Fwd: The lost history by s. ranade

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puranichistory , " s00234 " <s00234 wrote:

 

The lost history

By Sudhanshu Ranade

 

 

 

 

Though the controversy has got muffled under the crush of recent

events, it will be resumed. But it will remain sterile;

politicisation of the ancient past has eroded the credibility of the

debate. Indeed, the shifty and shifting conclusions that both

professional historians and sentimentalists have been drawing from

the ancient literature of the Hindus, have pretty much led

professionals to drop the stuff altogether as a source of evidence.

This is a pity. By definition, history begins only with the

availability of useful literature. Take away a nation's literature,

and you take away its history.

 

My main concern is about the `king lists' of the Puranas,

painstakingly culled out and tabulated by F. Eden Pargiter, ICS,

after 30 years of research (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1922;

copies are still in print). These cannot lightly be dismissed - they

deserve critical scrutiny. Because they claim to go back 120

generations before Alexander and Chandragupta Maurya; because of the

interconsistency between data about a dozen different dynasties

taken

from a dozen different sources; because of the way they innocently

explain (unaware that one day they would be called upon to do so),

the similarity between Latin and Sanskrit, the fact that the Aryans

had horses; and because, unlike the `Aryan invasion', this evidence

survived the test posed by the sudden and unexpected discovery of

the

Harappan civilisation - though the book itself was swept away by the

flood of Harappan discoveries that began almost before the ink was

dry, and has continued ever since.

 

Historians sneer at histories that consist only of `lists of kings

and queens and battles'. Yet such lists have their value. They are

often the only available calendar.

 

Both puranic and Vedic literature begin their history with Manu

Vaivasvata, who goes back to that `ancient point in time where

history begins to fade into mythology'. Manu, it is said, had nine

`sons' (i.e. some sort of community had by then come into being in

the Gangetic plains). Keeping aside the choicest portion for his

tenth child, he divided the rest of his kingdom among these sons.

Ikshvaku, the eldest and chief son, founder of the Solar dynasty,

obtained Madhyadesh, and had his capital at Ayodhya. Downstream

members of the main Ikshvaku line include Raja Harishchander ( 33)

and Ram ( 65), the hero of the Ramayan. The dynasties founded by the

other eight sons, including one near the mouth of the Narmada,

lapsed

into oblivion. The status of Manu's `tenth' child varies according

to

who tells the tale. According to one version, Ila was Manu's eldest

son, but became a woman on account of a curse, during which time she

bore a son. According to another version, Manu, after fathering nine

sons, prayed for yet another son, but a daughter was born, namely

Ila. According to both versions Ila's son, Pururavas Aila, founded

the Lunar race or dynasty. What we have here is a contention for

priority between the Ikshvakus and the Ailas. It was the Ikshvakus

who at first `ruled the earth'. But the latter grew rapidly under

Pururavas Aila and his descendants, pushing the Ikshvakus off

centrestage.

 

Pururavas's greatgrandson Yayati had under his control all of

Madhyadesh west of the kingdom of Ayodhya, the northwest as far as

the river Saraswati (in the divide between the Gangetic and Indus

plains), and also the country south, and southeast of his capital at

Pratishthan (Allahabad?).

 

One of Yayati's wives, Devayani, was the daughter of the Bhargav

rishi Ushanas-Shukra, who had his ashram on the banks of the

Saraswati and is said to have earlier been `on the side of the

danavs

or asuras' in their great fight against the gods - who had the

venerable Brihaspati on their side as guru or acharya. Since

Yayati's

other wife was the daughter of a Daitya-Danav- asura king, this

means

that not a single one of the five sons he divided his empire among

could possibly have been of pure `Aryan' blood. This would naturally

apply to downstream descendants as well, including the founder of

the

kingdoms of Gandhar ( 23) and Vidarbh ( 40), Dushyant ( 43), the

heroes of the Rg Veda, (the `Bharatas' Divodas and Sudas: 63 and 68

respectively), and the Pauravs, Kauravs and Krishna ( 94). (The

dynasty established at Gandhar is said to have flourished and spread

out beyond to establish kingdoms in the `mleccha' countries outside

the subcontinent.)

 

The Haihayas, who too were descendants of Yayati, rose to power

under

Arjun Krtavirya ( 31). Plunder was their sole object; they were

least

interested in establishing an empire. Their raids continued for five

or six generations and extended from the Gulf of Cambay in the west

to Kashi in the east. The king of Ayodhya is reported to have been

driven from his throne by the Haihaya-Talajanghas aided by Shakas,

Yavanas, Kambojas, Paradas and Pahlavas from the northwest;

suggesting that the kingdoms to its west had by then already been

over-run. These, the first invaders according to puranic history,

came along well before the Rg Vedic `Aryans', who were in any case

homegrown.

 

India was lashed by a second wave of invaders from the northwest 60

generations later, drawn in by the vacuum that followed the

devastating Mahabharat war - which, according to the king lists,

took

place around 1000 BC and destroyed practically all the kings who

took

part in it (and almost all of them did), as well as most of those

who

would normally have succeeded them. (It is at about this time that

Painted Grey Ware first appears on the subcontinent, and iron enters

widespread use.)

 

One last thing. According to the compendium on Harappa being put

together by Gregory Possehl of Pennsylvania, brilliant and path-

breaking (though as yet little known) research by the Pakistani

archaeologist, M. R. Mughal, has proved beyond doubt that an

important strand of the composite Harappan culture originated in,

and

radiated out from, the mid-course of the now defunct Saraswati - a

little west of the Rajasthan border, in Pakistan's Cholistan.

 

The Saraswati was a mighty river when the Harappan civilisation was

at its peak; flowing all the way down to the Arabian Sea, perhaps

through what is today the Rann of Kutch. Only vague, fragmented

memories of the Harappans remained by the time the Vedic literature

was compiled; and of the mighty Saraswati in which this ancient

civilisation was to some extent anchored. The Rg Vedic Saraswati is

a

holy river, not a mighty one. The only description of a vedic

sacrifice on the banks of the Saraswati, early in its course, at its

junction with the Drshadvati, is to be found in the ancient

Panchvimsa Brahmanas: according to which, a little way down, the

river is `lost in the sands of the desert'.

 

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2002/01/01/stories/200201010151130

0

..htm

 

--- End forwarded message ---

[Guest guest]

>puranichistory , " s00234 " <s00234 wrote:

 

>The lost history

>By Sudhanshu Ranade

 

>Though the controversy has got muffled under the crush of recent

>events, it will be resumed. But it will remain sterile;

>politicisation of the ancient past has eroded the credibility of the

>debate. Indeed, the shifty and shifting conclusions that both

>professional historians and sentimentalists have been drawing from

>the ancient literature of the Hindus, have pretty much led

>professionals to drop the stuff altogether as a source of evidence.

>This is a pity. By definition, history begins only with the

>availability of useful literature. Take away a nation's literature,

>and you take away its history.

 

>My main concern is about the `king lists' of the Puranas,

>painstakingly culled out and tabulated by F. Eden Pargiter, ICS,

>after 30 years of research (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1922;

>copies are still in print).

 

 

 

 

Hello:

 

What is the title of the above work?

 

thank-you

[Guest guest]

The title is The Lost History. It is written by Sudhanshu Ranade.

 

regards,

 

Kishore patnaik

 

, norenxaq <norenxaq wrote:

>

>

>

> >puranichistory , " s00234 " <s00234@> wrote:

>

> >The lost history

> >By Sudhanshu Ranade

>

> >Though the controversy has got muffled under the crush of recent

> >events, it will be resumed. But it will remain sterile;

> >politicisation of the ancient past has eroded the credibility of the

> >debate. Indeed, the shifty and shifting conclusions that both

> >professional historians and sentimentalists have been drawing from

> >the ancient literature of the Hindus, have pretty much led

> >professionals to drop the stuff altogether as a source of evidence.

> >This is a pity. By definition, history begins only with the

> >availability of useful literature. Take away a nation's literature,

> >and you take away its history.

>

> >My main concern is about the `king lists' of the Puranas,

> >painstakingly culled out and tabulated by F. Eden Pargiter, ICS,

> >after 30 years of research (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1922;

> >copies are still in print).

>

>

>

>

> Hello:

>

> What is the title of the above work?

>

> thank-you

>