A Brief Survey of Sources Of Ancient History Of India: Literature, Epigraphy and Numismatics

Delve into A Brief Survey of Sources Of Ancient History Of India: Literature, Epigraphy and Numismatics for ancient Indian history, focusing on key literary sources like the Vedas, epics, Puranas, and more—essential for understanding India’s historical and cultural evolution.

THE VEDAS – shruti (heard)

The category of smriti (‘remembered’) texts – Vedanga, Puranas, epics, Dharmashastra, and Nitishastra. Each Veda has four parts, Sarnhita, Brahmana, Aranyaka, and Upanishad.

» Rig Veda Samhita – 1,028 hymns arranged in 10 books (Mandalas). Books 2-7 (family books) are considered the oldest.
» The Sama Veda – verses mostly borrowed from the Rig Veda, arranged according to musical notation.
» The Yajur Veda deals with the performance of rituals.
» The Atharva Veda is the latest Veda and contains hymns, but also spells and charms.
» The Brahrnanas are prose explanations of the Samhita portions and give explanations of sacrificial rituals and their outcome.
» The Aranyakas (forest books) interpret sacrificial rituals in a symbolic and philosophical way.
The Upanishads contain philosophical ideas about sacrifice, the body, and the universe, but are most closely associated with the concepts of atman and brahman.

Recensions (shakhas) of the Vedas

» Rig Veda – The Shakala shakha.
» Yajur Veda – Shukla (White) school (contain only the mantras) and Krishna (Black) school (mantras are accompanied by a commentary).
» Sama Veda – The Kauthuma, Ranayaniya, and Jaiminiya.
» Atharva Veda – Shaunaka and Paippalada.

• A major problem in using the Vedas as a source of history is the problem of dating the Rig Veda.
• There are several problems in correlating the evidence from the Vedas with archaeology.

THE TWO SANSKRIT EPICS: THE RAMAYANA AND MAHABHARATA

Acording to a tradition it is composed Vyasa the work of one person nor of one age.
Fall within the category of smriti as well as itihasa.
Similarities in language and style suggest that they emerged from a common cultural milieu.
The composition of the Mahabharata can be placed between c. 400 BCE and c. 400 CE, and the Ramayana between the 5th/4th century BCE and the 3rd century CE.
To use them as historical sources, it is necessary to identify their internal chronological layers, which is not an easy task.
a) According to tradition, Rama lived in the treta yuga (age) and the Mahabharata war happened later, in the dvapara yuga.
b) Some historians argue Mahabharata reflect a slightly earlier period. This is because the setting of the Mahabharata is the Indo-Gangetic divide while in the Ramayana, the centre of political gravity had clearly shifted eastwards.
c) The strong women characters of the Mahabharata suggest an earlier stage. The practice of niyoga in the Mahabharata also suggests a social stage that is prior to that of the Ramayana.
d) Mahabharata consists of 18 Parvas. According to tradition, it was composed by Vyasa, but in its present form, it is clearly not the work of a single individual.
e) The Ramayana epic consists of seven Kandas (books). The compact vocabulary and style indicate work of a single individual, traditionally identified as Valmiki.
f) However, as with the Mahabharata, the archaeological evidence does not tell us whether there is any historical basis to the events.
g) Fitzgerald has argued that the Mahabharata was a Brahmanical response to certain specific historical developments: Buddhism and Jainism, and the rise of dynasties such as the Nandas and Mauryas.

THE PURANAS

Not the work of one person nor of one age.
There are 18 Mahapuranas (great Puranas).
The origins overlapped to some extent with the Vedas, but their composition stretched forward into the 4th–5th centuries CE.

Puranas are supposed to discuss five topics

The creation of the world (sarga)
Re-creation (pratisarga)
The periods of the various Manus (manvantaras)
The genealogies of gods and rishis (vamsha)
And an account of royal dynasties (vamshanucharita)

The conception of time

There are four ages or yugas – krita, treta, dvapara, and kali – all consisting of thousands and thousands of years. These four yugas make up a mahayuga, and 1,000 mahayugas constitute a kalpa. Every kalpa is divided into 14 manvantaras, each presided over by a Manu. The periodic destruction of the world is followed by its re-creation.

Puranas refer to historical dynasties such as the Haryankas, Shaishunagas, Nandas, Mauryas, Shungas, Kanvas, and Andhras (Satavahanas). The dynastic lists end with the Guptas (4th–6th centuries).
The Puranas have accounts of mountains, rivers, and places, which are useful for the study of historical geography.
They also reflect the emergence of religious cults based on devotion, especially towards the gods Vishnu and Shiva.
The Puranas had a very important function in the Brahmanical tradition as vehicles of Brahmanical social and religious values.

THE DHARMASHASTRA

The concept of dharma is based on the idea that the universe is governed by a certain natural law and that the moral laws guiding people’s lives should be in consonance with that natural law.
Dharma refers to the proper, ideal conduct of a person which leads to the fulfilment of the goals. These goals, known as purusharthas, are dharma, artha, kama, and moksha.

Sanskrit texts dealing specifically with dharma are collectively known as the Dharmashastra, subdivided into three groups:

Dharmasutras (600–300 BCE)
Smritis (200 BCE–900 CE)
The third includes brief and elaborate commentaries composed between the 9th and the 19th centuries.

• The Dharmasutras are part of Vedanga literature as well as the Dharmashastra corpus. Vedanga literature are divided into Shrautasutras – Vedic sacrifices, Grihyasutras – domestic sacrifices, and Dharmasutras – dharma.
• A person’s dharma depends on gender, age, marital status, varna, and ashrama. The ashrama system – brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha, and sannyasa.
• Dharmashastra deals with a number of other issues including personal, civil, and criminal law. These texts are normative and prescriptive – they talk about the way things should be.

BUDDHIST LITERATURE

Divided into canonical and non-canonical texts. Canonical texts lay down the basic tenets and principles of a religion or sect. The Pali Tipitaka of the Theravada school is the oldest of them all.

The Tipitaka – the Sutta, Vinaya, and Abhidhamma.

The Sutta Pitaka contains the Buddha’s discourses on various doctrinal issues in dialogue form.
The Vinaya Pitaka has rules for monks and nuns of the sangha.
The Abhidhamma Pitaka contains systemization of the teachings of the Sutta Pitaka.

The three Pitakas are divided into Nikayas. Sutta Pitaka consists of five Nikayas – the Digha, Majjhima, Samyutta, Anguttara, and Khuddaka Nikayas. The Jatakas are one of the 15 books of the Khuddaka Nikaya. The Khuddaka Nikaya also contains Theragatha and Therigatha (songs of Buddhist monks and nuns).
The composition of the basic core of the Pali Tipitaka can therefore be placed between the 5th and 3rd centuries BCE.
Non-canonical literature includes the Milindapanha (1st century BCE–1st century CE) which consists of a dialogue on various philosophical issues between king Milinda – Indo-Greek Menander – and the monk Nagasena.
The Pali or Sri Lankan chronicles – the Dipavamsa (4th–5th centuries) and the Mahavamsa (5th century) – contain a historical-cum-mythical account of the Buddha’s life, the Maurya emperor Ashoka, and the arrival of Buddhism on that island.
The trend towards the use of Sanskrit intensified in the Mahayana schools. Sanskrit Buddhist texts include Ashvaghosha’s Buddhacharita (1st/2nd century) and the Avadana texts. The latter contain stories of noteworthy deeds with a moral. Saddharma-pundarika offer accounts of the various Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and Mahayana doctrines.
They offer a non-Brahmanical window into ancient India; however, the Brahmanical perspective is replaced by a Buddhist one.

JAINA LITERATURE

The sacred books of the Jainas are collectively known as the Siddhanta or Agama. The language of the earliest texts is dialect of Prakrit known as Ardha-Magadhi.
The Shvetambara canon includes the 12 Angas, 12 Uvamgas (Upangas), and a number of individual texts.
The compilation of the entire canon is supposed to have taken place in the 5th or 6th century at a council held in Valabhi in Gujarat, presided over by Devarddhi Kshamashramana.
The non-canonical Jaina works are partly in Prakrit dialects, especially Maharashtri, and partly in Sanskrit. Commentaries on the canonical works – Niryuktis, Bhashyas, and Churnis in Maharashtri and Tikas, Vrittis, and Avachurnis are in Sanskrit.
The Jaina Puranas are hagiographies of the Jaina saints known as tirthankaras. The Adi Purana (9th century) narrates the life of the first tirthankara Rishabha.
The Parishishtaparvan (12th century) by Hemachandra gives a history of the earliest Jaina teachers and also mentions certain details of political history.

THE ACCOUNTS OF FOREIGN WRITERS

Historians have to distinguish between statements based on hearsay and those grounded in personal experience.
One of the most famous works is the Indica of Megasthenes, ambassador of Seleucus Nikator to the court of Chandragupta Maurya.
The many Greek and Latin texts of the 2nd century BCE to the 2nd century CE include the works of Arrian, Strabo, and Pliny and the anonymous Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.
Many Chinese monks made journeys to India, in order to collect authentic manuscripts of Buddhist texts, meet Indian monks, and visit places of Buddhist learning.
The best known are Faxian (399 to 414 CE) and Xuanzang (629 CE). The accounts throw light on the history of Buddhism and various other aspects of their time.
Arab scholars initially relied heavily on Greek works, but men such as Al-Biruni developed their own independent critical points of view.
Al-Biruni Tahqiq-i-Hind covers a large number of topics including Indian scripts, sciences, geography, astronomy, astrology, philosophy, literature, beliefs, customs.
Al-Biruni helped modern historians identify the initial year of the Gupta era.
Several Arabic geographical and travel accounts were such as the account of the traveller Sulaiman, refer to India and throw light on trade and aspects of Indian political history.

Epigraphy: The Study of Inscriptions

ANCIENT AND EARLY MEDIEVAL SCRIPTS

Epigraphy includes deciphering the text of inscriptions. It also includes palaeography, the study of ancient writing. The oldest deciphered inscriptions belong to the late 4th century BCE, and are in Brahmi and Kharoshthi. These include those of the Maurya emperor Ashoka.
. No obvious links between the Harappan script and Brahmi or Kharoshthi, what happened to writing in between remains a mystery.
. The first definite literary references to writing occur in the Buddhist Pali texts, especially the Jatakas and the Vinaya Pitaka. The Brahmi of Ashoka’s inscriptions seems a fairly developed script.
. Kharoshthi’s core area lay in the north-west — the land known as Gandhara in ancient times. Written from right to left, Kharoshthi seems to be derived from the north Semitic Aramaic script. The origins of Brahmi are not as clear.
. The different stages of the Brahmi script are often labelled on the basis of dynasties, e.g., Ashokan Brahmi, Kushana Brahmi etc. In the late 6th century, Gupta Brahmi evolved into a script known as Siddhamatrika. The modern north Indian scripts gradually emerged out of Siddhamatrika.
. The earliest inscriptions in the Tamil language are engraved in rock shelters and caves. They are in a script known as Tamil-Brahmi.
. Three southern scripts emerged in the early medieval period — Grantha, Tamil, and Vatteluttu. The first of these was used for writing Sanskrit, the second and third for writing Tamil.

LANGUAGES OF ANCIENT AND EARLY MEDIEVAL INSCRIPTIONS

. The earliest Brahmi inscriptions are in dialects of Prakrit. Between the 1st and 4th centuries CE, many inscriptions were written in a mixture of Sanskrit and Prakrit. The first long Sanskrit inscription is the Junagadh rock inscription of the western Kshatrapa king Rudradaman.
. In the Deccan and South India, Sanskrit inscriptions appeared along with Prakrit ones in the late 3rd/early 4th century CE.
. Between the 4th and 6th centuries, Sanskrit emerged as the premier language. However, in the post-Gupta period, there was a parallel trend towards the evolution of regional languages and scripts.
. In South India, inscriptions in the old Tamil language appeared in the 2nd century. There are examples of bilingual Tamil-Sanskrit Pallava inscriptions from the 7th century onwards.
. The earliest Kannada inscriptions belong to the late 6th/early 7th century CE.
. Malayalam inscriptions appeared in about the 15th century.

THE CLASSIFICATION OF INSCRIPTIONS

They can also be classified into official and private records. Ashoka’s edicts and royal land grants are examples of official records. Inscriptions recording grants made by private individuals or guilds to temples are examples of private records.
Inscriptions can also be classified as donative, dedicative, and commemorative inscriptions. For instance, the Lumbini pillar inscription of Ashoka is a royal commemorative inscription. Ancient practice of erecting memorials to dead people (Dedicative). Donative inscriptions in favour of religious establishments.
Royal inscriptions include prashastis (panegyric). Well-known examples are the Hathigumpha inscription of Kharavela and the Allahabad prashasti of the 4th century Gupta emperor Samudragupta.

Memorializing Death in Stone

Memorial stones and their inscriptions reflect the values and ideals that ancient communities associated with life and death. In the Andhra region, such stones are known as chhaya stambhas.
The Nagarjunakonda memorial pillar in honour of an artisan is naturally much simpler. The largest concentration is in Karnataka. About 2,650 hero stones have been found here. Two inscriptions from Siddhenahalli and Kembalu refer to the heroic death of a woman.
An inscription from Atkur commemorates the death of a dog named Kali.
The Maria and Muria Gond tribes of Madhya Pradesh still erect memorials of stone and wood.

INSCRIPTIONS AS A SOURCE OF HISTORY
Inscriptions have the advantage of durability. They are usually contemporaneous to the events they speak of. Compared to literary sources, which tend to give a theoretical perspective, inscriptions often reflect what people were actually doing.
The geographical spread of a king’s inscriptions is often taken as indicating the area under his political control.
Their prashastis give details about the history of dynasties and the reigns of kings. Of course, there are problems. Royal inscriptions naturally tend to exaggerate the achievements. Sometimes genealogies skip names, for instance, in the case of Skandagupta and Ramagupta. There are cases where inscriptions of different dynasties make conflicting claims.
Inscriptions shed light on the history of settlement patterns, agrarian relations and class and caste structures.
Inscriptions provide dateable information on the history of religious sects, institutions, and practices. They also give glimpses into sects and cults that were once important but did not leave any literature of their own e.g., the Ajivika sect and the yaksha and naga cults. They are also a rich source of information on historical geography.

Numismatics: The Study of Coins

A BRIEF HISTORY OF INDIAN COINAGE

Stone age people conducted exchange via barter. Chalcolithic cultures too conducted trade without the use of coins. The Rig Veda mentions words such as nishka and nishka-griva (gold ornaments) but these cannot be understood as coins.
. The earliest definite literary and archaeological evidence of coinage in the 6th–5th centuries BCE in a context of the emergence of states, urbanization, and expanding trade. Buddhist texts and the Ashtadhyayi refer to words such as kahapana, nishka, shatamana, pada. The advent of coinage did not mean the disappearance of barter.
. The oldest coins found are punch-marked coins of silver, some of copper. These coins are often irregular in shape, found all over the subcontinent. The punch-marked coins of northern India can be divided into four main series: Taxila-Gandhara type of the north-west with a heavy weight standard and a single punch type.
Kosala type of the middle Ganga valley, with a heavy weight standard and multiple punch marks.
Avanti type of western India, with a light weight standard and single punch mark.
Magadhan type with a light weight standard and multiple punches.
Symbols on these coins include geometric designs, plants, animals, the sun, wheel, mountain. Uninscribed cast coins made of copper or alloys of copper appeared soon after the punch-marked coins. These coins were made by melting metal and pouring it into clay or metal moulds.
. The next stage in the history of Indian coinage is marked by the die-struck Indo-Greek coins of the 2nd/1st century BCE. These are very well-executed, usually round and mostly in silver. They bear the name and portrait of the issuing ruler on the obverse. The Indo-Greeks issued bilingual and bi-script coins. Shakas, Parthians, and Kshatrapas follow the basic features of Indo-Greek coinage.
. The Kushanas (1st–4th centuries CE) were the first dynasty of the subcontinent to mint large quantities of gold coins. Kushana coins have the figure, name, and title of the king on the obverse. On the reverse are deities belonging to the Brahmanical, Buddhist, Greek etc.
. A number of coin types ranging from the 3rd century BCE to the 4th century CE, referred to as indigenous, tribal, janapada, or local coins form an important source of history of the dynasties of northern and central India. They include those issued by chieftains, kings, and non-monarchical states. Some coins with the word negama seem to represent coins issued by merchant guilds.
. In the Deccan silver coins of the Satavahana kings were die-struck. The legends were generally in the Prakrit language and Brahmi script. Punch-marked coins continued to circulate.
. The imperial Gupta kings issued well-executed die-struck gold coins with legends in Sanskrit. Known as dinaras. The obverse depicts the reigning king. The reverse of the Gupta coins has religious symbols.
In the post-Satavahana period the Ikshvakus (3rd–4th centuries) issued lead coins similar in fabric to the Satavahana ones.
i. Historians who describe early medieval period as marked by a feudal order talk of a decline in coinage along with a decline in trade and urban centres. This hypothesis can be questioned. In the Ganga valley, billon coins circulated in the Gurjara-Pratihara kingdom, while other coin types circulated in Rajputana and Gujarat. Copper coins were minted by the Arab governors of Sindh. In Kashmir, copper coins were supplemented by bills of exchange (hundikas). Kings of Bengal such as Shashanka issued gold coins.
ii. In the far south, coins with lion and bull motifs associated with the Pallavas. The tiger crest is the emblem on Chola coins.
iii. In many parts of early medieval India, cowries continued to be used as money along with coins.

COINS AS A SOURCE OF HISTORY

They are linked to monetary history, which includes an analysis of the production and circulation of coinage. Monetary history is in turn an important aspect of the history of exchange and trade.
The wide distribution of Kushana coins indicates the flourishing trade. Roman coins provide information on Indo-Roman trade.
Historians interpret the debasement of coins as an indication of a financial crisis. However, in a situation where the supply of precious metals is restricted or reduced, alloying or debasement can be a response to an increase in the demand for coins.
The area of circulation of dynastic issues is often used to estimate the extent and frontiers of empires. However, coins often circulated beyond the borders.
Important source for the political history of India between c. 200 BCE and 300 CE. Most of the Indo-Greek kings are known almost entirely from their coins.
Coins also offer information on ancient political systems. The term gana on coins of the Yaudheyas and Malavas points to their non-monarchical polity.
Sometimes, numismatic evidence offers biographical details. For instance, king Chandragupta I married a Lichchhavi princess, and this detail comes from coins commemorating the marriage. Coins have helped prove that a Gupta king named Ramagupta ruled between Samudragupta and Chandragupta II.
The depiction of deities on coins provides personal religious preferences of kings, royal religious policy, and the history of religious cults. For instance, representations of Balarama and Krishna appear on 2nd century BCE coins in Afghanistan, indicating importance of the cults of these gods in this region.

Conclusion

The study of Ancient Indian history relies on a rich tapestry of sources, each offering unique insights into the past. Literary sources, though often imbued with idealism or religious perspectives, provide narratives, cultural values, and chronological frameworks. Epigraphic evidence, particularly inscriptions, adds a layer of authenticity with its contemporaneity and factual content, offering crucial information on political authority, social structures, religious practices, and even everyday life. Meanwhile, numismatic sources, through their materiality, inscriptions, and symbols, shed light on economic conditions, trade networks, monetary policies, and political legitimacy.

Together, these sources create a multi-dimensional picture of India’s ancient and early medieval past. While each category has its limitations—literary texts can be exaggerated or symbolic, inscriptions can be propagandist, and coins may be scarce or regionally restricted—their combined analysis provides historians with a balanced and nuanced understanding of historical developments. This interdisciplinary approach underscores the importance of corroborating evidence across different types of sources to reconstruct India’s complex and layered historical narrative.

The Source Of These Notes is Upinder Singh’s A History of
Ancient and Early Medievai india

For More Readings You can go through this book: A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century

Visit Our Website To read more articles: historywithahmad.com