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THE STUDY OF INDIAN HISTORY

harmony, peace and prosperity. For been torn by internecine war.

example, more than two thousand years In statecraft her rulers were running
back Ashoka, in his Rock Edict XII, insisted and unscrupulous. Famine, flood and
on the following measures and practices plague visited her from time to time,
to maintain harmony, peace and and killed millions of her people.
prosperity in society: Inequality of birth was given religious
"(i) promotion of what constitutes sanction, and the lot of the humble was
the essence of all religions as their common generally hard.
ground or root (Mula); Yet, our overall impression is that in no
(ii) cultivation of this sense of unity other part of the ancient world were the
of all religions by the practice of vachaguti relations of man and man, and of man
or restraint of criticism of other religions and the state, so fair and humane.
and sects; In no other early civilization were
(iii) thl rning together (samavaya) slaves so few in number, and in no other
of ancient law-book are their rights
exponents of different religions inreligious so well protected as in the Arthashastra.
assemblies; and No other ancient lawgiver proclaimed
(iv) learning the texts of other such noble ideals of fair play in battle as
religions so as to become bahusruta or did Manu in all her history of warfare
proficient in the scriptures of different Hindu India has few tales to tell of cities
religions." put to the sword or of the massacre of
History gives people their identity. noncombatants. The ghastly sadism of
The study of past does not mean that one the kings of Assyria, who flayed their
lives in the past but one learns to live with captives alive, is completely without
the past. History is not something that parallel in ancient India. There was
we can disown, sporadic cruelty and oppression no
As mentioned earlier, history gives doubt, but, in comparison with
a society or a nation an identity. On the conditions in other early cultures, it was
basis of this study of history, British mild.
historian A. L. Bash am ( 1914-1986), in To us the most striking feature
his book, The Wonder That was India, of ancient Indian civilization is its
writes: humanity''.
"At most periods of her history,
India, though a cultural unit, has

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