Emergence of Early Historic India (300BCE-750CE)

There is a growing interest in the history of early India in general attracting the attention of informed general public as well as specialists. General advance made in research on the period has made it possible as well as necessary to make a synthesis of this ever expanding knowledge base. The spatial scope of this course is pan-Indian subcontinent (when there was no such notion of a nation state) expressed by the term Bharatavarsha/Jambudwipa (used in the Puranic accounts) or India (first used by Heredotus in the 6th Century); Shendu (the Chinese word initially used to denote the Sindhu/Indua which gradually increased in the geographical scope to cover the whole of Indian subcontinent) or Hindustan ( first used in AD 262 in the Naksh-i-Rustam inscription of Sassanid ruler Shahpur I). The temporal scope based on the recent trends avoid any particular categorization and focus on chronological brackets as ‘valid temporal unit of historical study’ – to denote historical changes and processes which can be clearly identified. The period under consideration saw vigorous efforts in building up huge empires. It was not simply territorial expansion – the administrative apparatus of a functioning state when taken to/established in an erstwhile non-state region, had larger ramifications, wonderfully expressed by the phrase ‘Lineage to State’. This process though initially started in the northern India – Uttarapatha, was replicated in different parts of Indian subcontinent – albeit with regional variations expressed by the term ‘secondary state formation’. The horizontal expansion of ‘state society’ occupies a major part of this course. However construction/deconstruction of empire and discussion of polity is not a study of its own. The empire(s) and their patronage to the Buddhist and Jain monastic establishment in the earlier phase of the course and the eleemosynary grants to the Puranic religion in the later part; the unprecedented growth of trade and commerce in the period between 200 BCE – 300 Ce and the patronage by the non-royal donors to the Buddhist and Jain establishments in around the urban centres had larger ramifications. The sustained patronage resulted in emergence of celebrated cultural centres. There will be a thrust on primary sources as well as source criticism. A juxtaposition of field archaeological materials many a time have dispelled or considerably modified the views presented in the normative texts. This course is meant to give a comprehensive treatment of the period which saw several sharp and distinguishable changes in Indian polity and society.