History & Culture

Studies in the Religious Life of Ancient and Medieval India

The topics dealt with are of as varied nature as those in his other Studies. The approach of most writers to the problems relating to Indian religions is based on literary sources; but in respect of the majority of topics discussed in the volume with the exception of the first few chapters, Prof. Sircar depends primarily on inscriptions and supplements epigraphic evidence by the testimony of literary and numismatic records wherever necessary. A few of the studies incorporated in the volume exhibit the author’s search for truth spread over a number of years. Thus his investigation relating to the god Purusottama-Jagannatha of Puri began when he noticed the dominions of Ganga Anangabhima III (1211-39 A.D.) described as ‘Purusottama’s empire’ in an inscription, in 1939. In the course of its progress, he found out, in 1946, how Bhanu II (1305-27 A.D.) is represented in his records as a feudatory of the god Purusottama-Jagannatha and, in 1953, how a literary work speaks of the dedication of the Ganga kingdom to the god by king Anangabhima. Finally in 1963, Prof. Sircar traced in a tenth century epigraph of the Satna District, Madhya Pradesh, how the god of Puri attracted pilgrims from distant regions. The chapter on Purusottama-Jagannatha in the volume is thus the result of a study of about quarter of a century.

Studies in the Political and Administrative Systems in Ancient and Medieval India

The earlier chapters of the present volume deal with a large number of topics relating to kingship, landlordism (sometimes mistaken as feudalism), tenancy, royal, charter, Pancayat system etc. Some of the following chapters contain discussions on certain royal officers the functions of some of them or their departments a few aspects of the judicial system some land measures and taxes etc. The third group of topics mostly concerns the interpretation of technical expressions found in epigraphical records.

The last section of the work consists of several appendices which are really some of the author’s recently published studies. Of these, one deals with the democratic traditions of ancient Indian and another with the functioning of the guilds, while a third contains a number of popular conceptions about the duties of Kings. The Subject of the last of the appendices is the traders privileges guaranteed by kings, which has been included here as a topic relating to kingship, though it is equally suitable for a study of economic life.

It will be seen that the book contains the learned author’s views on a great variety of matter respecting the political and administrative systems of ancient and medieval India. The treatment of the majority of topics is primarily based on information gathered from innumerable epigraphic records discovered in various parts of India and is characterised by an unusual mastery of details.

India as Seen in the Kuttanimata of Damodara Gupta

The Kuttani-mata of Damodaragupta is one of the few works in the history of classical Sanskrit literature the time and locale of the composition whereof can be ascertained with a fair degree of certainty. We learn from Kalhana that Damodaragupta occupied a high position under the Karkota-Naga

king Jayapida Vinayaditya who ruled over Kashmir in the closing years of the eighth and early years of the ninth centuries A.D. A critical study of the internal evidence indicates that the work was probably composed a few years after the close of Jayapida’s reign.

As indicated by the title, the text aims at exposing the secrets of the whole craft of prostitution in the form of the advice of an experienced bawd (Kuttani) to a courtesan, and from this point of view it occupies a unique place in the whole range of Sanskrit literature; for the account is

based not only on the standard erotic texts like Vatsyayana’s Kama-sutra but draws copiously upon the poet’s personal observation of the actual state of affairs obtaining in post-Jayapida Kashmir. But the poem has a much wider scope than its professed theme and covers the entire gamut of contemporary life of Kashmir in particular and northern India in general in all its varied aspects and as such forms an important source for the study of contemporary Indian society. The present work attempts a critical evaluation of this evidence in the light of relevant literary and archaeological data. In the process new light is thrown on several important questions.

History of Western Tibet: One of the Unknown Empires

A History of Western Tibet is based on foreign and western Tibetan sources

of information. The western Tibetan sources of information are records on

stones and on paper. Records on stones cover the period 200 B.C. to 1900

A.D. Records on paper are the chronicles of the Kings of Leh. Though these

are edited ones, much remains to be done.

The readers will find A History of Western Tibet interesting which is the

outcome of scholarly enterprise and research as much as of familiarity with

the country and the people.

The book is profusely illustrated, and illustrations and maps vis-a-vis the

text make the readers move apace with the different phases of the history

of the Western Tibet.

Descendents of two great warriors of Central Asia-Taimur and Chingiz Khan, The Mughals have become a legend in history of the world. Their rule in India heralded a new era of far-reaching socio-political changes making for an enlightenment of a sort that calls for an evergrowing scholarship to grasp its many-faceted significance. The monograph in hand is not just a mere addition to the numerous works on the Mughals and their activities in various fields. Being the result of a deep and critical scholarly study of the various Political and Religious aspects of the doings of the Mughals it comes up as a unique approach to the subject. Here is an attempt to study Mughal history from a new angle.

Rise and Fall of the Imperial Guptas is based of the entire source material that has come to light since 1888 when Dr. H.F. Fleet’s epoch-making work was published as Vol. III of the Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum. Far reachinf changes in our knowledge of the history of the Guptas have been taking place in consequence of such discoveries as the Bhitari-Silver Copper Seal of Kumaragupta (1889) the Sarnath Inscriptions on Buddhs Images.