The West introduced a concept of history with a focus on :
- Events that took place in Linear Time-Line and Independent Space
- Achievements of Kings
- Kingly Dynasties
Kings and races who exploited their own people through taxation and subjugation and annhilated the people of other regions, were considered great.
The Western view on Indian History :
- The Entire Indian history is knotted with the western kings by the Single Identification of the greek name Sandrokottus with the Indian king Chandragupta Maurya, by William Jones.
- Today, Thinking People question this and propose alternate theories.
- The Western Account of Indian History was also written under the dominant biblical assumption that the earth was 4000 years old and nothing could have been achieved in India before Christ.
- When this was supplanted by the Marxist interpretation of the Western Industrialising Society, the conclusions were applied to Agricultural Indian History and force-fitted. Very little was derived from first principles and from direct observation. This is where Prof. M.N. Srinivas’s observations on the Indian Caste System, made from field studies have great value.
- And even though Modern history tries to focus on the lives of “ordinary” people through the ages – it tries to fix the ages in times of western kings and kingdoms.
- Mainstream history in India is in the hands of those who follow colonialists and marxists.
The Indians had a concept of history with a focus on :
- Cyclic Time : Indian concept of time was based on astronomical observations. (See : How many kinds of Yugas are there? ) Indian scriptures (puranas) talk of cyclic time. That means that the 4 yugas cycle, the manvantaras cycle, the kalpas cycle and so on. And while the major events repeat, the minor events can vary from cycle to cycle.
- Achievements of Brahmins. Science and Spirituality.
- Brahmin Lineages.
- Dharma.
Vyasa says in the Siva Purana, that brahmins viewed battles between kings with disgust and as exercises in ego. Kings with ascetic achievements such as Janaka and Viswamitra were held in high esteem.
- By promoting and encouraging brahmin hatred in the country, by successfully popularising the theory that brahmins were Aryan Invaders, and that the Vedas were an Aryan-European Achievement instead of an Indian achievement, the British rulers and Christian missionaries, messed up the true account of Indian history and even today their version is taught in our schools. The British rulers and Colonial Christian missionaries messed with the truth of Indian History. If their material battles were with kings, they fought the Indian spiritual domain not directly with brahmins, but by discrediting brahmins in the eyes of the 3999 other Indian castes.
But what is History in the context of the current scientific view on the equivalence of space-time and mass-energy?
20th century physicists view time as a dimension closely connected to space and think of loops and wrinkles and worm holes etc in time. Einstein once asked someone ”does station X stop at this train?” Godel said that the present could influence the past. In his lectures on physics, Feynman says that the greatest achievement of the 19th century was the discovery by Maxwell of the Laws of Electromagnetics. He too didn’t take the politics of the time into much account.
- Time is Not Linear. Time is not independent of Space.
- There may be many universes.
- All times co-exist just as all space co-exists, because time and space are variants of one another.
What does this mean for reality (Sat), truth (Satya), and then for history (Itihasa, and Itivritti)?
A few questions :
- Is history a record of the political clashes of power between regions and religions? Is history a record of how humans lived and evolved? Is it an exercise in ego? A claim for greatness and laying stake to power? Is history an exercise in curiosity?
- Is history a guess about the origins of the universe and the emergence, evolution and extinction of different species of life, on the earth, and in the universe(s).
- Is every version of history true in some alternate universe?
Consolidated : Indian History – A New Construct
Authorship and Copyright Notice : All Rights Reserved : Satya Sarada Kandula
