CHAPTER
– I
INTRODUCTION
The
reconstruction of ancient Indian History, as we find it today, is no more
dependent on the products of speculations and conjectures based on only
literary sources. The study of other objects discovered through archaeological
excavations, have attributed a scientific, reasonable, and more reliable
character to the same. Simultaneously, another factor has played a very
significant role. It is the modern approach to history, diametrically opposite
to that of the colonial, which used to set all attention on the political
aspect, the rest given only a passing glance. Nevertheless, the historians and
archaeologists belonging to that period must be remembered with reverence for
the interest they displayed and the tireless efforts they made, to discover
India’s past. They may, justifiably, be regarded as the precursors of Indology.
The
changed approach, alluded to in the previous paragraph, has brought in its turn
a remarkable boom in the entire activities concerning the subject. The reading,
teaching, research-works publications – in short, everything centering around
history, tend to assume a more practical attitude as they seek the facts
related to the society, religion, economy, education, culture, morality and the
like – which characterize a civilization, along with the political aspect,
another component part. Only thus one
would be able to have a bird’s eye view to form a total conception of the past
annals of Indian civilization.