Ancient Coins and Inscriptions

Ancient Indian History and Sources

• Ancient Indian history is interesting because India was a crucible of ethnic groups, including the pre-Aryans, Indo-Aryans, Greeks, Scythians, Hunas, and Turks, each contributing to the evolution of Indian social systems, art, and architecture.

• The study of India's past is significant in the context of modern problems, and knowing about the past helps us understand what people used to eat, wear, and live in.

• Ancient Indian culture was characterized by the commingling of cultural elements from the north and south, and from the east and west.

• The relevance of the past to the present lies in the fact that understanding ancient Indian society and culture can help us address modern problems.

Sources of History

• Historians use coins, inscriptions, architecture, and textual records to learn about the past.

• Inscriptions record events in the context of time and place, and provide dynastic history.

• Ashoka's inscriptions show considerable historical sense, recording events from the eighth to the twenty-seventh regnal year.

• The Harshacharita by Banabhatta is a semi-biographical work that describes the early career of Harshavardhanan and court life under Harsha.

• Bilhana's Vikramanakadevacharita recounts the achievements of his patron, Vikramaditya VI, the Chalukya king of Kalyan.

• The Rajatarangini or The Stream of Kings, written by Kalhana in the twelfth century, is considered to be the first work that possesses several traits of history as it is understood in modern times.

Archaeologists and Material Remains

• Archaeologists study the remains of buildings made of stone and brick, paintings, and sculpture.

• They explore and excavate to find tools, weapons, pots, pans, ornaments, and coins.

• Material remains, such as bones of animals, birds, and fish, provide information about what people ate in the past.

Manuscripts

• Manuscripts are handwritten books written long ago, often on palm leaf or the specially prepared bark of the birch tree.

• Manuscripts dealt with various subjects, including religious beliefs and practices, the lives of kings, medicine, and science.

• Many manuscripts were written in Sanskrit, others in Prakrit (languages used by ordinary people) and Tamil.

• Manuscripts provide valuable information about the past, and many have survived, often preserved in temples and monasteries.### Ancient India

• People in ancient India used to collect roots, fruits, and other forest produce for food and sometimes hunted animals.

• They began to grow crops like wheat and barley around 5000 years ago.

• Cities developed on the banks of the Ganga and its tributaries around 2500 years ago.

• The area along the Ganga and its tributaries, to the south of the Ganga, was known as Magadha, which is now part of the state of Bihar.

• Inscriptions are writings on relatively hard surfaces like stone or metal, used to record events, orders, and messages.

Inscriptions and Coins

• Inscriptions contain both scripts and languages, which have changed over time.
• The study of inscriptions is called epigraphy, and the study of old writing used in inscriptions is called palaeography.
• Coins were made of metal (copper, silver, gold, or lead) and were used as currency in ancient India.
• The study of coins is called numismatics.

Literary Sources

• The Sangam literature comprises eight anthologies of poetry, including Purananuru and Pattuppattu.
• The Sangam texts have several layers, which can be detected on the basis of stages in social evolution.
• Foreign accounts, such as the Indika of Megasthenes, provide valuable information about ancient India.

Physical Map of the Subcontinent

• The physical map of the subcontinent includes the Himalayas, Vindhyas, Satpura, Mahindra, and other mountain ranges, as well as rivers like the Ganga and Indus.
• The map also includes the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, and the Indian Ocean.

Origin of India's Name

• The name "India" comes from the Indus, which was called Sindhu in Sanskrit.
• The Iranians, who came to India through the northwest, called the Indus the "Hindos" or "Indos".
• The name "Bharat" was used for a group of people who lived in the northwest and was mentioned in the Rigveda.

Different Aspects of the Past

• The word "pasts" is used in the plural form to acknowledge that different groups of people had different experiences in the past.
• Archaeology provides information about the ordinary people in the past, but it is limited to what they left behind.
• Dates are counted from the birth of Jesus Christ, with AD standing for "Anno Domini" (in the year of the Lord) and BC standing for "Before Christ".

Pre-historic Age

• The Palaeolithic period, which lasted from 2,000,000 to 10,000 years ago, was characterized by hunter-gatherers who made and used tools of stone, wood, and bone.
• The earliest people in the subcontinent were known as hunter-gatherers, who lived as early as two million years ago.
• They moved from place to place due to various reasons, including the search for food and better living conditions.
• Rock paintings, found in caves, show wild animals and provide information about the lives of early humans.