The Itihas-Puran Tradition and Foreign Travelogues in Ancient Indian History

morning everyone hope I'm a in our previous lecture we had talked about the religious sources

of and uh towards the end we had discussed about two specific types of SM literature that

is Quran literature and IAS literature it is a new type of devotional

literature which emerged from the post Moran period onwards up to the GTA period it consists of Genies of gods and

goddesses and conflicts the dynastic histories of of contemporary dynasties with those genical records those Divine

Genies the theas tradition on the other hand refers to the two great epics of India that is the Mahabharat and

ramayan now it is the combination of these two types of literature is considered to be

the ancient Indian historical tradition that is the

ithas Quan tradition right that that is what we need to talk about nowan

tradition and what are its important features and how did it originate take down a

question question answer what is

the ithas Quan tradition of Indian

history question mark how did it

originate and what are its pies question

mark 200 words okay question portions first of all what is theas pan tradition how did it

originate Origins and what are its features these are the that we need to

address we can begin by writing the ithas Quran tradition

of Indian history is the

early historical tradition of here

stop it is comprised of the

two major epics that is Mahabharat

and Raman and

the rans IT emerged in

the post mod period and

flourished in the early Christian

centuries when we say early Christian centuries we mean 1 to 5th Century ad okay

it emerged in the postmodern period and flourished in the early Christian Sy next subheading

though origin its origin may be attributed

to the following factors the following

factors Point first of all there already existed an oral Trad

tradtion the Indian civilization of passing on knowledge and legends okay so it was a continuation of that oral

tradition Vic literature for example had been transmitted for thousands of years through this oral tradition right and

once viic literature was compiled New Legends were inserted into they finally matured in the form of

theas Quran write down it was a continuation it was a continuation huh it was a

continuation of the oral tradition that already existed that

already existed in India hello hello

Nores I'm sorry uh we had to begin the class a little late today because of some technical issues I hope I'm

audible AR good morning uh right so I hope you haven't missed

anything okay Miss please wait till the end of the class I'll be sending you a snapshot of whatever I any doubts you

can ask all right that that already existed in India full stop the stories the

stories Legends and Genies passed down through this oral

tradition passed down through this oral tradition were written down were written

down in the form of these epics and qurans form of these ethics and

purans second the IAS puran literature

also serves as a repository of cultural memory also serves as a repository of

cultural memory distinction oral tradition this refers

to theic literature and

Royal unies by nature is this or oral tradition a

popular tradition or an elite tradition Elite tradition Ed by the pr El class and the ruling class

on the other hand there exist the people's own Legends and myths they have their own gods and goddesses and their

own figures that they rever through the history to the Past right so cultural memory be tradition this popular

tradition also blended with this Elite tradition and found Its Reflection In theas Quan tradition

IAS puran literature served as the repository of cultural M that is the popular

Legends folklor and myths of the

Common People popular Legends folklores and myths of the Common

People blended with the elite oral tradition blended with the elite oral

tradition of the Common People blended with the elite oral tradition

okay so first was oral tradition second was cultural memory number three

right the ithas Quan tradition Quan tradition emerged

through the integ ation of Mythology

and history integration of Mythology and history okay in fact this literature has

been written in such a manner that it it is often almost impossible to distinguish which facts are historical

which facts are mythical write down it presents it

presents historical events narratives and figures

within a mythological framework in a mythological framework and why is it done like this

why not pure history because purpose of this literature was not history writing it

was to impart certain values give some teachings to be people who were receiving this or target audience okay

write down this blending of myth and history this blending of myth and

history helped convey helped convey

moral religious and philosophical teachings oral religious and

philosophical teachings to the people next

Le right so these different uh epics and purans do they

have a single author no so although the Raman is attributed to valmiki and uh

the other qurans and ethics are also attributed to different individuals however

uh that they were never The Works of a single author rather they have continued to evolve over time for very for a very

long period of time these documents these texts were living do generation of schol going to add their own narratives

to it their own mythologies their own histor their own stories to it with their own world viw with their own

values being reflected in these new additions at the same time the next generation of Scholars would also redact

some of the earlier writings right so these Works have been shaped to a constant process of

authorship and redaction right and this has also led to the origin of many new Legends and myths within theas Quran

tradition that is the ref that is the result of several stages of evolution right so this is also how theas Quan

tradition write down ithas Quan literature IAS Quan literature H

underwent several stages of authorship and

redution authorship and redution stop over time over

time their content their content was

reorganized along with along with numerous phases of

addition and removal with several phases of addition and

removal okay so this was the way in which theas Quan tradition was shaped oral tradition continuation it

was the continuation of preservation of cultural memory in a written form thus it was a blending of the elite and

common popular traditions of Indian historical sensibility it also represents the

integration of Mythology both Elite as well as common and history primarily Elite

history uh the ithas tradition also emerged as the result of a long process of authorship and redaction okay next

subheading though teachers

down the ithas puran tradition is characterized by it's characterized

by the following distinctive features following distinctive features number

one genies an important aspect of this

literature is focus on is focused on Vana and

one shanu Char and one shanu Char

right you remember thisa was the

phology of gods and Sages

one shanu is the dynastic records

of kings and are the two of them connected or

unconnected they are connected okay so therefore would it be correct to say that the ithas Quran literature is a

kind of political literature or not why what is the political function

that these Genies are serving in the eyes of the people they are legitimizing the

rule of their kings by claiming that these kings are descended from great Gods Heroes and sages and thus they have

the Divine Right To Rule uh W and vanua full

stop these two these two are often conflated are often

conflated to Grant

legitimacy to the ruling class and reinforce the idea of

Divine rights of Kings Divine rights of Kings V rights of Kings stop

th this tradition falls into the category of political

literature of political literature okay next number

two is theas pan literature purely historical or purely mythological literature no it is a blending of D

these are myo historical

accounts right and

what is the purpose that these mytho historical accounts served this all

sorry first of all they framed or they gave a cosmological context to contemporary and past

historic so they framed Indian history within

the cosmological or mythological context Authority

increas because it has a religious sanction myological sanction

secondly these mythologies are often framed in the form of a battle between good and

evil battle what is going to be required to Define what is good and to Define what

is evil right and these are supposed and these definitions are supposed to serve as instruction manuals to the common

people you want to be on the side of good and resist EV right so they

also the historical accounts also served as moral

and ethical guidelines to regulate social

behavior it social within this literature you will find that

uh different figures are treated with the different levels of respect for example highest respect is going to be

reserved from gods and goddesses SS sages then Kings then they priests

and other ministers while the common people what are they expected to be they're expected to remain obedient

right so social and political hierarchy and they reinforce that social

order the bolstered

the sociopolitical and economic order

existing in society further at the time when this literature

was written a very important process was going on in expansion

of Civil Society centers for example under the K later part under the gtas Oren and say

these Imperial Powers were trying to expand their now as they expanded their more and more

came under their control and because by this point of time population and raade had reached critical levels therefore

they were no long these Powers were no longer Satisfied by establishing their control over the already populated areas

or already uh urbanized uh places rather they began venturing into the V they began clearing forests and they began to

resettle these cleared forests with agricultural people but Forest clear they came into contact with new people

which till now had remained isolated on groups the tribals right now the tribals till now had their own distinct

languages and cultures they had their own religions their own Gods and Goddesses now these tribal polities or

tribal societies that they had to be integrated into the mainstream Society they had to be convinced to give up

their primitive forms of life they shifting agriculture Gathering activities and start practicing settled

agriculture they were also to be convinced to regularly pay Revenue by integrating the tribal

culture with the c the best way to do that is to give the status of major gods to

the tribal Gods how to do that to the tool of incarnation

or ofar right tribal Gods

gods or Shiva and with this they are going to be brought not only into the economic mean

stream but also into the social mainstream and what was the structure of the social mainstream was it flat or was

it hierarchical hierarchical and within this social mainstream the newly

inducted tribals the new agrarian communities are they going to be given very high status no relatively lower

status El but bu of the newly inducted people they are going to be given lower status

so that the idea of political economic and social subservience can be integrated into their conscious and how

to do that for this the historical accounts so next write down

they served as an important tool to

integrate new people and communities into the

expanding the expanding socioeconomic mainstream into the expanding

socioeconomic means okay so features first of all were

politic kind of political lature because of the importance of genology but they were mytho historical account which

serve several purpose thir ithas puran

literature represents a living tradition

living tradition that it never stagnated authorship and redaction

process that Contin to go on as these Legends as these Traditions reached new people and new regions

right they came up with their own versions of the Mahabharat and Rah they came up with

new purans right that is why there is no single R Mahabharat recensions these recensions

spread from North India to East India West India Sri Lanka May completely different

Raman you'll find then Southeast Asia has its own version of The Ram Myanmar has its own version of The

Ram these are a these represent a living tradition right down over time over time over

time multiple versions and recensions and recensions of the great epics and

purans of the great epics and purans have emerged over time multiple versions and

recensions of the great ethics and haveed stop as these literature or as these texts as

these texts traveled to new regions traveled to new

regions they were modified in accordance with emerging priorities

and challenges resulting in emerging opportunities and challenges

or emerging priorities and challenges uh resulting in the creation

of a rich tapestry tapestry Within These Traditions these Traditions the features of

theas Quran conclusion how can we conclude this

answer the ithas Quran

tradition presents a window into

the ancient Indian sense of

History which was completely distinct

from the Western sensibilities they

represent the synthesis of Divergent intellectual

Pursuits into uh common or into uh harmonious

tradition they represent the synthis of diverent in purs into a harmonious tradition

which reflects the brilliance of the

ancient Indian mind and you can write most

significantly most significantly comma this

tradition continues to

shape modern indan Consciousness

even 2,000 years after its

okay natural tendency IND to neatly categorize actions into ethical choices good or bad and to

perceive important decisions in the for in the shape of a conflict between uh good and evil

sensibility from the ithas puran tradition then the figures and legends associated with these accounts such as

the different gods and goddesses their deeds the places mentioned they continue to feature very heavily in the Indian

Consciousness they are never at the back of the Indian mind they're always at the front of the Indian Consciousness and

because these accounts have Blended themselves so uh deeply into the religious Consciousness which permeates

the present Hindu society that is why it is almost impossible to separate modern Hinduism from theas Quran TR

okay then the way in which Indians think for example Indians love their Heroes and hero worship is almost like another

aspect of the Indian religion for examp because hero worship has been bed into the Indian cons Consciousness very

deeply through these Traditions right is problems be Associated for example they they reinforce the cast and gender

stereotypes which continue to plague the Indian society and efforts which have been going on for the better part of 200

years now ever since the mid 19th century social religious reform

reformers this is an almost unending process right why is that because of the negative cast and gender stereotypes

created by the simply WR they have continued to shap the modern Indian Consciousness

even 200 years after its emergence huh other question that examine the current

relevance of thean tradition of Indian history then you would have written through all these examples how theas pan

tradition continues to feature very heavily in the indianan

clear right so Hindus religious literature we have covered or religious

literature Buddhist literature and J Buddhist literature primarily

language earlier literature later Sanskrit and

canonical literature that means the foundational literature of any religion that is known as

it so canonical literature of Buddhism

consists of the three Paka is the Three Holy baskets

pakas suaka vak and ab

right consists of the teachings of the Buddha V consists of the

rules of the S and abidit is a compilation of the philosophical explanations given by

Buddha and the later Buddhist scholar so it covers the metaphysics of

BD suak vak and Abid Pak clear the earliest type of literature

was the canonical after this Buddhism also underwent some changes sect emerge within Buddhism

which became the dominant sect that is mahayan Buddhism what was the difference between H mahayan

Buddhism hinan Buddhism emphasized upon the importance of individual efforts to attain salvation whereas mahay and

Buddhism emphasized upon the importance of collective efforts right hean Buddhism following the

Eightfold Path was sufficient to attain salvation mahayan Buddhism emphasized upon devotionalism in order to attain

salvation in order to attain Nirvana so the idea was that the grace of the Buddha can be obtained by expressing

devotion towards him so new practices such as the construction of temples or idol worship or chanting of Buddhist

mantras all this started under mahayan we are going to discuss in Greater detail when we are talking about

the Mahan period but difference hyan Buddhism and mahayan Buddhism and mahayan Buddhism which was

devotional in literature resulted in the emergence of a new category of literature that was also

devotion so is consider as the of buhm type of this was known as aan

literature a new form of devotional literature new form of devotional literature associated

with mahayan Buddhism emerged with mahayan Buddhism emerged from the

emerged from the 3D Century BC third Century V

now some important examples of Aban literature so of

and have then mahay Buddhism change in that unlike the

original Buddhism Buddhism in which Buddha was considered only as a great teacher under mahayan Buddhism he was

considered to be an incarnation of God himself wased to the supreme god some new kind ofat is going to be

written in the form of biographies so religious personalities biography term they known as geography

okay and during the postm period two important sunkit geographies are going to be written post modern and Gupta

period one of them was the lit Vistar and the other was the then finally we have

some sofal treees such as the

elind Pano written by Naga and

two Sri Lankan sinal Buddhist philosophical works that is the Deep

Vana and the mahavan deep and

mahavan canonical text language Pali with the emergence of

mahayan Buddhism the importance of Pali declined and Pali was replaced by sunit sub

Sanskrit milind pan also in Sanskrit Deepa and mahavan in sis then we have

J literature also the canonical text of the Jens originally compiled in the 2 Century BC

was known as the uras in rrit

it belong to which sect of the Gen the gambers or schambers

sambers however fire and partly all of this is said to have been lost so these Works no longer

exist following this in the fifth century ad almost 700 years later another attempt was made to recompile

the Canon of jism and the shambas once again compiled a new set of Works known as the angal there are a total of 12

angas also in prit and is also attributed to the shambas following this a number of

commentaries were written on these angas known as the Kangas

also in RIT however later on jism came to be closely associated or came to closely

resemble the brahmanical religion and the decline of PR meant the emergence of Sanskrit jism

and type of literature emerge within jism that is a geographies Mah along with the other

three anas or other eight gen teachers these geographies some important ones

include Pari peran written in 12th century by sorry written in the 8th Century by a scholar

named Chandra the OB Sutra and

the okay India religious literature okay

Hinduism then we have secular literature also political

treatises or works on stcraft Administration economic

organization Etc right two most famous examples from ancient Indian history

the Earth shast written by aelia and

the Nar written by Amanda right

then we have a large number of culture works works which talk about the

Arts such as the RAS sura

of ban which covers a total of 64 different parts and graphs and

na shastra attributed to harat Muni which is a treze on the art forms

of music dance and theater then we have a number of

literary works such as the works of

sudra sorry uh Bash sudra bidas

ET right some of their important works bashka

charam rraa Rich kikas

Works alag mam V shakuntalam Vikram Oram

ruam marava Ru Samar and

rahas ruam and Kumar samas are long Poetic wordss epics Samaran

poetic collections poems okay

clear and we have Shak that mudra rasa

and a Chandra guptan these are also ramas Vishnu Sharma

compile K punch Tantra is a collection of short

stories C then you literary Works which important

lit re Works in we have some scientific

literature such as the ARA AR

we had some and punch sidhanta

of here we have the brahmas Fu sidhant

of rupta Etc right you also have some other manuals such as the

chak samita of chak is a treze

on medicine the P

samita of suut it is a treti on surgery onomy

and Mathematics the brihad samita deals

with astronomy and astrology pchh

astronomy and Mathematics brahmas

sidhant mathematics J samita medicine

samita sgy okay so secular literatures then you also

have some secular literature of a political nature such

as Royal biographies example we

har charita written by

babat covers the life and deeds of haran the ruler of the kabuti dynasty

who ruled in the early 7th century from kard then we have the

guo written by Waka or wakati Raj it is dedicated to North Indian ruler yesu

verman belong to the 8th century then we have the vrand

vij written by kashmiri Poet bilana CS the deeds and victories of the Chalan

ruler six there are several other Royal biographies as right

now indianer next question emerges is the critical

evaluation of literature as a historical source

so tell meally evaluate literature code as a source of

this by addressing its shortcomings and friends can you pinpoint some

shortcomings exaggerations we have seen religious literature Trad there's a blending of

myth and reality it is almost impossible to distinguish the two language used is poetic and figurative in nature which

say fact what else they are written in ancient languages or

inter SCH biases insert then authorship of most of the Indian literature is suspect they cannot be neatly attributed

to a single author even works such as the Nar and arastra they are considered to be works that have been prepared over

several centuries auth works right and in such a scenario when we are unable to identify

the actual author we are not able to pinpoint the biases of that author the objectives of that

author behind writing his work the person that he was writing for right then we are also going to have

a number of biases in uh writing so everybody writes history with a purpose and sometimes that bias is implicit

sometimes that bias is explicit also for examp also talk about the of only about

the great achievements he only praised

but we may be unaware or it may be unclear to us that why a particular author has a particular attitude towards

certain groups so he may be biased in favor of certain groups or biased against certain

groups literature is susceptible to additions and reductions it is very difficult to

see what else literary evidence cannot always be supported by archaeology for example

based on the reading of the Mahabharat a very famous Indian historian excavated the site

of and this raises the suspicion of historians with regards to the veracity of the entire source as a whole so it is

not always possible to uh verify the accuracy of these literary sources through archeological records what

else SC lit sources focus of Indian writing has never been

towards the accurate depiction of historical events in fact historicity always takes a backseat when it comes to

other priorities such as moral education or political integration or legitimacy okay so in order to do those things it

is believed that historicity has often been it has often been molded to fit the

other political or myological Mars priority historical accuracy it is about over moral education or political

integration that is why history often distorted in these Mar pleas very quickly write down

shortcomings number one most Indian works are not works of your

history they are mythical historical accounts they are mythical hisor IAL accounts

where historical accuracy is of lesser priority of lesser

priority accuracy metho historical accounts in which historical

accuracy is of lesser priority we can the authorship of most Indian

works is suspect making it

difficult to identify the implicit and explicit bias the implicit and explicit

bias of these writings is it an explicit bias of these writings

number three literary works are susceptible

so interpolations and

actions action okay do they are easy to manipulate number

four biased authorship is another big problem they are susceptible to

problems with translation and

interpretations next literary references do not

always match the archeological

record do not always match the ideological record okay these are the shortcomings

but literary sources have their own strengths also okay

yeah they offer detailed information in

an organized framework detail information and organized framew workk from which from

which it is easier to glean it is easier to glean historical

information clean clean they also present a

window into the minds of

their ancient Indian authors and their patrons

okay this is something that archaeology can never have

further literature also helps paint

uh Vivid picture of ancient

Indian culture and thank

abilities okay next it can

add color to archaeological discoveries it provides a

glimpse of Royal ideology

and societal values and linguistic

and fonetic Analysis of literary

Works can give a glimpse into the process

of evolution and diffusion

of languages similarly the diffusion

of myths and legends diffusion of myths and legends can help

the diffusion ofs and legends can help recreate

the pattern of human migration political

expansion and cultural and

Commercial as for example as the stories of the Raman traveled from North India to centr India to South India you can

also see how interconnection between these and the communities between them living in them were emerging this took

place through various processes develop or Beyond India also similar processes took place okay so

these these are some of the trends

now in light of these strengths and weaknesses me while using these ancient sources to

recreate in write down conclusion

victorians must be careful to account

for the weaknesses of lary

sources be careful to account for the weaknesses of the literary sources

stop these must be evaluated critically

and should not be taken

at base value you must be tested critically it

validity must be certained and how to assertain its validity by comparing and contrasting it

again other sources both literary and of archaological nature they must

be tested against other literary

and archeological works secondly historians must

also account for not only there sorry not only

the bias of the authors but

also their own bias inas authent and explicit

bias need to be these sources need to be write down only with this care and attention

with this care and attention can literature

fure emerge as a truly useful course of history

useful source of History okay critical evaluation of literary

Source now Indian literary sources we have covered foreign literary

ancient India attracted a large number of foreign Travelers who have left behind their own written records of

their travel accounts their own travelogs they can broadly be divided into three categories

Bon Reco Roman Travelers

the Chinese Travelers and the Arab first of all

the GCO Roman TR when did direct contact between India and Europe

emerge which political event opened the root between India and Europe the invasion of Alexander towards

the second second half of the 4th Century BC 326 to 324 BC was the of his invasion of the Northwestern portion of

the Indian sub following this a large number of Greek Travelers and other Roman Travelers getat on contined to

visit India the contact between India and the West reached its PE during the post Moran period because of the

flourishing Indo Roman trade along the maritime as well as Overland Sil grout which connected not only Rome and India

but also India to China and India to North Africa and the Eastern now

Alexander came to India along with some Warrior Scholars and those who have covered his

famous battles in India and so have recorded the details of the Northwestern portion of India including the Indus

Valley and the marran coast they include Hy cries and

aristois along with his famous Admiral Alexander task to take his ships along the Indus River and explore right up to

the mouth of the naras went even Beyond this exploring the uh Indian Coastline up to the Conan

mahra now they were the companions of alander here

then what happened after Alexander's Invasion although he was victorious in the battle of the hipes his soldiers

forced him to turn back and then he started returning towards Macedonia via he died however on root at Babylon right

his empire was divided among hisn most part of the ire came under the rule of one of his generals known

Asus Foundation here known as vria okay now back rria was a neighbor of the ancient

Indian Moran Empire by the time that established back here chra Moria had L the foundations of the Moran

Empire as well almost s and the region of Punjab became an area of contest between these two new

emerging War the mor emerged Victorious but they did not punish the Greeks to harshly treaty relations were

established resulting in the exchange of who was the amb yeah Inda okay so

meganes is probably the most well-known GRE scholar to have written about India he wrote

the Inda he was the ambassador of Sor the ruler ofri at the court of CHA at

C however original work Inda that is no longer available to us it has been lost

in time and we know about what metines wrote through the writings of some later Greek and Roman Scholars so the writings

of meas exist are present today in form of excerpts so quotations that were taken by these Scholars from mein's work

about Scholars Aran Nar

Justin diodorus L the Elder and

scrabo so the writings of nases survived the form of excerts of the writings of these

calls okay then there was another very famous work which covers indor Roman this work is by an an anous author and

it is known as the periplus of the arrian

sea arrian sea was the old Greek name for the Red Sea which has been found from I think it was near muscar we

read sorry near the Gulf of Eden

okay red located and from here this work was found and thus known as the per of the arrian it contains details

of India's overseas trade not only with the Western world but also

with the East it focuses upon SE bound mentions a large number

of Indian ports also gives a list of the important ports along the Indian Ocean that were

important for this trade in the Commodities that were being exchanged

Roman important information C next we have the Chinese

Travelers why did the bulk of Chinese Travelers come to India what was their interest Buddhism the religious

purpose either for pilgrimage or to collect holy Buddhist Scrolls or to learn at the Great Indian University

such as nalanda three famous Chinese Scholars were Twisted India during the ancient

perioden wung also known as Juan

Chang and eing also known as

E when did Fen arrive in India 399 ad did he leave 412 stayed in India for a total of 13 years

who was the ruler of North India at that point of time chra the second when sang visited India during

the reign of which great North Indian Emperor It's s during the 7th Century okay so these were some of the Chinese

Travelers they have written their own travelogs now while bahin has talked about Indian Society economy and the

social divisions in general he has not talked about Indian poity on the other hand hen sang has talked about primarily

Indian religion and quity he has given a great degree of praise to harsharan whereas fahin does not mention any

Indian ruler okay who is difference then we have the Arab Travelers

such as Al suan

kurab Al woodi and Al beruni

these three came between or came during the 9th or 10th centuries okay what was the context of their

arrival in India did they come to India with Invaders or as Traders came to India as

Traders 8th to 10th century is known as the period of the tripartite struggle in India during this period the region of

Sy was already under Arab control and Sy provided a great way for the Arabs to trade with the three great powers of see

gar pratiharas rash kutas and palas so gar prar in Western India rash in Southern

India and palas in eastern India and Bengal Val region what did what was the nature of

the relationship between these three great Indian powers constant Warfare and Warfare by this

point of time had undergone major Transformations the importance of elephants had declined and the

importance of War Hors had problem India did not have any native robust species of war horses

therefore horses had to be ined or even Europe therefore all these Powers were Reliant upon the Arab

TR in this context that these early three uh Scholars or Travelers came to India have talked

about quality economy and culture

okay what was their attitude towards India did they have a favorable attitude towards Indians yes so

they viewed Indians favor were impressed

by Indian wealth courage of Indians in Warfare

and Indian sense of cleanliness these are the kinds of things that

they Al beroni on the other hand came to India not as

a Trader but as a scholar as a pure scholar Arabs aluni came under the influence of

Turks right now Afghanistan the Turks had Consolidated power and a new sultanate had emerged at Gaz

right founder mammad bin Gaz sorry mm of Gaz and gazni was an Infamous leader he

attacked India 17 different times alal directions on one of his invasions to India he brought along with him his old

scholar aliron but after arriving in India proper The Invader went on his way and alboni went on his own way right

aluni went towards Banaras where he stayed for two years learned about India and then started writing about so he

came with amood of gazni

the early 11th centur traveled to Banaras learned

Sanskrit and wrote the or in Persian

okay he wrote theab hind on the basis of his reading of ancient Indian sunkit works as well as his conversations with

the scholars living at Banaras clear so subject matters

C he has talked about Indian Society religion cast and

Verna status of women he has talked about Indian technology we has talked about the

status of Indian education Etc what is the nature of his assessment is of a critical nature some

things he has appreciated other things he has condemned okay the analysis or the assessment is of an analytical

nature right he has tried to scientifically break down the problems in the Indian Society Indian religion

Indian learning Etc and has suggested solutions for them as well he did not display the same kind of hostility that

was evident uh from the early sorry from the other political actors of his period such as Mahmud of Gaz Mahmud of Gaz uh

called himself buen that is the destroyer of Idols who took pride in Breaking the temples or idols albun on

the other hand displayed a great degree of admiration for the ancient Indian cult culture he wanted Indians to learn

from the other cultures and blamed their insularity for their defeat for their weakness for their stagnation for their

backwardness right so he wanted in fact that the other cultures should also learn the good things from Indian

civiliz he wanted an open exchange writers we are going to learn in greater

Greek Roman Greek Roman Chinese and Arab TRS now once again critical

evaluation of foreign accounts once

again weaknesses and strengths

strength they help fill the gaps in Indian

literature only foreign literature exists secondly they give

a unique perspective into Indian history why is

this every culture has its own lens to perceive its surroundings it they consider different things to be

important it is not necessary what the Indian Scholars felt was important to record would be the same as the Greek or

the Chinese or the Arab Scholars so the unique perspective shows sheds light on new

aspects of Indian literature that may have been knowed by Indian schol on Indian

history thirdly they give details of important

events places and persons important for recreating the

Indian past for example the invasion of Alexander the

battles of the Indus and the hpes the Excursion of MCAS up to the mouth of the river Indus and Beyond

Etc cover then strength

they bring the tools of Western historiography to the Indian context right and Western historiography

Focus historical accuracy historical exclusivity and on chronology and authorship okay so they help to frame

the Indian history into a proper chronological context for example there are several uncertainities in Indian

history however for example chra Moran Empire established when did the Moran period begin reference

point the invasion of Alexander so three years after that the mod Empire was created so

they help establish Indian

chronology in areas of

Uncertain because of uncertainty okay further unlike Indian Scholars who are writing

on specific subjects right her scholar field of study foreign Scholars are they also

going to write about the same subject a singular subject no they are going to give a broader perspective they are

going to have a bird's eye view of the Indian context so they have a broad perspective

which is useful in creating a comprehensive image of the past right for example meas

talks about religion it talks about Society it talks about quity it talks about economy it talks about Foreign

Relations he talks about Warfare also he talks about the customs of Indians their various festivals he talks about the

presence of different trade routs different classes of merchants right so he is given a broad overview of

Indian Society Indian works works element

missing what else or strength foreign literature now since foreign Travelers are neutral

observers biases are not going to be as big a factor in their writings as Indian writings

so they are relatively more objective and L

buyers further in writers target audience Indian audience their native audience

they native audience they foreign audience right and therefore a major way in which a major focus of their writing

would be to highlight the different ways in which contact has been established between the western or other

civilizations and the Indians they shed greater light on cultural

contacts and comparisons okay these are some of the strengths

weaknesses foreign literature discuss that every culture has its own L of how to perceive reality

now these Scholars were they born with the Indian lens no they inherently came with their own cultural lenses he came

with the Greek lens and he tried to analyze and perceive Indian Society Indian culture Indian poity to his lens

right this is going to result in certain inact certain laws for example he looked at Indian

Society Indian Society of his period was divided on the basis of Verna and cast Indian Society consists of seven

different classes why because because cast concept did not exist in

superos and this is a result of the inherent biases of these Scholars having their own cultur

okay WR down biases associated with

cultural dissimilarities and perceptions

okay now these Travelers up

[Music] that the way in which they perceive history is the same as the way in which

you would perceive the outside world you are traveling in a high speed train and looking

outside so you are going to be forced to make generalizations okay and that is what

happens with these foreign Travers so the Practical

limitations of covering a complex

and large Society in short

periods leads to generalizations uh

who were these Travelers they were either prominent Traders or prominent Scholars or

ambassadors which strata of society do they would come in contact with on a daily basis common people or Elites

Elites so in the writings for the picture that they have about India is going to be based on those Elite

sensibilities so they had little practical