Evolution of Historiographical Tradition in Ancient and Medieval India English 2011

In India, historical writing was a tradition that evolved in different ways in the ancient, medieval and modern periods of history. Several traditions of historiography evolved during the centuries. This volume is an attempt to present a systematic and comprehensive history of historical writing in ancient and medieval India based on many original sources and works written in the modern times. A well-researched, painstaking study, the book broadly discusses the beginnings of historical tradition, Buddhist and Jain traditions of historiography, and writing of historical biography, chronicles, vamsavali and other historical works, as well as the tradition of historical writing in South India. One of its main concerns is to bring out the contributions of people of different religions to the evolution of the tradition of historiography. It sheds light on the historical and semi-historical works of ancient and medieval historians of Indians to dispel the argument that ancient Indians had no tradition of historiography. It shows that ancient Indians had indeed a clear conception and perception of history, taking history as the soul of the nation. It states that conscious of the fact that the culture and civilisation of a country got reflected through its history, they took pains to preserve the historical records of the past. The book will prove extremely useful to fill the vacuum existing in our knowledge about historians and historiography in ancient and medieval India.