Political History of Ancient India, From the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty


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Political History of Ancient India


Book Description

This book traces the political history of ancient India from the accession of Parikshit to the extinction of the Gupta dynasty. The aim of the author is to present materials for an authentic chronological history of ancient India through facts recovered from sources.




Prof. H.C. Raychaudhuri, as a Historian


Book Description

This book, Prof. H.C. Raychaudhuri as a Historian, is a milestone in the field of Indian historiography. Prof. H.C. Raychaudhuri was a distinguished scholar and academician. His Political History of Ancient India has deserved commendation from the students and scholars of India and abroad. He had reconstructed the history of ancient India through his thorough research. He had given a toe challenge to the colonial historiography. The most neglected aspect of Indian History was the historical geography which Prof. Raychaudhuri analysed vividly and opened new horizons for the scholars of the land to pursue further research in this field. His critical analysis on Indian religion, particularly on Vaishnavism, has earned him immortal fame. For his erudition, he became the member of many learned societies of India including Indian History Congress and served in various capacities contributing in his own way to the growth of knowledge. This book, revealing the contributions of Prof. H.C. Raychaudhuri to the historiography of India, will be indispensable for the students and teachers of Indian historiography. Salient Features (i) Objectivity is the forte of the book. This objective analysis is however done in an intimitably lucid style that makes this book irresistably readable. (ii) Welcome light has been thrown on the virgin topics which had been taken up by Prof. Raychaudhuri for analysis. (iii) It is a treasure-house for any student or teacher of Historiography and Indology. (iv) The works of a 'first class mind' have been evaluated with a critical and analytical manner. (v) A clear picture of India' s rich cultural heritage of the past has been projected through the analysis of the works of Prof. Raychaudhuri. (Vi) A peep into the pages of the book will acquaint the readers with the profound scholarship of Prof. H.C. Raychaudhuri as a historian.




Indian Antiquary


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Political Violence in Ancient India


Book Description

Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru helped create the myth of a nonviolent ancient India while building a modern independence movement on the principle of nonviolence (ahimsa). But this myth obscures a troubled and complex heritage: a long struggle to reconcile the ethics of nonviolence with the need to use violence to rule. Upinder Singh documents the dynamic tension between violence and nonviolence in ancient Indian political thought and practice over twelve hundred years. Political Violence in Ancient India looks at representations of kingship and political violence in epics, religious texts, political treatises, plays, poems, inscriptions, and art from 600 BCE to 600 CE. As kings controlled their realms, fought battles, and meted out justice, intellectuals debated the boundary between the force required to sustain power and the excess that led to tyranny and oppression. Duty (dharma) and renunciation were important in this discussion, as were punishment, war, forest tribes, and the royal hunt. Singh reveals a range of perspectives that defy rigid religious categorization. Buddhists, Jainas, and even the pacifist Maurya emperor Ashoka recognized that absolute nonviolence was impossible for kings. By 600 CE religious thinkers, political theorists, and poets had justified and aestheticized political violence to a great extent. Nevertheless, questions, doubt, and dissent remained. These debates are as important for understanding political ideas in the ancient world as for thinking about the problem of political violence in our own time.




The Origins of Political Order


Book Description

Nations are not trapped by their pasts, but events that happened hundreds or even thousands of years ago continue to exert huge influence on present-day politics. If we are to understand the politics that we now take for granted, we need to understand its origins. Francis Fukuyama examines the paths that different societies have taken to reach their current forms of political order. This book starts with the very beginning of mankind and comes right up to the eve of the French and American revolutions, spanning such diverse disciplines as economics, anthropology and geography. The Origins of Political Order is a magisterial study on the emergence of mankind as a political animal, by one of the most eminent political thinkers writing today.




The Cultures of History in Early Modern India


Book Description

This book examines the nature and function of history-writing in India by focusing on early modern traditions of historiography with particular reference to Bengal. Situating distinctive cultures of history vis-à-vis their relevant political and cultural contexts, it highlights the richness, variety and politically sensitive character of a range of oral and textual narratives. Kumkum Chatterjee also makes a significant contribution to the intellectual and cultural history of early modern India by exploring interactions between regional, vernacular cultures on the one hand and the Islamicate, Persianized culture of the Mughal Empire on the other. Strongly grounded in primary sources, The Cultures of History in Early Modern India re-examines the concepts of authority, evidence and method in early modern historiography. It also discusses the debates surrounding the culture of history writing in India.




Bihar and Mithila


Book Description

The world has become obsessed with the Western notions of progress, development, and globalization, the latter a form of human and economic homogenization. These processes, through the aegis of the United Nations, are comparatively monitored. Those nations deemed to be ‘lagging behind’ are then provided with foreign aid and developmental assistance. For nearly seventy years, India has sought its place in this global endeavour; yet, even today, abject poverty and backwardness can be observed in districts in almost every state; with the highest concentration of such districts found in the state of Bihar and a cultural enclave, known as Mithila. Development in India has been elusive because it is difficult to define; and because the Western concepts of development and progress have no absolute equivalents within many non-Western settings. As a consequence, development programmes often fail because they are unable to ask the right questions, but equally important is the political economy derived from foreign aid. For politicians, there is no long-term benefit to be derived from successful development. In general, foreign aid only serves to corrupt governments and politicians and, in the end, does very little for those who need help. The struggling states of Bihar and Mithila serve as extreme examples of India‘s problems. Development here has been thwarted by a hereditary landed aristocracy supported by religion, casteism, custom, social stratification, tradition, and patterns of behaviour that can be traced back millennia. In turn, all these have been masterfully manipulated by co-opted politicians, who have turned politics into a veritable art form as this volume comprehensively demonstrates.




A Global Encyclopedia of Historical Writing, Volume 2


Book Description

First published in 1998. Including a wide range of information and recommended for academic libraries, this encyclopedia covers historiography and historians from around the world and will be a useful reference to students, researchers, scholars, librarians and the general public who are interested in the writing of history. Volume II covers entries from K to Z.




Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks


Book Description

This exploration of early paths for Buddhist transmission within and beyond South Asia retraces the footsteps of monks, merchants, and other agents of cross-cultural exchange. A reassessment of literary, epigraphic, and archaeological sources reveals hisorical contexts for the growth of the Buddhist saṅgha from approximately the 5th century BCE to the end of the first millennium CE. Patterns of dynamic Buddhist mobility were closely linked to transregional trade networks extending to the northwestern borderlands and joined to Central Asian silk routes by capillary routes through transit zones in the upper Indus and Tarim Basin. By examining material conditions for Buddhist establishments at nodes along these routes, this book challenges models of gradual diffusion and develops alternative explanations for successful Buddhist movement.