History of India

By MALAV PARIKH IX-C IX-

What is history ?
 History is the study of the past, with special attention to the past, written record of the activities of human beings over time.  Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field historians. of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns of cause and effect that determine events. Scholars debate the nature of history and the lessons history teaches.  A famous quote by George Santayana has it that "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. The stories common to a particular culture, but not supported by external Arthur) sources (such as the legends surrounding King Arthur) are usually classified as Cultural heritage rather than the "disinterested investigation" needed by the discipline of history

Etymology
 The word history comes from Greek (historia), from the historia), Proto-IndoProto-Indo-European *wid-tor-, from the root *weid-, "to know, to *wid-tor*weidsee".This root is also present in the English words wit, wise, wisdom, wit, wise, wisdom, vision, vision, and idea, in the Sanskrit word veda, and in the Slavic word idea, veda, videti and vedati, as well as others.(The asterisk before a word vedati, indicates that it is a hypothetical construction, not an attested form.)  The Ancient Greek word , histora, means "inquiry, histora, knowledge acquired by investigation". It was in that sense that Aristotle used the word in his , Peri Ta Zoa Istria or, in Latinized form, Historia Animalium.The term is derived Animalium.The from , hst r meaning wise man, witness, or judge. We can man, witness, judge. see early attestations of in Homeric Hymns, Heraclitus, the Hymns, Heraclitus, Athenian ephebes' oath, and in Boiotic inscriptions (in a legal sense, ephebes' either "judge" or "witness," or similar). The spirant is problematic, and not present in cognate Greek edomai ("to appear"). The form historen, historen, "to inquire", is an Ionic derivation, which spread first in Classical Greece and ultimately over all of Hellenistic civilization. civilization.

 It was still in the Greek sense that Francis Bacon used the term in the late 16th century, when he wrote about "Natural History". For "Natural History". him, historia was "the knowledge of objects determined by space and time", that sort of knowledge provided by memory (while science was provided by reason, and poetry was provided by reason, fantasy). fantasy).  The word entered the English language in 1390 with the meaning English, of "relation of incidents, story". In Middle English, the meaning was "story" in general. The restriction to the meaning "record of past events" arises in the late 15th century. In German, French, and most Germanic and Romance languages, the same word is still used to mean both "history" and "story". The adjective historical is attested from 1661, and historic from 1669.

Historiography
 Historiography has a number of related meanings. Firstly, it can refer to how history has been produced: the story of the development of methodology and practices (for example, the move from short-term biographical narrative towards long-term shortlongthematic analysis). Secondly, it can refer to what has been produced: a specific body of historical writing (for example, "medieval historiography during the 1960s" means "Works of medieval history written during the 1960s"). Thirdly, it may refer to history. metawhy history is produced: the Philosophy of history. As a meta-level analysis of descriptions of the past, this third conception can relate to the first two in that the analysis usually focuses on the narratives, interpretations, worldview, use of evidence, or method narratives, interpretations, worldview, evidence, of presentation of other historians. Professional historians also historians. debate the question of whether history can be taught as a single coherent narrative or a series of competing narratives.

Philosophy of history
 Philosophy of history is an area of philosophy concerning the eventual significance, if any, of human history. Furthermore, it speculates as to a history. possible teleological end to its developmentthat is, it asks if there is a development design, purpose, directive principle, or finality in the processes of human history. Philosophy of history should not be confused with historiography, which is the study of history as an academic discipline, and thus concerns its methods and practices, and its development as a discipline over time. Nor should philosophy of history be confused with the history of philosophy, which is the study of the development of philosophical ideas philosophy, through time. Professional historians debate the question of whether history is a science or a liberal art. The distinction is artificial, as many view the field from more than one perspective. Recent argument in support for the transformation of history into science have been made by Peter Turchin in an article titled "Arise Cliodynamics" in the journal "Nature.

Historical methods
 The historical method comprises the techniques and guidelines by which historians use primary sources and other evidence to research and then to write history. history.  Herodotus of Halicarnassus (484 BC ca.425 BC) has generally been acclaimed as the "father of history". However, his contemporary Thucydides (ca. 460 BC ca. 400 BC) is credited with having begun the scientific approach to history in his work the History of the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides, unlike Herodotus War. and other religious historians, regarded history as being the product of the choices and actions of human beings, and looked at cause and effect, rather than as the result of divine intervention. In his historical method, Thucydides emphasized chronology, a neutral point of view, and that the human world was the result of the actions of human beings. Greek historians also viewed history cyclical, as cyclical, with events regularly recurring.

 There were historical traditions and sophisticated use of historical China. method in ancient and medieval China. The groundwork for professional historiography in East Asia was established by the Han Dynasty court historian known as Sima Qian (14590 BC), (145 author of the Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian). For the quality Historian). of his timeless written work, Sima Qian is posthumously known as Historiography. the Father of Chinese Historiography. Chinese historians of subsequent dynastic periods in China used his Shiji as the official format for historical texts, as well as for biographical literature.  Saint Augustine was influential in Christian and Western thought at the beginning of the medieval period. Through the Medieval and Renaissance periods, history was often studied through a sacred or religious perspective. Around 1800, German philosopher and historian Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel brought philosophy and a more secular approach in historical study.

 In the preface to his book, the Muqaddimah (1377), the Arab historian and early sociologist, Ibn Khaldun, warned of seven sociologist, Khaldun, mistakes that he thought that historians regularly committed. In this criticism, he approached the past as strange and in need of interpretation. The originality of Ibn Khaldun was to claim that the cultural difference of another age must govern the evaluation of relevant historical material, to distinguish the principles according to which it might be possible to attempt the evaluation, and lastly, to feel the need for experience, in addition to rational principles, in order to assess a culture of the past. Ibn Khaldun often criticized "idle superstition and uncritical acceptance of historical data." As a result, he introduced a scientific method to the study of history, which was considered something "new to his age", and he often referred to it as his "new science", now associated with historiography. historiography.

 His historical method also laid the groundwork for the observation state, communication, of the role of state, communication, propaganda and systematic bias in history, and he is thus considered to be the "father of history". historiography" or the "father of the philosophy of history".  Other historians of note who have advanced the historical methods of study include Leopold von Ranke, Sir Lewis Bernstein Ranke, Namier, Pieter Geyl, G. M. Trevelyan, Sir Geoffrey Elton, and A. J. Namier, Geyl, Trevelyan, Elton, P. Taylor. In the 20th century, historians focused less on epic Taylor. nationalistic narratives, which often tended to glorify the nation or individuals, to more objective analyses. A major trend of historical methodology in the 20th century was a tendency to treat history more as a social science rather than as an art, which traditionally art, had been the case.

 Some of the leading advocates of history as a social science were Braudel, a diverse collection of scholars which included Fernand Braudel, E. H. Carr, Fritz Fischer, Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Hans-Ulrich Carr, Fischer, Ladurie, HansWehler, Wehler, Bruce Trigger, Marc Bloch, Karl Dietrich Bracher, Peter Trigger, Bloch, Bracher, Gay, Gay, Robert Fogel, Lucien Febvre and Lawrence Stone. Many of Fogel, Stone. the advocates of history as a social science were or are noted for their multi-disciplinary approach. Braudel combined history with multigeography, Bracher history with political science, Fogel history with economics, Gay history with psychology, Trigger history with archeology while Wehler, Bloch, Fischer, Stone, Febvre and Le Roy Ladurie have in varying and differing ways amalgamated history with sociology, geography, anthropology, and economics. More recently, the field of digital history has begun to address ways of using computer technology to pose new questions to historical data and generate digital scholarship.

In opposition to the claims of history as a social science, historians such as Hugh Trevor-Roper, John Lukacs, Donald Creighton, Gertrude Trevor-Roper, Lukacs, Creighton, Himmelfarb and Gerhard Ritter argued that the key to the historians work was the power of the imagination, and hence contended that history imagination, should be understood as an art. French historians associated with the Annales School introduced quantitative history, using raw data to track the lives of typical individuals, and were prominent in the establishment of cultural history (cf. histoire des mentalits). Intellectual historians such as mentalits). Herbert Butterfield, Ernst Nolte and George Mosse have argued for the Butterfield, significance of ideas in history. American historians, motivated by the civil rights era, focused on formerly overlooked ethnic, racial, and sociosocioposteconomic groups. Another genre of social history to emerge in the postWWII era was Alltagsgeschichte (History of Everyday Life). Scholars such as Martin Broszat, Ian Kershaw and Detlev Peukert sought to examine Broszat, what everyday life was like for ordinary people in 20th century Germany, especially in the Nazi period

Areas of study reas

 Historical study often focuses on events and developments that occur in particular blocks of time. Historians give these periods of time names in order to allow "organising ideas and classificatory generalisations" to be used by historians.The names given to a period can vary with geographical location, as can the dates of the start and end of a particular period. Centuries and decades are commonly used periods and the time they represent depends on the dating system used. Most periods are constructed retrospectively and so reflect value judgments made about the past. The way periods are constructed and the names given to them can affect the way they are viewed and studied.

History of India
 The history of India begins with the Indus Valley Civilization, which spread and flourished in the northCivilization, northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, from c. 3300 to subcontinent, 1300 BCE. Its Mature Harappan period lasted from 26002600-1900 BCE. This Bronze Age civilization collapsed at the beginning of the second millennium BCE and was followed by the Iron Age Vedic period, which period, Indoextended over much of the Indo-Gangetic plains and which witnessed the rise of major kingdoms known as the Mahajanapadas. In one of these kingdoms Mahajanapadas. Magadha, Magadha, Mahavira and Gautama Buddha were born BCE, in the 6th century BCE, who propagated their Shramanic philosophies among the masses.

 Later, successive empires and kingdoms ruled the region and enriched its culture - from the Achaemenid Persian empire around 543 BCE, to Alexander the Great in 326 BCE. The IndoIndoGreek Kingdom, founded by Demetrius of Kingdom, Bactria, included Gandhara and Punjab from Bactria, 184 BCE; it reached its greatest extent under Menander, Menander, establishing the Greco-Buddhist Grecoperiod with advances in trade and culture.

 The subcontinent was united under the Maurya Empire during the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE. It subsequently became fragmented, with various parts ruled by numerous Middle kingdoms for the next ten centuries. Its northern regions were united once again in the 4th century CE, and remained so for two centuries thereafter, Empire. under the Gupta Empire. This period, of Hindu religious and intellectual resurgence, is known among its admirers as the "Golden Age of India." During the same time, and for several India." India, centuries afterwards, Southern India, under the rule of the Chalukyas, Cholas, Chalukyas, Cholas, Pallavas and Pandyas, experienced its own Pandyas, golden age, during which Indian civilization, administration, Buddhism) culture, and religion (Hinduism and Buddhism) spread to much of (Hinduism southsouth-east Asia. Asia.

Islam arrived on the subcontinent in 712 CE, when the Arab general CE, Muhammad bin Qasim conquered Sindh and Multan in southern Punjab,[ Punjab,[ setting the stage for several successive Islamic invasions between the 10th and 15th centuries CE from Central Asia, leading to the formation of Muslim empires in the Indian subcontinent, including the Ghaznavid, the subcontinent, Ghaznavid, Ghorid, the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire. Mughal rule came to Ghorid, Empire. cover most of the northern parts of the subcontinent. Mughal rulers introduced middle-eastern art and architecture to India. In addition to the middleMughals, several independent Hindu kingdoms, such as the Maratha Empire, the Vijayanagara Empire and various Rajput kingdoms, flourished Empire, contemporaneously, in Western and Southern India respectively. The Mughal Empire suffered a gradual decline in the early eighteenth century, which provided opportunities for the Afghans, Balochis and Sikhs to Afghans, exercise control over large areas in the northwest of the subcontinent until the British East India Company gained ascendancy over South Asia .

 Beginning in the mid-18th century and over the next century, India midCompany. was gradually annexed by the British East India Company. Dissatisfaction with Company rule led to the First War of Indian Independence, Independence, after which India was directly administered by the British Crown and witnessed a period of both rapid development of infrastructure and economic decline. decline.  During the first half of the 20th century, a nationwide struggle for independence was launched by the Indian National Congress, and Congress, later joined by the Muslim League. The subcontinent gained League. independence from Great Britain in 1947, after being partitioned into the dominions of India and Pakistan. Pakistan's eastern wing Pakistan. became the nation of Bangladesh in 1971.

The Mahajanapadas
 In the later Vedic Age, a number of small kingdoms or city states had covered the subcontinent, many mentioned during Vedic, early Buddhist and Jaina literature as far back as 1000 BCE. By 500 BCE, sixteen monarchies and 'republics' known as the Mahajanapadas Kasi, Kosala, Kasi, Kosala, Anga, Magadha, Anga, Magadha, Vajji (or Vriji), Malla, Chedi, Vatsa (or Vamsa), Kuru, Malla, Chedi, Kuru, Panchala, Panchala, Machcha (or Matsya), Surasena, Assaka, Avanti, Gandhara, Surasena, Assaka, Avanti, Gandhara, Kamboja stretched across the Indo-Gangetic plains from modern-day IndomodernAfghanistan to Bengal and Maharastra. This period was that of the second major urbanisation in India after the Indus Valley Civilization. Many smaller clans mentioned within early literature seem to have been present across the rest of the subcontinent. Some of these kings were hereditary; other states elected their rulers. The educated speech at that time was Sanskrit, while the dialects of the Sanskrit, general population of northern India are referred to as Prakrits. Many of Prakrits. the sixteen kingdoms had coalesced to four major ones by 500/400 BCE, by the time of Siddhartha Gautama. These four were Vatsa, Avanti, Gautama. Vatsa, Avanti, Kosala and Magadha. Magadha.

Hindu rituals at that time were complicated and conducted by the priestly class. It is Upanishads, thought that the Upanishads, late Vedic texts dealing mainly with incipient philosophy, were composed in the later Vedic Age and early in this period of the Mahajanapadas (from about 600 - 400 BCE). Upanishads had a substantial effect on Indian philosophy, and were contemporary to the development of Buddhism and philosophy, Jainism, indicating a golden age of thought in this period. It is believed that in 537 Jainism, BCE, that Siddhartha Gautama attained the state of "enlightenment", and became known as the 'Buddha' - the awakened one. Around the same time, Mahavira (the 24th Jain Tirthankara according to Jains) propagated a similar theology, that was Jainism. to later become Jainism. However, Jain orthodoxy believes it predates all known time. The Vedas are believed to have documented a few Jain Tirthankars, and an ascetic order similar to the sramana movement.The Buddha's teachings and Jainism had doctrines inclined toward asceticism, and were preached in Prakrit, Prakrit, which helped them gain acceptance amongst the masses. They have profoundly influenced practices that Hinduism and Indian spiritual orders are associated with namely, vegetarianism, prohibition of animal slaughter and ahinsa (non-violence). (nonWhile the geographic impact of Jainism was limited to India, Buddhist nuns and Asia, Asia, Tibet, monks eventually spread the teachings of Buddha to Central Asia, East Asia, Tibet, Sri Lanka and South East Asia.