Articles in the book demonstrate the value of a scientific approach in dealing with the problems of history, says NS Rajaram
Historicity of Vedic and Ramayana Eras
Author: Kulbhushan Mishra and Saroj Bala (ed)
Publisher: I-Serve, Rs 960
Speaking to a group of students more than a century ago, Swami Vivekananda exhorted them to “Study Sanskrit, but along with it study Western sciences as well. learn accuracy, my boys, study and labour so that the time will come when you can put our history on a scientific basis… Never cease to labour until you have revived the glorious past of India in the consciousness of the people. That will be the true national education, and with its advancement, a true national spirit will be awakened.” What he left unsaid was that such an approach would need them to develop new methods of historical research based on science and the primary sources.
One is happy to see the authors represented in Historicity of Vedic and Ramayana Eras take Vivekananda’s advice to heart and produce articles on history using techniques from geology, archaeology, astronomy, population genetics and others to historical problems that should be of interest to all Indians. The scope of the volume is greater than what the title suggests and includes useful articles on radiocarbon dating, use of planetary software for astronomical dating based on references in the Vedas and epics, seal level changes, genetic profile of Indians, Harappan archaeology and others that have a bearing on history. This makes it a valuable reference work, though, being on the frontiers of knowledge, the articles have to be read with a critical mind.
The book is important not only for valuable articles on subjects like archaeo-astronomy, population genetics, palaeo-botany and the like but the new approaches adopted — of using science to interpret ancient data. Refreshingly, there are no ideological prejudices — Marxism, secularism or anything else. This fresh approach to historical research is probably its most significant contribution though there are highly informative articles presenting both methods and conclusions. The quality is variable but that is to be expected in such a work.
The articles in the volume are from a national seminar on Scientific Dating of Ancient Events Before 2000 BC, organised by Institute of Scientific Research on Vedas inaugurated by Abdul Kalam who has a deep interest in both science and national history. Something like this initiative could have and should have come 60 years ago when India had outstanding historians like RC Majumdar and KM Munshi’s Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan began its great multi-volume series History and Culture of the Indian People with Majumdar as editor.
This should have been the beginning of a golden era in historical research. Unfortunately, instead of taking their cue from these pioneers a new clique of historians with prominent colonial-Marxist and anti-Hindu leanings used their political influence to gain control of the Indian history establishment. Their agenda was to perpetuate colonial impositions like the Aryan invasion theory that denies any Indian achievements including the Vedas and whitewash the record of destruction of the Islamic period. The result has been a half-century Dark Age in historical scholarship.
The depths to which these ‘eminent historians’ have taken history can be judged from the fact its leading light on ancient India, especially Vedic India, for 50 years, Romila Thapar, does not know a word of Sanskrit! Still the political influence that she (and her colleagues) commanded was such that colonial-missionary sponsored Aryan invasion theory (favoured by the Nazis also) was her main contribution. This long after archaeology and other sciences had discredited both the notion of the Aryan race and the invasion. This slavish attachment to and deference towards their former colonial masters was noted by Kalam in a lecture in Kochi: “We tend more to conform to the past, rather than think in true freedom and create a future, free from the pain of the past. Now time has come, in the 21st century, we need new breed of historians who can make the past meet the present and create the future.”
This new breed of independent thinkers should have come 60 years ago soon after Independence but did not due to the venality and inferiority complex of the historians who had gained control of the establishment. But if this volume is any indication, we may have a new breed of historians willing to take on the challenge following Vivekananda’s advice to combine modern science and Sanskrit. One is happy to see that no one today, except for the old guard still stuck in the colonial past, takes the Aryan invasion theory seriously.
The next task is to somehow make these findings part of history education and research in schools and universities. While they have been academically trounced, the anti-national history clique is still in control of textbooks and teaching, thanks to political patronage. These should be changed so that Indian children do not continue to be cheated out of their heritage. India needs institutions and conferences that address not only research problems as in this volume, but also ways of teaching and producing new textbooks.
The reviewer is a scientist and historian