on history in the proper sense. Among early works, Kitab al Fihrist, a great biographical collection, the Kitab futuhal Boldan of Al Beladori, Dictionary of Countries by Al Kazwin are worthy of mention.

From nineth century onwards India figured prominently in Muslim chronicles. For instance, the Kitab al Yamini of Utbi covers the history upot 1022 AD. The best account of India was written by Abu Rihan, better knonw as Al-Beruni. His sphere includes the whole range of human sciences such as philosophy, mathematics, chronology, medicine, etc. His book Taukh al Hind is an erudite work throwing much light on ancient Indian culture. It is universally regarded as a comprehensive work on India ever written by a foreigner. Al Beruni was a man of versatile genius and a scholar of Sanskrit. He was a contemporary of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni. While the ruthless conqueror was harrying India by fire and sword, destroying and plundering its cities and temples, the great Arabic scholar engaged himself in studying the culture and civilization of the country. However, form the point of view of Indian history Al Beruni’s great work suffers from two defects. In the first place, he says little or nothing of the political condition of India. Secondly, his account rests primarily on his study of Indian literature and is not based on personal observation. He gives an admirable survey of the mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, astrology, geography, philosophy, religious rites, customs, social ideas, etc., of India.