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7/28/2019 Lord Curzon

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Lord Curzon, British India's Viceroy, had remarked that ancient India had

'the greatest galaxy of monuments in the world.' TheArchaeological

Survey of India was established in 1861 by the British with Sir Alexander

Cunningham as the first director-general. Known as the father of Indian

archaeology, he set the ball rolling on archaeological studies in India. Sir

John Marshall, appointed as director-general in 1902, was instrumental in

identifying the ancientIndus Valley Civilization with the help of his

deputies Daya Ram Sahni and R.D. Banerji.

Of all the archaeological sites and digs, none has been as amazing as the

excavations at Harappa andMohenjodaro. These brought to light the

existence of an ancient urban civilisation the Indus Valley

Civilisation orHarappan Civilisation that existed about 5000 years

ago. Dubbed as the prehistoric discovery of the 20 th century, the discovery

pushed the history of the subcontinent back by a further 2500 years.

KumraharandBulandibagh (in modern day Patna) are two of the

archaeological sites linked toPataliputra, the capital of the Mauryans (4th -2nd century BC). While the former has remains of a pillared hall, the latter

exhibits ruins of fortification. The majestic edict-bearingAshokan

pillars are testimony to the attempt to spread imperial ideologies of

emperorAshoka Mauryaamong the common people.

The archaeological site at Sanchi includes stupas, pillars, shrines andsculptures, dating from 3rd century BC to 12th century AD, and gives

extraordinary insight into the history ofBuddhism. The site at Sarnath tooprovides knowledge on Buddhism as well as on Ashoka Maurya.

TheBuddhist stupa-monastery sites all over India were built over manycenturies. They uncover the trail of evolution of religious thoughts and

practices over the period, and the development and changes in

architectural and sculptural styles.

TheAjanta Caves (5th century AD) have rich sculptures and paintings,providing a glimpse into the societal life of those times.

The ruins ofBasarh (ancient Vaishali) reveal it to be an importantadministrative headquarters during the period of the Guptas. The site gives

information related to the economic and commercial aspect of the times.
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The greatRajarajeshwara (Brihadishwara) temple in Tanjore, built duringthe 11th century AD, was the monument which helped historians piece

together the history of the Cholas of Tamil Nadu.

The Vishnu temple at Ankor Vat, Combodia, and theBuddhist Stupa at

Borobodur, Java, provide evidence of the spread of Buddhist influence tosouth-east Asia.

What are Archaeological Sources?sources are evidnce for a site primary sources are something

someone wrote when the event happend and secondary sources a

when a histrion says something about event that happend hundreds

of years ago.

What is a literary source?

A literary source is anything that has been "written" that you cite as yoursource material. It could be a poem, an historical document, a private letter, a

book, a short story, a magazine article, an analysis that has been published,

etc. If you were doing a report on Abraham Lincoln, your literary sources could

include letters, newspaper articles, historical documents, books written about

him, psychoanalytical papers written on him, etc. So the "source" is just that,

"where" you got your information, and if it is a "literary" source, it's where you

found the "written" information (asThe problem with Indian history, especially

with the ancient, has been the deficiency of literary sources. There were

hardly any scholars then who dealt with history as an academic discipline.

Though ancient India has a rich heritage of religious texts and literature, it

lacks historical works. In comparison, the scholars of Greece and Rome of

those times had systematically documented their period.

According to Keay (India History, p. xvii), considering that there was four

thousand years of pre-Islamic civilisation in the subcontinent, there has

been no written records for about 80% of Indian history.

This unfortunate poverty of ancient historical literature of one of the oldest

and richest civilisations, however, has been made up for by information

gleaned from religious and secular literature, and from archaeology,

epigraphy and numismatics.

It is only from the beginning of the Medieval period that Muslim scholars

started writing histories to document the triumph of Islam.

For the Modern period, there is no dearth of historical works. Official

records are available aplenty. Memoirs, biographies and travel accounts of


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Englishmen brush the 18th and 19th centuries with different perspective.

Newspapers reflected opinions and provided chronology of events.

. Historical Literature

Historical works

Kalhana is known as India's first historian. He composed a book

titledRajatarangini in 1150 AD, also known as theKashmir Chronicle,which dealt with the history of Kashmir before 7 th century AD, and comes

nearest to a regular historical text.

With the advent of the Medieval period, historical writing came to

life.Minaj-us-Siraj wrote Tabakati Nasiri, a general history of the Islamic

world.Amir Khusrau'sKhazain-ul-Fatah gives details on the period of

Alauddin Khilji of the Delhi Sultanate.Abul Fazl'sAkbar-nama andAin-i-

Akbari are great sources on the reign of the Mughal emperor Akbar.

The Modern period saw the maintenance of records of activities and

transactions by the Europeans the Portuguese, the Dutch, the French

and the English in India. These records (held today in the respective

countries and in the Indian national and state archives), along with works of

English and Indian authors likeLord Curzon, W.W. Hunter, Sir Alfred

Lyall, S.N. Banerjea andDr Rajendra Prasad, provide ample material forhistorians to work with.

Biographies

Tuzuk-i-Babari (Babur-nama), the memoirs ofBabur(founder of the

Mughal dynasty) describes Hindustan of his period. Gulbadan Begum,

daughter of Babur and sister of Humayun, wroteHumayun-nama, abiography of Humayun, the second Mughal

emperor.Jahangir's memoirs, Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, is an important text

concerning the Mughal history.

In the Modern period,Mahatama Gandhi's autobiographyMy Experiments

with Truth,Jawaharlal Nehru'sautobiography Towards Freedom,

andJudith Brown's biographies on Gandhi are great sources onperspectives on the Indian national struggle for freedom from the British

rule.


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A coin is a piece of hard material that is standardized in weight, is produced in

large quantities in order to facilitate trade, and is used primarily as a medium of

exchange orlegal tender.

Coins are usually alloy metal or a metallic material and sometimes made of

synthetic materials, usually in the shape of a disc, and most often issued by a

government. Coins are used as a form ofmoney in transactions of various kinds,

from the everyday circulation coins to the storage of large numbers ofbullion

coins. Presently, coins and banknotes make upcurrency, the cash forms of allmodern money systems. Coins made for paying bills and general monetized use

are usually used for lower-valued units, and banknotes for the higher values;

also, in many money systems, the highest value coin made for circulation is

worth less than the lowest-value note. In the last hundred years, the face value of

circulation coins has usually been higher than the gross value of the metal used

in making them; exceptions occurring when inflation causes the metal value to

surpass the face value, causing the minting authority to change the composition

and the old coins to begin to disappear from circulation (see Gresham's Law.)

However, this has generally not been the case throughout the rest of history for

circulation coins made of precious metals.

MonumentsThe Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958 defines an

Ancient Monument as follows:-

Ancient Monument means any structure, erection or monument, or any tumulus or placeof interment, or any cave, rock-sculpture, inscription or monolith which is of historical,archaeological or artistic interest and which has been in existence for not less than 100years and includes

1. Remains of an ancient monument,2. Site of an ancient monument,

3. Such portion of land adjoining the site of an ancient monument as may be requiredfor fencing or covering in or otherwise preserving such monument, a

4. The means of access to, and convenient inspection of, an ancient monument;

The section 2(d) defines archaeological site and remains as follows:Archaeological site and remains means any area which contains or is reasonablybelieved to contain ruins or relics of historical or archaeological importance which havebeen in existence for not less than one hundred years, and includes

1. Such portion of land adjoining the area as may be required for fencing or covering inor otherwise preserving it, and

2. The means of access to, and convenient inspection of the area;
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