• India is a country in South Asia whose name comes from the Indus River.

• "India is the cradle of human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grandmother of tradition. Our most valuable and most astrictive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only! “ - Mark Twain

• • • Sources of ancient Indian History can be described under the following five headings:-

Literary Sources Archaeological Evidence Inscriptions Coins Accounts of the Foreigners

•

Upanishadas:

Main source of Indian philosophy; also called

"Vedantas“

•

Jaina Parisistapravana, Buddhist Dwipavamsa

and

Mahavamsa

contain traditions which supply us some historical materials.

Gargi Samhita

, a book on astronomy, the

grammer

of

Panini

and

Patanjali

also contain materials that help us in the recontruction of the history of the ancient period of India.

• General Sir Alexander Cunningham is the

Father of Indian Archaeology .

• The archaeological evidence is obtained by the systematic and skilled examination of building monuments, and work of art. • The discovery of India's oldest cities by Daya Ram Shahni was the biggest achievement of Archaeological Survey of India under Marshall.The cities discovered were named Harappa and Mohenjodaro and the civilisation as the Indus Valley Civilisation.

• Inscriptions are the most reliable evidence and their study is called

epigraphy

.

• These are mostly carved on gold, silver, iron, copper, bronze plates or stone pillars, rocks temple walls and bricks and are free from interpolations. • Inscriptions again are mainly of three types:- royal eulogy, official documents like royal rescripts, boundary marks, deeds, gift, etc. and private records of votive, donative or dedicative type .

•

The study of coins is known as numismatics.

• Ancient Indian coins have been discovered from which idea about the contemporary economic condition, currency system, development of the matallurgical art has been obtained. • Samudragupta's

slayer coins

Aswamedha

coins and

Lion-

gives us an idea of his ambition and love of hunting.

• A great deal of our knowledge of ancient Indian History are supplemented by the writing of foreigners. • • • Example: Hiuen Tsang(C) Buddhist Records of the Western World Describes the social, economic and religious conditions of India in the 5th and 7th Century AD.

• The Vedas are divine and eternal. The Vedas are truly considered to be the boundless repository of “ knowledge par excellence ”.

• The Vedas are known as the S

hruti

literature.

• The S

hruti

is treated as the supreme and ultimate authority

•

Smriti

refers to a specific body of means "that which is remembered," Hindu religious scripture , and is a codified component of Hindu customary law . • It is generally seen as secondary in authority to

Sruti

. It portrays the traditions of the rules on dharma , especially those of lawful virtuous persons example Ramayana

• The Smriti texts have become a binding of “sacred literature” •  It includes : The six Vedangas  The Ithihasas : the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, as well as, the Puranas [3] It is within all of these works that the rules of dharma remain and are passed down.

•

Smriti as Tradition

and passed down.) (. Smriti as Tradition consists of Smriti as memories. It is from these memories that the rules of dharma are preserved •

Smriti as Texts

( refers to the notion of Traditional Texts. These consists of mostly the dharmasastras and are described as literature which has been “inspired by the smrti”. )

• The first source of dharma is Sruti : the Vedas or Revelations

whereas

Smriti is the second source of authority for dharma • The S

hruti

statement is accepted as the final word

whereas

the

Smriti

is interpreted in consonance with the

Shruti.

• S

hruti

can not be altered at all

whereas

undergo modifications the

Smriti

might • Shruti is considered to be the more authoritative, in practice

whereas

the Smriti texts are more influential in modern Hinduism .