Notions of History In Early India

This topic has been a matter of discussion since long, weather ancient Indians had any knowledge about writing history or weather they were historically conscious. The expression of historical consciousness, it has been assumed, takes the form of historical writing, clearly recognizable as a genre of literature. Therefore, historical consciousness can change over time. Historians tend to view historical writing as conforming almost entirely to the format and pattern familiar from last couple of centuries or from the models borrowed from a particular society such as ancient Greece and China.

Mill was being critical not of early Indian notion of history but also to those who were attempting a chronological reconstruction of Indian history from these concepts. Yet early Indian notion of time has attracted many foreign scholars like Alberuni. He was astute enough to observe the differences between popular views and those of astronomers. This difference was not observed by the early orientalists, especially the scholars working in India about Indian notion of chronology, such as William Jones, Fancis Wilford, John Bentley and Thoms Clebrooke.

According to Romila Thapar, history is of two types, i.e., embedded history and external history. The embedded history forms in which historical consciousness has to be priced out. The externalized form of history is just the opposite of embedded history; it tries to bring embedded consciousness into the open, as it were, and to be more aware of its deliberate use of the past. This suggests a changed historical situation. This distinction is apparent not only between societies but also within the societies as it undergoes changes.

Embedded history can be studied from the sources like myth, epic genealogy. Embedded history form the myths in the itihasa-purana traditions, which encapsulates features of what might be seen as historical experience, the eulogies and hero-lauds which were gradually expanded into epic literature. The genealogical sections or vamsanucharita of the puranic texts which, by implication, carry a commentary of the social status of the ruling families. Vamsavali assimilates myth and genealogy to other events.

The embedded form of history is lineage-based and the externalized form is closer to the monarchies. The existence of the state requiring its own validation encourages the creation of an externalized historical consciousness. In Indian civilization, Greek-o-Roman world seemed non-existent. Indians were completely unaware to the sense of history and also to the linear notion of time. At the end of the 18^th century A.D., a theory emerged according to which, Indian sense of time was entirely cyclic, which was tied into infinity of recurring cycles and did not therefore recognized historical changes. Thus there was no difference between myth and history for ancient Indians.

The word time known as kala which is derived from the word kal that also stands for ‘to destroy’, and it’s second meaning as an agency of destruction, resulting in a negative eschatology.

The Greek-o-Roman people had the concept of linear time which was opposite to the Indian notion of cyclic time. The linear notion of time denied the recurrence of the events. This distinguished between history and myth. Thus a close connection was postulated between time concepts as pointers to the centrality of history in the society. In terms of eschatology, there is an evident difference of form between cyclic and linear time. But not only does cyclic time have a genesis and a predicted termination, it can also encompass segment of time consisting of historical chronologies.

The induction of cosmological time into the early puranas raises the question of the relationship of myth to history. Myth is the best example of embedded history. The events that happened and which involved gods and super-natural activities are proto-chronos. The role of the myth in this context is often explanatory. There are various kinds of myths, viz., Flood myth, in which Manu saved the seven rishis at the time of great flood and continued the world. Then there was Origin myth which deals with the cosmology and start of the events.

It has been argued that myths narrate events in primordial; temporal moments which continued sacred time and differ from the continuous profane time of daily routines. Then the question arises that how the time is described in the puranas. The listing of generations in the visnu purana begins with the description of Manu’s progeny. Subsequent to the Mahabharata war, in the third chapter of succession in visnu purana, the narrative dramatically changes its tense from the past to the future and becomes a lengthy prediction of events. The genealogical continues and the succession of dynasties as a new pattern of chronology is suggested of linear time.

Linear time came to be used more extensively from the Christian era onwards.

Epics are considered to be an important literary source. There were fragments of eulogies of the heroes and the cycle of stories which led to the first grouping towards epic forms in India. The two main epics of India Ramayana and Mahabharata, which had their early and more truly epic version s in what have been referred to as the Ramakatha and the Bharata. These were woven around the main lineage namely Suryavansha (solar race) with Ramayana and Chandavansha (lunar race) with Mahabharata. Unlike myth epic does not try to explain the universe or the society.

Except from the epics, there are other important literatures. Rigveda, which is considered to be one of the oldest text not only of India but also of the whole world. There are several stutis in Rigveda in the honor of the kings.

The there are other literatures, namely ‘gatha’ and ‘narasamsi’, which are not based on any god or religion. These literatures are the compositions about the human beings. Taittreya bhramins consider these literatures to be of lower kind and these were sung on the occasions like ashwamedh-yajna (horse-sacrifice). They were the part of early Indian tradition. These were composed by the Brahmin classes like Vasishtha and Bhrigrangiras. The few examples of gatha are Indragatha, Yajnagatha etc. Moreover, the few other examples of gatha and narasamsi are preserved in the Vedic literature which clearly displays their historical nature. The references in the Rigveda itself to royal eulogies, gatha and narasamsi strongly suggest the existence of oral tradition of historical compositions, which sometimes influenced the fixed and written religious tradition.

The word gatha occurs only in the later strata of the Rigveda where it is especially associated with the kanva priests of the bhrigvangiras group, and the word narasamsi comes from the word ‘kavi’ which means poet and it also stands for fire. Narasams is the other name of fire. Gatha along with itihasa and purana became the part of daily recitation.

Then another form of literature known as akhyana (narratives). These are forms of grammatical dialogue, which were probably in existence during the Vedic period. According to the Nirukta and Brihatdevata, several hymns of the Rigveda allude to the akhyanas. The akhyana of sunahsepa and pururvamsa seems to have been based on the Rigvedic hymns or on some ancient traditions which is reflected in these hymns. The brahmana literature refers to many akhyanas such as Devasuram in which the war between the gods and the demons is narrated. The Priplavani consisted of a series of ten akhyanas which were repeated in a cycle throughout the year when sacrificial horse was left to roam at large.

The other important form literature was itihasa. It is mentioned in Atharvaveda and the Brahmanas. The Nirukta School find references to itihasa even in the Rig-Veda hymns. The true meaning of itihasa is “where it thus happened”. In its broader sense which developed later, it includes all forms of historical compositions. But the earlier and narrower meaning was pura-vritta (events of the past). The Nirukta implies this and the Brihatdevata explicitly states it.

The last literature under this category was vanshavali (vansha+avail). It is the description of vansha (avali).

The second stage of historical tradition developed in the royal courts which are represented by historical epics, generally called charitas or biographies, composed in early medieval period. The process of the achievements of the royal glory by the king, is developed in the five stages; prarambha (the beginning), prayatna (the effort), praptyasa (the hope of achieveing something at the end), niyapti (the certainty of achievement) and phatagama (the achievement). These stages supply an ordered sequence in the story. The use of chronology in terms of the ordered sequence of action rather than in the framework of dates and years is a characteristic of Indian thought.

Thus, considering all these points, we can say that people in ancient India had the notion of recording events, but due to the circular notion of time, they recorded history in the embedded form.