Focusing on neglected Indian history
An in-depth familiarity with India’s past is necessary because of the country’s singularity and its long and eventful past. Examining the historical events in India through the lens of cultural, social, and political development, the ‘Handbook of Indian History’ sheds light on their depth. This volume examines India’s regional dynamics and its connections to Southeast, West, and Central Asia. It does this by focusing on neglected Indian history areas like prehistory, maritime history, gender studies, and colonialism. New insights on Indian history emerge. This book has three chronological portions. The first section of this book covers early Indian civilization up to the first millennium C.E., focusing on its origins and core elements. Part II covers the first millennium C.E. historical and cultural processes, while part III covers the second century’s transformative processes, including colonialism and modernity. This work uses an Indian framework and emphasizes continuity rather than abrupt transitions, unlike European inspired periodizations. India’s history shows an unusual synthesis of old traditions in modern circumstances, making it immune to cultural ruptures elsewhere. Religion, philosophy, science, and literature disputes in the Handbook form an integrative narrative. This story illuminates India’s remarkable civilization’s past and future.
However, in the book about India’s past, Muslim history is left out, which means that over a millennium of important contributions (712-1857 AD), an era characterized by the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire is not included. This era had a profound impact on India’s politics, culture, and architecture, including iconic monuments like the Taj Mahal. By leaving Muslim history out of the book, narrative biases are fostered, and the synthesis of traditions and innovations that define India’s diverse heritage is ignored. This leads to a distorted historical understanding, which denies future generations insights into the country’s pluralistic identity. In order to accurately reflect India’s history, inclusive historiography is essential, and it honors the contributions of all communities.
The first chapter, “Introduction to the Handbook of Indian History,” provides a comprehensive overview, intricately summarizing each chapter’s thematic focus, intellectual scope, and analytical framework, setting the stage for detailed exploration. The second part of “the beginnings of India’s history: Archaeological and genetic history” studies India’s early history using modern archaeological and genetic evidence. Indian history was shaped by the entrance of archaic humans (Homo sapiens) 14 million years ago and anatomically modern humans 170 thousand years ago. Due to insufficient evidence, the colonial Aryan invasion and migration theory is rejected. The idea highlights India’s “founders zone” importance in human antiquity. Modern Indians share genetics with early invaders, revealing early human migration patterns. Later chapters cover Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age societies that counter colonial stories.
Paleolithic culture exposes ignored Peninsular Indian Acheulian sites in chapter three on Upper Krishna Basin. Instead of Gangapur and Chirki-on-Pravara, this chapter finds Acheulian artifacts from Maharashtra’s Krishna, Bavdhan Nala, and Urmodi River basins. Middle Pleistocene sediments contained about 300 basalt-based tools, mostly cleavers, disproving the Acheulian absence hypothesis. This discovery illuminates early Indian hominid settlements and local events that influenced Indian civilization.
Chapter four covers the Neolithic advancements of southern India’s Deccan Plateau (8000–1200 BCE). This region has ashmounds, towns, tool workshops, rock art, and multi-feature sites along the Western and Eastern Ghats. Archaeology, diet, agriculture, animal domestication, tools, ceramics, art, funeral ceremonies, and land use are covered in this chapter. The middle-southern Deccan Plateau was the epicenter of Neolithic activity in India due to its early dates and cultural wealth. This chapter covers the author’s recent Raichur doab archeological investigation.
“The Indus river valley and other bronze age cultures” introduces the IVC and other Afro-Eurasia Bronze age societies in chapter five. India’s Bronze Age is contextualized by evaluating cultures at the Indian cultural center. Early Neolithic cultures farmed and produced similar goods. Huge cities grew from these basic beginnings. Groups within these civilizations often write and have unique religions. In the egalitarian IVC, the religious leader may also be political. People contribute to and follow social, organizational rules. Society is typically bonded by religion. Finally, Afro-Eurasia’s cultures traded for commodities from far away, and the Indus and Mesopotamia were significant exchange hubs. This final commonality illuminates Bronze age life, especially since each group is now more intertwined than believed. Several places deteriorated when these ties were dissolved before resurfacing in the Iron Age.
In “The Historical Reception of Panini’s Sanskrit Grammar,” Rishi Rajpopat examines the Aṣṭadhyayi as a linguistic masterpiece, examining its functions, historical perceptions, and disagreements on its label as a ‘machine.’ In “Classical understanding of gender in Indian texts,” Lavanya Vemsani analyzes Mahabharata’s Amba-Shikhandi story. The Handbook of India’s second edition challenges colonial narratives by highlighting India’s maritime history, transoceanic trade, and cultural contacts. Chapter eight examines India’s marine networks, temple art, inscriptions, and seafaring operations, highlighting its involvement in the Indian Ocean from the 2nd century BCE to 14th century CE.
Indian, Chinese, and Japanese history is examined in the ninth chapter, “Relations Between India and East Asia in light of Buddhism”. This chapter covers Buddhist links. Buddhism’s origins and spread in India are examined. This chapter describes Indian Buddhist monks’ efforts to establish Buddhism in China. These monks built a women-only convent and translated massive volumes. To connect with Buddhism’s roots, Chinese pilgrims flocked to India. Japanese Buddhists revisited India and Sri Lanka in the 19th and 20th centuries. This chapter cannot list all noteworthy people and events that make South-east Asian Buddhist contacts among the most remarkable cross-cultural encounters in history.
“Shiva Traditions of Southern India: Tamil Shaivism and Shaiva Siddhanta” describes Tamil Shaivism’s development in this chapter. Early religious literature, Rudra worship, and Murugan worship may have inspired these actions. From the sixth to ninth centuries, this part covers ‘lay,’ ‘ascetic,’ and ‘Agamic’ Shaivism. Temple culture and literature throughout the Chola period (9th to 14th centuries) and the late medieval shift toward non-Brahmin monastic rule are also covered. The final chapter will analyze how colonialism affected 19th and 20th century Dravidian and modern Tamil Shaivism.
“The Reconstruction of Tamil-speaking Southern India’s early history,” Herman Tieken examines southern Indian history and culture through Tamil sources like Caṋkam poetry. This poem depicts Tamil culture before the Pallava period and modern civilization. Tieken claims the Caṋkam poems were written by the Pandya emperor in the seventh century CE, not modern times. These rulers claimed to have honored Tamil literature and succeeded though inaccurate, the poetry shows a profound cultural shift: regional languages for fiction. This trend started in Tamil and extended sub-continentally. This chapter details southern India’s early history and literary development.
“Jainism in Indian history and culture,” Patrick Felix Kruger examines Jainism’s influence on Indian culture. The dearth of authentic early texts makes Jain history reconstruction difficult, and medieval and modern Jainism had several schools and sects. Changing Jainism interpretations created new schools and doctrines. This caused medieval and modern Jainism to be disorganized. Because western notions of monolithic Jainism are often inaccurate. Thus, this chapter discusses Jainism history.
Handbook of India III covers colonialism, religion, and culture. Colonialism, India’s freedom struggle, and post-independence foreign ties are highlighted. Pages discuss Pali translations, Sanskrit, and Tamil influences on Sri Lankan literature. Another studies how monasticism and bhakti change Hinduism. By examining goddess festivals, Lavanya Vemsani shows how 12th century Islamic invasions changed India’s religious and cultural identity in the second millennium.
Jyoti Mohan criticizes colonial racial hierarchies that divide India’s castes. Matthieu Gotteland shows how global networks influenced India’s freedom through revolutions. The first three presidents of India experienced geopolitical disputes with Pakistan and China, poverty, and leadership difficulties, demonstrating the complications of post-colonial life.
“A living legacy: The continuing influence of Swami Vivekananda in the Western World.” discusses his impact on Western culture. His influence is shown in US Vedanta Societies, Hinduism in western popular culture, and star wars characters like Yoga. This chapter illustrates Vivekananda’s global spiritual effect. Chapter twenty of “How becoming a myth leads to History” discusses Hindu Durga as the feminine Shankaracharya. Antoinette DeNapoli investigates how Mataji rallies an austere Uttar Pradesh women’s order against patriarchy. To legitimize female leadership and empower women as the female Shankaracharya, Hindu monasticism emphasizes her devotion to Durga. The book’s contribution to a deeper understanding of Indian history is summarized in “Conclusion,” which emphasizes India’s global importance. The chapters cover neglected Indian history and its relations with nearby countries, widening the study of India’s international position.
Hilal Ahmad Tantray Research Scholar, Department of History and Culture, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
