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2019
Shaw, J. 2019. State, empire and religious governmentality in Mauryan / post-Mauryan India’, Classical Archaeology Seminar. London, Senate House, University of London (20 February 2019)
2019 •
COURSE DESCRIPTION In this course we will investigate the rich history of ancient India, from the Indus Civilization in 3 rd millennium BCE to the Gupta Dynasty in 4 th-6 th century CE. We will reflect critically on the evidence that scholars use to study the ancient past (e.g. ancient texts, inscriptions, coins, and the archaeological record) and the ways in which they interpret this evidence. We will also analyze and compare the different methods and frameworks used by scholars across multiple disciplines (e.g. archaeology, art history, philology). You will have the opportunity to engage with different primary source materials in class and will demonstrate your understanding of different historical methods and frameworks in the writing of a final research paper. We will also discuss the stakes of ancient Indian history as it relates to the present, including current academic debates and the role of history in the construction of modern political and cultural identities. COURSE OBJECTIVES This course aims to provide students with a detailed overview of the ancient history of India, and the ways in which this history is (re)constructed through different perspectives and the analysis of different sources. By the end of this course students will be able to: 1. Identify and describe the chronological periods and cultures of ancient Indian history. 2. Describe different conceptual and analytical frameworks for analyzing ancient history.
Journal of Advances and Scholarly Researches in Allied Education
Mauryan Intervention in the Deccan: A Study of Archaeological DataA meaningful understanding of the pre-modern pasts of India stems from the recognition and explanation of identifiable changes in its socio-political situations, material cultures and religious experiences. Such changes need to be situated beyond dynastic shifts, although socioeconomic and cultural developments were, of course, interlocked with the then politics and polities. Such an approach naturally negates the perceptions of the immutable social, economic and cultural (especially religious) institutions and practices over millennia in the subcontinent. The image of the unchanging East, typified by 'traditional India', which is perceived to have thrived on sanatana dharma, is largely constructed by preferring to represent pre-modern India through normative treatises (sastras), mostly written in Sanskrit and from a predominantly Brahmanical perspective and ideology. That the narrative literature may often present images of society, economy, political and cultural activities distinct from and contrary to the ideals upheld by normative treatises has of late gained considerable historiographical visibility. What needs to be underlined here is that the pre-modern pasts of India can hardly be grasped by the Sruti–Smriti literary traditions which leave a strong impression of memorialised orality, the practice of written words and documents, therefore, being reduced to marginality. The present review article precisely proposes to highlight the significance of written documents in the form of inscriptions for generating data and impressions of the pasts of India with certain distinctiveness which is hardly available in other categories of evidence, especially in the normative texts. This is not to claim that inscriptions are stand-alone sources for the study of pre-modern India. Inscribed texts, as
In 1837, James Prinsep deciphered the Asokan edicts and in 1901, Vincent Smith published one of the earliest histories on the subject titled, Asoka: the Buddhist Emperor of India. Since then, the Mauryas, dated between 317 and 186 BC, 1 have maintained their central position in ancient Indian historiography. Nor has this attraction diminished with the passage of time. On the contrary, the legacy of Asoka has entered its latest and modern phase. This is in the context of the Navayana or Neo-Buddhist path forged by B.R. Ambedkar on the 2500 th anniversary of Buddha's parinirvana. 2 Ambedkar's primary focus seems to have been not so much to change the Brahmanical system, but to ―use a polemical critique of Brahmanical religio-social dominance as the foundation upon which to develop an Indic based alternative to the Brahmanical social order‖ (Blackburn 1993: 5). In the quest for social justice against caste hierarchy in modern India, a new meaning is being given to Asoka as a champion of the downtrodden and a protector against Brahamanical oppression, while at the same time drawing on the Theravada Buddhist tradition. 3 This paper does not aim to retrace the historiographical debates on the Mauryan Empire. Instead, I attempt to draw attention to two of its salient aspects, i.e., the polity and Asoka's dhamma. These are discussed primarily in terms of the archaeology of frontier regions such as the Deccan, with data from northwest and eastern India used for comparison. My objectives for undertaking this I would like to express my grateful thanks to Carla Sinopoli for making the conference possible and for the support in the preparation of this paper. Needless to say, I alone am responsible for the views expressed in this paper. 1 Eggermont, 1956, based on the mahaparinirvana of the Buddha in 368 BC. 2 Ambedkar studied anthropology and law and was a prominent member of the committee that drafted the National Constitution of independent India. This committee also adopted the use of the Sarnath lion capital and its wheels as the symbol of the new Republic. These recommendations have to be viewed in the context of Ambedkar's personal convictions. On October 14, 1956, Ambedkar held a public conversion or diksa at which he and half a million of his followers left Hinduism and converted to the Neo-Buddhist faith (Tartakov, 1996: 120). 3 Like the village deity and national deity, there were family deities also who were worshipped through the Brahmins. The priests who used to go for worshipping these deities started influencing the affairs of the state through the queens. Asoka after embracing Buddhism discontinued this practice and removed the idols of such deities. Asoka said, ―As I venerate the Buddha, the Enlightened One, there is no need to worship any other deity‖. This action of Asoka disturbed the Brahmins very much as it ended their unfair means of livelihood and exploitation. They pledged to take revenge for this loss (Ambedkar, 1982: 113 as quoted in Ahir,
2008 •
The Journal of Asian Studies
Ancient India: New Research. Edited by Upinder Singh and Nayanjot Lahiri. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2009. 320 pp. $22.95 (paper)2011 •
"Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology", edited by C. Smith, pp. 3751-3760.
India: Historical Archaeology2014 •
Ancient Indian Ministry
St. Xavier's College, Mumbai Subject: Ancient Indian Culture and Archaeology Year: MA Part-1 CIA 2 Topic: Ancient Indian MinistryThe paper, 'Ancient Indian Ministry', conveys the rich administrative structure that was prevalent in Ancient India starting from the Vedic Age till the Classical Period, i.e., Gupta Age. The paper covers the origin of ministry, their importance and role in administration, the council of ministers, the qualifications required, their evolution, the various departments, and lastly, the types of ministers. The aim of this paper is to help the readers understand how important these ministers were and how the great Kings considered their opinion and advises extremely essential for governing the Empire efficiently.
Bureaucratic Archaeology State, Science, and Past in Postcolonial India
Bureaucratic Archaeology: State, Science, and Past in Postcolonial India2021 •
Bureaucratic Archaeology is a multi-faceted ethnography of quotidian practices of archaeology, bureaucracy, and science in postcolonial India, concentrating on the workings of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). This book uncovers an endemic link between the micro-practice of archaeology in the trenches of the ASI and the manufacture of archaeological knowledge, wielded in the making of political and religious identity and summoned as indelible evidence in the juridical adjudication in the highest courts of India. This book is a rare ethnography of the daily practice of a postcolonial bureaucracy from within rather than from the outside. It meticulously uncovers the social, cultural, political, and epistemological ecology of ASI archaeologists to show how the postcolonial state assembles and produces knowledge. This is the first book-length monograph on the workings of archaeology in a non-western world. It scrupulously shows how the theory of archaeological practice deviates, transforms, and generates knowledge outside the Euro-American epistemological tradition. Ashish Avikunthak teaches at the University of Rhode Island and is a cultural anthropologist and filmmaker. He was named Future Greats 2014 by ArtReview. Subject of more than a dozen retrospectives and sixteen solo shows, his films have been shown in film festivals, galleries, and museums worldwide.
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