Table Of ContentANCIENT INDIAN SOCIAL HISTORY
SOME INTERPRETATIONS
Ancient Indian
Social History
Som e Interpretations
R O M IL A THAPAR
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Preface
Of the papers written by me over the last ten years and
published in various journals and publications, I have select
ed for reprinting those which relate in a general sense to the
study of ancient Indian social history, since I thought it
might be worthwhile to put them together in one volume. By
and large, the papers deal with the early period of Indian
history to the end of the first millennium A.D.
The opening paper, although historiographic in content,
sets out the framework for the subsequent papers where the
emphasis is on interpretation. The viability of this collection
seems to me to be basically in terms of the interpretations
suggested and the historiographic background to these inter
pretations is discussed in the latter half of the first paper.
In arranging the papers thematically rather than in the
order in which they were written, some papers of ten years
ago are juxtaposed with those of recent months. This may
in some cases result in a modification of, or an added em
phasis on, particular historical generalisations over the
years. I have not now sought to revise my views of an earlier
period since they do not substantially differ from more re
cent analysis: the difference is more in nuance than in
essentials. Inevitably such a collection of papers cannot
avoid some degree of duplication in themes. Since the papers
were originally published in different places there is some
discrepancy in the forms of foot-noting and the use of dia
critical marks which I have tried to reduce to a minimum.
The arrangement of papers is broadly around certain sub
themes: society and religion, social classification and mobi
vi Ancient Indian Social History
lity, archaeological data in the study of society, historio
graphical concepts of the early period and approaches to the
study of regional history. The papers ‘Society and Law in
the Hindu and Buddhist Tradition’, and ‘Ethics, Religion
and Social Protest in the First Millennium B.C. in Northern
India’, are attempts to view the social dimensions of groups
organised around religious ideas, Hindu and Buddhist, and
supporting a religious identity. ‘Renunciation: the making
of a Counter-Culture?’, examines the degree of success of
groups of renouncers seeking to create a parallel or alter
native society., ‘Dana and Daksinâ as Forms of Exchange’,
is a preliminary perspective on the tradition and system of
gift-giving on ritual occasions as an indicator of economic
changes. ‘Social Mobility in Ancient India with Special Re
ference to Elite Groups’ and ‘The Image of the Barbarian
in Early India’ relate to the two ends of the social hier
archy— elite groups {brahmans and ksatriyas) and their
social gradation on the one hand and on the other, the defi
nition and evolution of the categories generally termed
mleccha. ‘The Historian and Archaeological Data’ is a
general assessment of the possible ways in which archaeo
logical data can provide evidence for social and economic
history. The correlation of archaeological data and literary
sources in the specific context of early India is investigated
in the subsequent two papers. ‘The Study of Society in An
cient India’ and ‘Puränic Lineages and Archaeological Cul
tures’. Both focus on the evidence of the nature of society
and the migration of peoples and language as available from
two categories of source material. The three papers, ‘The
Tradition of Historical Writing in Early India’, ‘Origin
Myths and the Early Indian Historical Tradition*, and
‘Genealogy as a Source of Social History’, examine the con
tent of the itihäsa-puräna tradition — the early Indian his
torical tradition — in the context of its social and politicai
function. Finally, the paper ‘The Scope and Significance of
Regional History’, is an attempt, on the basis of a case study
of Punjab history to suggest the kinds of investigations
Preface vii
which at this stage may be carried out by those working or
regional history.
One of the problems with working on early Indian social
history is that not all the texts can be accurately dated ; some
can be precisely dated while others span across centuries.
This may be due in part to a lack of concern in the tradition
with carefully dated texts, but also perhaps to the over
lapping of social formations, which seem to be a more char
acteristic feature of early Indian society as compared to
other ancient societies. This may also to an extent account
for the continuity of what might otherwise be regarded as
anachronistic features in certain social institutions.
I would like to thank my colleagues at the Centre for His
torical Studies of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, with
whom I have on various occasions discussed the contents of
some of the papers.
New Delhi
April 1978 Romila Thapar
A cknowledgements
The author and the publishers would like to thank the
editors and publishers of the journal and books listed below
for the permission they granted for the inclusion in this
volume of the material cited:
For ‘Interpretations of Ancient Indian History’ from History and
Theory, (1968), Wesleyan University, Connecticut, USA.
For ‘Society and Law in the Hindu and Buddhist Traditions’ from
International Social Science Journal (1966), UNESCO, Paris,
France,
For ‘Ethics, Religion and Social Protest in the First Millennium B.C.
in Northern India’ from Daedalus, Journal of the American
Academy of Arts and Science, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Spring 1975, Wisdom, Revelation and Doubt.
For ‘Renunciation: The Making of a Counter-culture?’ from Homage
to a Historian, Dr. N. Subrahmanian Felicitation Volume,
N. Jagadesan and J. Jeyapragasan (eds.).
For ‘Dana and Dakçinâ as forms of Exchange’ from Indica (1976),
St. Xavier’s College, Bombay.
For ‘Social Mobility in Ancient India with Special Reference to Elite
Groups’ from Indian Society: Historical Probings (in memory
D. D. Kosambi) by R. S. Sharma (ed.) (1974), Indian Council
of Historical Research, New Delhi.
For ‘Image of the Barbarian in Early India’ from Comparative
Studies of Society and History (1971), Cambridge University
Press, London, England.
For ‘The Historian and Archaeological Data* from Radiocarbon and
Indian Archaeology by D. P. Agarwal and A. Ghosh (eds.)
(1973), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay.
For ‘The Study of Society in Ancient India’ from the Presidential
Address, Ancient Indian History Section, XXXI Indian History
Congress, (1969), Varanasi.
