Themes in Indian History Part I: Ancient and Early Medieval India
Part I covers the Harappan civilisation, the Mauryan empire, kinship and social change, and early religious traditions. The exam tests whether you reason from evidence rather than recite conclusions.
Reading the evidence correctly
- The Harappan script is undeciphered, so every claim about Harappan politics or religion is an inference from material remains: settlement layout, seals, beads, weights, burials.
- Standardised measures matter: chert cubical weights in a 1:2:4:8:16 series and bricks in a 1:2:4 ratio point to regulated exchange.
- Asokan inscriptions use Prakrit in Brahmi and Kharosthi, with Greek and Aramaic versions at Kandahar; dhamma is a moral programme, not a synonym for Buddhism.
- The Mahabharata critical edition (V.S. Sukthankar, BORI, from 1919) reconstructed a text from many manuscripts; regional recensions differ, so 'the' epic is a scholarly construct.
Worked example
A question supplies a Harappan seal showing a humped bull and script signs and asks what it proves. Reasoning: the seal's function (sealing goods, marking ownership) is inferred from use-wear and find-spots; the animal shows artistic convention; the signs cannot be read. A defensible answer says the seal 'suggests administrative or commercial use' - it cannot prove a deity, a king, or a language.
Traps
- Quoting Wheeler's 'granary' or 'fire altars' as settled fact; both are contested interpretations.
- Treating varna categories as descriptions of real occupations.
- Reading the Mahabharata as a chronicle of a single war.
- Deploying modern terms - nation, empire, religion - without qualification.