Sources to Study History – Literary Sources

by Harsh Kumar

The records of history in literary are very few in comparison to the archeological sources of the ancient age of our history. The literary of our past remain silent for most of the time in ancient age. 99% of our past cannot be understand by literary as they are not available for prior 3^rd century BC. Thus, archeological evidences are the only major sources for history study before 3^rd century BC. But, this scenario change after discovery of script and writing process. In initial stage people used pictographic scripts. For example, the script of Harappan civilization is yet to be deciphered because of the complex nature of pictographic script of Harappans.

Literary sources are most important and authenticate source of history if we talk about the later ancient age to modern world. The literary sources can also be of different types like religious texts, political and economic texts, biographies, foreign travelers accounts etc. We will be going to discuss these in detail to understand their importance in reconstruction of our history.  

1. Religious texts

Religious texts are very important part to reconstructed our past in a broad way. The religious text contains the information about the socio-cultural aspects of a certain age.

Although these texts gave more importance to religious history than political history which is true in the context of Indian Ancient historic text. For example, four Vedas contains detail about the religious, medicine, charms, magic, etc. But remain silent on the political history of that. So, religious texts are limit in certain context for construction of history but still very significant in getting information on the socio-cultural aspect of that age.

• Political and Economic texts

Political and economic texts are most important sources of history through the literary sources. Political text detail on the political scenario of certain age. For example, Kalhana’s Rajatarangini contain the explicit explanation of the political history from the Mahabharat age to early 12^th century AD. Other than that, economic texts also provide important input for reconstruction of the history the help in understanding the economics of a particular age. For example, Kautilya’s Arthashastra is a typical exam of political and economic text of Mauryan age. It provides the details about the politics, administration system, socio-culture, economic like trade and commerce etc. So, these texts play significant role in construction of political and economic history of our past.

• Biographies

Biographies are another important text for knowing about your past. There are various king’s biographies that provides important details of political, economic, socio-cultural, administrative etc. system of that time. For example, Tuzuk-i-Baburi or Baburnama, the autobiography of first Mughal Emperor Babur provides details about the administration, political conflict, socio-cultural of that time. It mentioned about the political scenario of India when he came to India to conquer the same. He mentioned about Vijayanagar Empire and other contemporary empire of that time.

• Foreign Traveler’s accounts

The Foreign travelers accounts are very important for reconstruction of our past. It provides us the unbiased details which is a major concern about the literary sources.

There are various important writes in the who wrote about other nations also. For example, Megasthenes, a Bactrian ambassador to court of Mauryan ruler Chandragupta, wrote in detail about the political and socio-economic of that age in his book Indica. The account of Hiuen Tsang, a Chinese traveler wrote about the rule of Harshvardhana. Fa Hien wrote about the Gupta period. So, foreign travelers account helps us to reconstruct history by providing important details about other nations.

Literary works are very important to study about our past, are very significant in history reconstruction in following ways.

Significance of literary sources

1. The literary sources are the most important sources in studying of history. For example, from the Vedic age to today the literary works of leaning.
2. They provide details about the political system of certain age. For example, Nitisar of Kamadaka wrote about the political system of Chandragupta of Gupta Empire. He wrote in detail about the administration of Chandragupta.
3. They provide detail about the social condition of a certain time. For example, Arthashastra wrote about the socio condition of the people of Mauryan age.
4. They provide important information on reconstruction of the economic history of certain time. For example, Megasthenes wrote the economic condition of Mauryan age like the prevalence of taxes of that age. Sangam literature about the economic condition of Tamil state.
5. The religious life of past time can also be learnt through these literary sources. For example, literature of Vedic age helps us to know about the religious life of that age.   
6. Literary sources provide details about the science and technology of the past. For example, Aryabhattam of Aryabhata, explain about various mathematical and science problems. He was the first to wrote about the revolution of planet Earth. He also discovered the digit Zero. Shushrut wrote Shushrut Samhita, a book on medical science.
7. The trade and commerce of the past can also be learnt through these sources. For example, Arthashastra wrote about the trade and commerce.
8. The foreign of kingdom can be learnt by the literary sources. For example, Megasthenes was a Bactrian ambassador to the court of Chandragupta Maurya, he wrote about their foreign relations.
9. They knowledge about the war and battles can be get through these literary sources. For example, Bana Bhatta wrote the war and battles of Harshvardhana.

Thus, the literary sources are important for the reconstruction of our past but there are certain limitations of literary sources that also needs to be discussed. They are as follows:

1. In Indian context, there is no literary sources available prior to the Vedic age, that means the 99%of Indian History cannot be constructed through the literatures.
2. The literary sources of early age were written in haphazard form. There was no chronology of events, that made them complex to arrange. Because of this many historians and philosopher denied to categorized Indian Vedic text as the History book.
3. There is a smaller number of literatures for some age even after the Vedic age. For example, there are few texts for the post-Mauryan age. The history of Satvahanas cannot be constructed through the literary works as there are no so texts available for that.
4.  The literary sources are prone to interpolation and extrapolation. There are various facts that confused about the nature of literary sources. For example, it was believed that some chapters of Arthashastra written during the time of Vishnu Gupta of Gupta Empire.
5. The literary are biased in nature as they written under the guidelines of kings. It was impossible to criticized a king during his age. For example, Banabhatta wrote about the achievements of Harshvardhana but he did not mention about the failures of Harsha.
6. The religious nature of ancient texts mainly focused on the elite class. They did not write anything about the common peoples. These literatures were written with the approach of “From above”.
7. The language of various ancient texts is very which is difficult to understand. For example, Puranas were written in the future tense made the work of historians difficult.
8.   The time period of various kingdom is also confusing because of lack of chronology and lack of dates from these texts. For example, some historians believes that Kalidasa lived during the age Chandragupta and Kautilya lived during the age of Samudra Gupta.
9. There are various factors like technology, common life of peoples etc. that cannot be constructed through these literary sources.

Although of these limitations, the literary sources are very important sources to construct history. They provide beneficial inputs on various archeological evidences. They work as the counter proof of a fact in history. Hence, played a significant role in reconstruction of history.