[0:23]Welcome to EPG Patna of Marriage history and marriage archaeology Tamil university, Tenzavur. Under the subject of Indian culture, we have a paper on Indian. Within this paper, we have a module called. As a source of political history of India. In this particular paper, we will be focusing on. How. understand the political history. Since we have lot of inscriptions all across India, we will be focusing on this subject by selecting few examples spreading from different parts of India. Let's look into the learning objectives of this particular module. The purpose of the module is to focus on the definition ofphi and political history. Before getting into use of epigraphy for political history we need to understand the importance of epigraphy as well as political history. Module is also to understand how the inscriptions are useful for the reconstruction of political history. Our aim is also to know about some of the important inscriptions related to the political history of India. So in this module we will be focusing on all these aspects related to Indian political history with a focus on inscriptions. Let's get into the introduction.epigraphical details with the study of inscriptions which are documents written on stone copper plates coins and other objects. It is important for historians to be familiar with the words and their meaning and their context from the inscription. Therefore mastering epigraphical records knowing the concern or related languages for example Kannada, Malayalam, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. So language knowledge is very essential for interpreting inscription. A researcher has to cross check the meaning of specific terms and their usage through the parallels in other sources and also in other languages.
[2:59]Suppose if you are studying an inscription of Tamil or Telugu or Canada it is necessary that we need to have the knowledge of Sanskrit. Therefore language knowledge is very essential for understanding and interpreting inscriptions. Here you what you see is an emblem of cholambed on the laden copper plate. So copper plates were an important documents issued by the kings. Copper plates were issued to several people mainly to the brahmins. When lands were granted to the brahmins they wanted some permanent proof as a proof of ownership of the land. Therefore it required the creation of copper plates a kind of portable and permanent documents.
[3:51]If you write something on palm leaf or some other perishable materials you can't have it long. If you each a document on a copper plate it remains permanent especially when the land is given to non-local people you get evidence of copper plates. We can also site the example of copper plate inscriptions which which mentions about the donation of certain rights in the town of Colombo in Kerala in the medieval period. So whenever they had to deal with the non-local people they offered the documents in the form of copper plates which is a solid proof for their ownership. What is hieroglyph? What are the components in hieroglyph? Let us look into the details. understanding the script that is hieroglyphical variation and style is important for interpreting the inscriptions. One should have the quest to dig into the meaning of the words and their usage from the contemporary text which could be literary or religious.
[5:10]So therefore, epigraphical text cannot be studied in isolation. They need to be seen in relation to other forms of text and word usage. Besides the oral and living traditions of a region which could sometime use the words mentioned in the inscription in a modified or transformed form are also important. Therefore apart from the reading of text and inscription one need to know the local convention that are practiced in a particular region. As the noted historian and epigraphist Nabu Karashima points out that a researcher has to listen to the whispers and murmurs of the inscription. That is very important. The inscriptions have all the sources. It is up to the researchers to use a to extract maximum amount of information from the inscription. Therefore, epigraphy is a critical study of ancient documents with sound knowledge of history, languages, literature, culture, epigraphy and language.
[6:21]Therefore, we need the knowledge of all these disciplines to understand epigraphy. Political history before going into the use of inscription, let Let's have an introduction on political history. What is political history? So we have to understand what is politics. Politics is about managing the society or a group of people. Hence it has always attracted people because of the power and perks associated with it. Now we live in the age of modern democracy dictated by complex set of laws and administrative system. So our interest is to understand how these complex administrative and political system emerged over the times how people were managing themselves in the ancient age. That is the main purpose of political history and also to understand how complex systems of administration and state and policy emerged over the time. That is the focus of political history. politics why people needed politics. People felt the necessity of a leader because it is very important to have a leader for a society without a leader a society cannot go forward. So they felt they needed somebody to represent them to guided them to the leader who was a simple person in the pre-historian period became part of a complex system of polity in the later time. Actually the leader was part of a simple system in the early period then because of the social necessity the political system became very complex and the political leader became very important with a lot of retuned and perk and big palaces and all that complex systems of rules and regulations. Political history what is political history? The activities associated with the governance of a country or other area especially the debate or conflict among the individuals or parties having or hoping to achieve power. These are all focused as part of political history. Politics is about managing the society or a group of people and determining their destiny.
[8:50]Politics has always attracted people because of the benefits that it gives to the people and also because of the importance that it gives to the people. The political system is an important subject in modern days. So in history we seek to understand how these political systems emerged over a period of time. What are the areas covered by political history. Political history studies the various forms of governments how people were managed and administered through the ages how kingship was legitimized how state emerged as a political entitlement how various kingdoms fought and established their power how the institution called state controlled and admitted the territories. These are the aims of political history. Basically it focus on everything related to administration of the people and control of the people and the conflicts and international relations and resolving the conflicts and offering a peaceful existence for the country and the people.
[10:03]Can we divide history into political, economic and cultural or these categories justify. In essence history is one and it should be studied. But these sub disciplines focus on certain aspects of history. Therefore they can shed new light on multiple dimensions of history.
[10:28]Therefore it is necessary that we have these discipline such as political, economic, social or cultural so that different aspects of the society can be highlighted and focused carefully. Therefore it is very essential to split history and focus so that we get a complete holistic understanding. Importance ofepigraphical sources how inscriptions are important. We will look into these details here. are valuable permanent records available for the reconstruction of history. In essence they are the most authentic documents that we have for Indian history. People of the ancient and medieval India felt the importance of the documents and records for their day-to-day activities and sought to preserve the evidence for poverty by the records on non-ble media such as and metal. People felt permanent documents are very important so that they can do so many transactions like selling of land, buying of land and also other rules and regulations related to the society and its function. So that they became permanent. That is why people issued these inscription. In addition to that the king and also the political system need inscriptions as a means for recording their instructions on also to pass their orders to the regions that are located far away from the center. DC circle divides the inscriptions into two categories. All inscriptions do not belong to single category.
[12:28]The inscriptions that were directly issued by the kings they have different character. Those issued by the private individuals, they would have different character. The inscriptions issued by the kings will have lot of details about the king and his dynasty and it would be related to an order. But an inscription issued by the private individual will only have the name of the king and his regnal year but actually it will have other details. These two kinds of inscription would offer different kind of data for understanding political as well as social economic and cultural history. Inscriptions are found in large number especially those issued by the private individuals are found in large number rather than those issued by the kings. Therefore it is very important that we understand who issued a particular inscription. When a king issues an inscription it will have a different kind of text and its structure when an ordinary individual issues an inscription it will have different structure and focus. So we have to critically scrutinize these administrative terms as well as administrative officers found in the inscription we can understand the changes in history.
[14:18]Ashoka's inscription also mentioned about various administrative officers. We have reference to Yutas, Rajakas and Pradesikas. So we get a very clear idea how these administrative officers were acting in all over the territory. We can see them as agents of the government. They were very important for the functioning of the government and their names are very frequently mentioned and they were given different titles and they are also reflected in the inscription.
[15:06]So therefore the local administration aspect is also reflected through the inscription. Especially if you take the case of Utsra administration it talks about the village assembly how it was organized how the election or election or selection was conducted and what were the rules and regulations for the selecting of members for various committees. So therefore the local administration aspect is also reflected through the inscriptions. With regard to administration of justice we get several inscription.
[15:43]We can take the case study of Velvigudi grant of Pandya it is a copper plate grant. It is an important early medieval document which talks about the restoration of traditional rights on the basis of copper document. This is very important. The village of was given to a Brahmin called Narkotun by a king named Palagala, Muppet, Perudi somewhere in the early centuries of the common era. Then the Kalabra king probably he defeated many kings and took away the land. As a result of that he the person lost his land. His descendant who has this information meets the king Paranta Nanjan and present the evidence of earlier donation and the grant given to the Brahman is restored. Here we can understand how the copper plate or other documents are very important. Here justice is restored based on the evidence document that was created.
[16:53]Another important point that we get also is the resistance to the land donation. We have certain inscriptions which refer to the resistance to the land donation to the Brahmins and some of the lands which were given to the Brahmins were taken over by other group of people then kings intervened and restored them. So these kind of historical dynamics are also documented through the inscriptions. With regard to international and diplomatic relations we have a lot of evidence already we saw about Ashokan inscription and his relations with the Greek.
[17:34]We also have another inscription found in Nagapattinam. in the Nagapattinam temples we have inscription and also the copper plate grants issued by Rajarajah to the Buddha Vikara that was built by Sri Vijaya king at Nagapattinam. That is another important example of international relations the Sri Vijaya kings comes and builds a Buddha Vikara in Nagapattinam and requests king Rajarajah for a donation and he donates the income from the village of Anaimangalam to this particular Buddha Vikara. So these kinds of international relations are also reflected in the inscriptions.
[18:38]So coming to the summary of this particular module. So we can understand how inscriptions are very important for understanding the history especially the political history how they offer authentic information. If we had not found these inscription we will be in dark about our ancient history. Therefore inscriptions can be accepted as a very important and vital source but again just because we have something written on a copper plate or a stone we can't blindly believe whatever written there is true. We need to critically question. Inscriptions and whether they are found on copper plate or stone they are also created by certain agencies. They are created for a purpose. So we have to adopt internal and external criticisms to evaluate the information found in the inscription in addition to that we need to delve into the data that is offered the terms that are found in the inscription by collecting statistical data by understanding the meanings of the inscription we can better understand the political history. Therefore inscriptions are very important source for understanding the political history of ancient India as well as medieval India. I hope you understood many of the points related to the importance of the inscription. If you have any doubts or queries you can consult the ETX or kindly log on to EPG website. Thank you.
