LEADER 04335nam 2200613 450 001 9910789467503321 005 20230803034050.0 010 $a0-674-72652-9 010 $a0-674-72651-0 024 7 $a10.4159/harvard.9780674726512 035 $a(CKB)3710000000020516 035 $a(EBL)3301336 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000941168 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11525484 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000941168 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10956179 035 $a(PQKB)10654231 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3301336 035 $a(DE-B1597)209640 035 $a(OCoLC)859536567 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780674726512 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3301336 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10772927 035 $a(EXLCZ)993710000000020516 100 $a20130424d2013 uy| 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurnn#---|u||u 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 14$aThe past before us $ehistorical traditions of early north India /$fRomila Thapar 205 $aFirst Harvard University Press edition. 210 1$aCambridge, Massachusetts :$cHarvard University Press,$d2013. 215 $a1 online resource (784 p.) 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 0 $a0-674-72523-9 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $tFront matter --$tContents --$tPreface --$tAcknowledgements --$tAbbreviations --$t1 Searching for Early Indian Historical Writing --$t2 Towards Historical Traditions --$t3 Fragmentary Narratives from the Vedas --$t4 The Mah?bh?rata --$t5 The R?m?ya?a --$tPART III Interlude: The Emerging Historical Tradition --$t6 Genealogies in the Making of a Historical Tradition: The Va???nucarita of the Vi??u Pur??a --$t7 Early Inscriptions as Historical Statements (Up to c. the Sixth Century ad) --$t8 History as Literature: The Plays of Vi??khadatta --$t9 The Buddhist Tradition: Monks as Historians --$t10 The Monastic Chronicles of Sri Lanka --$t11 Buddhist Biographies --$t12 Historical Biographies: The Har?acarita and the R?macarita --$t13 Biographies as Histories --$t14 Inscriptions as Official Histories?and the Voice of the Bard --$t15 Va???val?s Chronicles of Place and Person?The R?jatara?gi?? --$t16 The Chamba Va???val? --$t17 The Prabandha-cint?ma?i --$t18 Therefore Looking Back and Looking Forward --$tBibliography --$tIndex 330 $aThe claim, often made, that India?uniquely among civilizations?lacks historical writing distracts us from a more pertinent question, according to Romila Thapar: how to recognize the historical sense of societies whose past is recorded in ways very different from European conventions. In The Past Before Us, a distinguished scholar of ancient India guides us through a panoramic survey of the historical traditions of North India. Thapar reveals a deep and sophisticated consciousness of history embedded in the diverse body of classical Indian literature. The history recorded in such texts as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata is less concerned with authenticating persons and events than with presenting a picture of traditions striving to retain legitimacy and continuity amid social change. Spanning an epoch of nearly twenty-five hundred years, from 1000 BCE to 1400 CE, Thapar delineates three distinct historical traditions: an Itihasa-Purana tradition of Brahman authors; a tradition composed mainly by Buddhist and Jaina scholars; and a popular bardic tradition. The Vedic corpus, the epics, the Buddhist canon and monastic chronicles, inscriptions, regional accounts, and royal biographies and dramas are all scrutinized afresh?not as sources to be mined for factual data but as genres that disclose how Indians of ancient times represented their own past to themselves. 606 $aLiterature and history$zIndia, Northeastern 606 $aCollective memory$zIndia, North 607 $aIndia, Northeastern$xHistoriography 607 $aIndia, Northeastern$xHistory$yTo 1500 615 0$aLiterature and history 615 0$aCollective memory 676 $a934.0072 700 $aThapar$b Romila$0451057 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910789467503321 996 $aThe past before us$93819477 997 $aUNINA