ROMILA THAPAR LECTURE July 5 2013 Contours in Early Indian History and Inaugurating the DD Kosambi Visiting Professorship

p Programme Brief biography of Kosambi Paradigm shift in the study of Ancient Indian history- the idea of knowledge advancing by new questions asked, new answers sought, through new frames is not restricted to the sciences DD Kosambis discovery of Marxism as a way of linking the past and the present Why paradigm shift? Marxist method enabled new questions, and his wide reading and intellectual reach enabled him to formulate new answers To understand the scope of the change from older studies of ancient India to those in the last few decades (influenced by Kosambi): o At Independence, two views of history colonial and nationalist. Broad consensus on leaders and movements more recent; contest over ancient India the centre being the idea of POWER o For the colonial historian (see JAMES MILL, 1818), important to divide Indian history into Hindu, Muslim and then British periods. Assumes that units of Indian society have always been monolithic, religious, mutually hostile communities; and that these religious identities superseded all others. The two nation theory Partition o Second assumption: The model of Oriental despotism. Static society over history, no sense of history therefore (history records change), endemic poverty consequent upon stasis and absolute rulers. So no historical writing, of course. o Third assumption: Hindu society rigidly divided into 4 castes, identified with races roots in contemporary European race theory. Grounded in the Aryan foundation idea of Indian civilisation. o Enlightenment Project and rational view of history, of the Orient o Drew on high-caste texts o These preconceptions together with narratives that served the colonial project ruled the production of history Changes some but insufficient: o Ages shifted to ancient, medieval and modern markers remained the same o Rejected Oriental despotism nationalist history o Social and economic history neglected; continued to draw on ancient normative, high-caste texts: the dharmashastras o Two nationalist narratives of history Hindu and Muslim. Less anti-colonial more interested in supporting their political agenda using religion. The agenda and methods of colonial policy were and are recognisable in them o NB History is central to nationalisms legitimates them Real change: the beginning of Indian social sciences o Another model of knowledge seeking than colonial and nationalist what was the real nature of Indian society and cause of Indian poverty? e.g. NAOROJI o Sociologists like DP MUKHERJEE and MK [?] BOSE o Investigations into the REAL ancient society to see how it may have differed from the dharmashastras

Studying the reality of the caste system BR AMBEDKAR and projection of his Dalit identity into the past pattern of domination and subjection But historians reluctant to go behind the normative texts o Challenge to the picture of the world divided into monolithic, monolingual, onereligion civilizations thus India = Sanskrit = Hindu British characterisation of forest peoples and other subalterns still linger In many other ways, the simplicity of colonial descriptions and labels was maintained o Cultural Nationalism claimed to be interested only in culture stuck very close to the contours of colonial discourse o Identities today claiming to be single, original, oldest, unchanging draws on such history. BUT historians cannot as the 19th century idea was treat identity as single and unchanging all investigation shows it is always multiple It is important for us to understand how the present influences the reading of the past o Such questioning became prominent in 1950s and 60s, when other social sciences were becoming prominent too o Resulted in distancing from colonial view and those views drawing on it Knowledge shifts and changes, especially when the frame the paradigm is changing o Realisations: Division into Hindu-Muslim-British ages set aside differences WITHIN THEM, characterised them merely by rulers or dynasties, and pretended any of the ages was consistently glorious or terrible o Relations are what must be investigated religions relations to its patrons, others, identities, the state, are complex o Social, economic, religious etc histories produced same chronological bracket, but were not integrated. Greater depth and meaning to our understanding Historians also began to look at how other disciplines studied society with a much needed focus on Indian problems as specific and particular o ARCHAEOLOGY esp and no longer only making lists of all objects found at archaeological digs o Use of LINGUISTICS o Ancient history ceased to be a part of Indology and became a discipline itself a historical method was evolving, based on critical analysis The Aryan Invasion o Thapar says the earlier theories have been totally discounted o Mainstream historians now say there was contact and small-scale migration from Afghanistan and inwards Oxus Valley, N Iran, N Syria, N Western India 2nd millennium BC o Of an ARYAN-SPEAKING PEOPLE> Imp that Aryan no longer a racial category but a linguistic one o This happened after decline of Indus civilisation Some now say the Harappans WERE the Aryans, to have a nice linear progression of Indian history the indigenous Aryan has virtually NO evidence o How to explain the persistent attachment to the Aryan = Indian connection?

This too reincarnation of colonial views of the Indian past COL. OLCOTT and MME. BLAVATSKY (crazy Theosophists!) first to claim India the home of the original Aryans, who carried civilisation westward also MAX MUELLER and some Indians Evidence for this slender almost none and changes constantly, so stop fighting over it Examining how concepts and identities changed through history is central to cultural history Another paradigm shift: using methodologies current in other social sciences the challenge lay in history becoming an intellectual exploration as well as an account of the past EXAMPLES o Concept of nation central to anti-colonial history how far back can the nation be taken? State-nation distinction: the feeling of shared past and future necessary for nation o Concept of the highly centralised state and fragmentation of the polity Thus, some history books still speak of Satavahana empire, etc o Now having recognised that patterns of power and characters of the state can vary widely, historians have evolved the idea of the clan-based society which may evolve into kingship but the problem of why and how societies change so the change need not happen, may not be linear, may not be directly chronological o What is state formation and state typology? The Mauryan and Guptan states were totally different [more detailed account of difference] o What of religion? Many states used sectarian religion but once study of ancient religion expanded beyond religious authoritative text, many discoveries like public debates, different social ethics, philosophical discourses beyond the merely religious, etc texture and depth o Colonial discourse focused on India as agrarian and neglected urban societies study of markets, money, coins and trade pioneered economic/commercial history. Extended to viewpoint changing from the Hindukush to the maritime so more trade routes, eg commerce lines extending to Canton to China. Half-serious comments are being made by historians about globalisation before globalisation. Beyond jokes, though, the idea of civilisations as autonomous and integrated has been displaced by them as porous and interconnected o Study of MARX, WEBER etc India/Asia as the Other of Europe o Marxist history modes of production displacing Oriental despotism but also, Indian Marxists rejected Marxs idea of the feudal or slave modes of production in ancient Asia although investigating the possibility of something like it, only not produced by the method of reflecting European history, as Marx did (eg slave mode from Ancient Greece) o A new periodization: Dating from 8-9th c AD, the grant of land becomes the center of the political economy. Led to both Marxist and non-Marxist accounts. Religious beneficiaries from Buddhist monasteries to Hindu maths to the later Sufi khankas emerge, become powerful, and become networks of support for a dynasty Patron relationship makes evident the religion-politics relation o NB religious organisations not only religious but have social roles from shakta sects to the bhakti movements variations of social aspects. WEBERbased idea of ritual

becoming the basis of legitimacy and therefore POWER. Reciprocal relations of giftgiving in which the donor, too, receives, as well as the priest who is enriched o Social mobility was much more possible than something like the Manusmriti depicts, which in turn made possible an open political arena, various modes of legitimation, and sometimes conflict and struggle. Polyandry in the Mahabharata may have been imitation of the lifestyles of higher castes, one of the ways of changing caste; also kings making new kshatriyas mentioned in Puranas o Unified account of the golden age of respect for women contested by much evidence, including the high number of enslaved women, abduction-like or propertybased forms of marriage and other relationship, etc o Forest dwellers and other peripheral peoples in Banas Harshacharita, account of forests being turned into farmland, and an erstwhile more egalitarian people being folded into the caste system creation of the idea of permanent pollution, of castes limited to certain unclean occupations. The history of deforestation and how it affected societies from Harappan migration to expansion of the caste system needs a lot of study should extend to environmental factors o The issue of regional histories: also engages with the problematic older idea that all identities have always been monolithic and unchanging o The emerging history of ideas Conclude: If historical knowledge is to be meaningful, the past has to be understood and explained the importance of INTERPRETATION: involves assessing the reliability of the evidence first, then judging its maker, meaning, audience, context. Esp important in ancient history