Description
To identify the Aryan is to search for that which remains elusive. There have been many definitions based on multiple and diverse factors and there are therefore inevitable disagreements about both the identification and the meaning of the concept. It is probably the most complex question in early Indian history and it requires considerable expertise in the interpretation of the evidence which ranges from ecology to philology.
This collection of essays, written over some years, explores these aspects of the theme in a way that furthers our understanding of an early period of Indian history. The constituents that went into the concept have changed from race, ethnicity and elements of nationality to language, status and culture. This has involved recasting the constructs and has inevitably been controversial. The essays explain how the constructs came to be formulated, why they changed and what might be more meaningful interrogations of this history.
CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction
- The Historiography of the Concept of ‘Aryan’
- Some Appropriations of the Theory of Aryan Race and the Beginnings of Indian History
- Exploring Societies of the Early Past
- The Ṛgveda: Encapsulating Social Change
- The Archaeological Background to the Agnicayana Ritual
Includes bibliography, index and map.
Romila Thapar
Romila Thapar is the most celebrated historian of India. She is Emeritus Professor of History at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, where she taught ancient Indian history to at least three generations of students.
Romila Thapar is also an Honorary Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford and has been Visiting Professor at Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania as well as the Collège de France in Paris. In 1983 she was elected General President of the Indian History Congress, and in 1999 a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. She is recipient of the prestigious Kluge Prize, awarded to her in 2008.
Among her publications are Early India; Ashoka and the Decline of the Mauryas; Ancient Indian Social History: Some Interpretations; From Lineage to State; History and Beyond; Sakuntala: Texts, Readings, Histories; Somanatha: The Many Voices of a History; Cultural Pasts: Essays on Indian History. She has also written a book for children titled Indian Tales. Her forthcoming book soon to be out is The Past Before Us: Historical Tradition of Early North India.
She is a public intellectual of great standing, having concerned herself with issues of history and culture as they impinge on contemporary concerns, particularly how history is taught in schools and colleges, the politics of education and syllabi revisions. She has been very outspoken against chauvinist and parochial approaches, is a champion for secularism, and has spoken on and written for many public forums on religion, culture and democracy. She is co-author of Communalism in the Writing of Indian History, and had also done a textbook on ancient Indian history for school children which was a part of the NCERT syllabus for the CBSE examinations for many years, till the ruling NDA government removed it as part of its assault on secular history in India.
