Tradition of Indian Historiography

Tradition of Indian Historiography

• Indian history has a rich literary tradition.  
• In India, history was written long ago, and a significant legacy endures now. 
• The tradition of history writing in India, also known as Indian historiography, is divided into three periods: ancient, medieval, and modern Indian historiography.
  
  
  
• India is one of the oldest civilizations and countries across the globe, with at least 4000 years of history known through developed and oral documents.

"History is not the past . . . History is the distillation of evidence surviving from the past. Where there is no evidence there is no history."  - Oscar Handlin, Truth in History 

• A country cannot survive for very long without its own history. Because we couldn't learn about a country's past without a written or oral history, every nation used to have one. 
• The historiography of India refers to the studies, sources, critical methods, and interpretations used by scholars to develop a history of India.
• The first foreign ambassador to India, Megasthenes, wrote down his ethnographic observations in a book called "INDIKA". He is known as the Father of Ancient Indian History because of his pioneering efforts.

Megasthenes:

• Megasthenes is considered the father of Indian history due to his pioneering work recording various ethnographic observations in India. 'INDIKA' has been compiled by him. The word 'INDIKA' in ancient Greek means various things related to India. 
• Around 302 BCE and 288 BCE, Megasthenes came to India. He was sent by Seleucus Nicator to serve as the first foreign ambassador to India. 
• He was sent to the Mauryan emperor Chandragupta by the Hellenistic king. At that time, he lived in the state of Patliputra and wrote about then- India. 
• Political arrangements and unification done by the Indian ruler were described in his book. 
• The people, climate, land, and soil fertility were noted by him. 
• Somehow his original work was lost. However, he is mentioned in pieces in Latin and Greek words in the contemporary world.