Historiography

             Short History 

    

Q.  What is Historiography

 Ans:- Historiography is the systematic study of history as an academic discipline. History is based especially on critical examination of sources and synthesis of accounts. In order to write the history of a certain subject, how historians have studied that subject using particular sources, techniques, and theoretical approaches, all belong to historiography. With the development of academic history from the nineteenth century onwards, a branch of historical literature developed and began to write history systematically in chronological order. Earlier, only political history was recorded , such as the rise and fall of an empires or a country and political wars. Now history included history of Politics, history of economics, history of culture, history of education, history philosophy, history of science etc. etc. It took hundreds of years to change this method and write history in scientific way, that is Historiography . The term historiography also refers to the theory and history of historical writing.

 

 Q. What are the important historiography written in Ancient India ?

Ans- Ancient Indian historiography possess a lot of material of high quality. Npw it is well established that Ancient Indian scholars produced a rich verity of historical material. Though they did not produce text book but their writings contain philosophical approach of history. The materials is available in the form of religious literature which not only throws light on the religion but also provides information about social, economic , political and cultural aspects of Ancient India.

The Vedas – Vedas are four in number and have great historical value. The Vedas are regarded as the oldest literary document of the world. These provides not only social, economic , political life and method of warfare of early Aryans. There are other Brahmanical literature like the Brahmins, Upanisadas, the Up-Vedas and Sutras.  With the help of these material made a valuable contribution to Indian historiography.

The Great Epics – The Ancient Indian historiography possesses two great epics namely, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. These are mainly the religiou books of the Hindus but they provide good source material for history writing.

Buddhist Literature – The Buddhist literature made valuable contribution to Indian historiography. Tripitakas give us significant information about India during the life time of Lord Buddha. Buddhist literature which deals with important aspect of Indian history. It was written by Asva Ghosha and gives us much information about Chandra Gupta Maurya, Ashoka and Kanishka.

Jain historiography – The Jain literature also deals with the same period as covered by the Buddhist historians. Jain literature has Angas and Upangas which are twelve in number. The most important account of Jain literature is Parisistha Parvana and Padma Charita. These Buddhist and Jain literature are purely religious literature. But it helps to construct Ancient Indian historiography.

Important Historical Literary Works- Inspite of religious literature various other literary works were produced and those provide a lot of material of historical value. Visakha Dutta’s Mudra Rakshash, Bana’s Harsha Charita, Kalhana’s Raj Tarangini, Chandra Bardai’s Prithivi Raj Raso, Patanjali’s accounts and Kautilya’s Arthasastra. These ancient works clearly establish that Ancient India produced important historical works which provide sufficient knowledge of Ancient India.