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PRASADSAHU"'
BHIAIRABI
BrahmanicalIdeology,RegionalIdentitiesand the
Constructionof Early India* '
*
Professor of Ancient Indian History, University of Delhi, Delhi.
*
? Presidential Address, Ancient Section, 33rd Session of Punjab History Conference held at
Patiala, March 2001.
Social Scientist, Vol. 29, Nos. 7 - 8, July - August 2001
4 SOCIAL SCIENTIST
NOTES
1. See B.D. Chattopadhyaya, The Making of Early Medieval India, New Delhi,
1994, Introduction; H. Kulke, "The Early and Imperial Kingdom: A
Processural Model of Integrative State Formation in Early Medieval India",
Idem (ed), The State in India 1000-1700, Delhi, 1995, pp. 233-62; Romila
Thapar, Cultural Pasts: Essays in Early Indian History, New Delhi, 2000,
essays nos. 5, 6, 7 & 9 and B.P. Sahu (ed), Land System and Rural Society in
Early India, New Delhi, 1997, Introduction.
BRAHMANICALIDEOLOGY,REGIONALIDENTITIES 15
2. The concept of region can be defined in quite different ways. For the problems
of definition see B.D. Chattopadhyaya, "Geographical Perspectives, Culture
Change and Linkages: Some Reflections on Early Punjab", Presidential
Address, Ancient Section, Proceedings Punjab Historical Conference, 27th
session, Patiala, 1995.
3. See Bernard S. Cohn, "African Models and Indian Histories", in Richard G.
Fox (ed), Realm and Region in Traditional India, New Delhi, 1977, pp. 90-
113.
4. See, for example, D.D. Kosambi, "The Basis of Ancient Indian History",
reprinted in A.J. Syed (ed), D.D. Kosambi on History and Society: Problems
of Interpretation; Idem, An Introduction to the Study of Indian History,
Bombay, 1956, early chapters; also see R.S. Sharma, Indian Feudalism (c.
300-1200), Delhi, 1980 (2nd edition), Appendix 1.
5. For a comprehensive critique see B.D. Chattopadhyaya, The Making...., op.
cit.; Idem, "State and Economy in North India: Fourth Century to Twelfth
Century", in Romila Thapar (ed), Recent Perspectives of Early Indian History,
Bombay, 1995, pp. 309-46.
6. Supra, no. 1.
7. Irfan Habib, "The Formation of India - Notes on the History of an Idea",
Social Scientist, nos. 290-91, July-Aug., 1997, pp. 3-10; Idem, "The
Envisioning of a Nation: A Defence of the Idea of India", Social Scientist,
nos. 316-17, September-October 1999, pp. 18-29.
8. Ibid.
9. For regional historiographies centering around a regional deity and its kshetra
see H. Kulke, Kings and Cults: State Formation and Legitimation in India
and Southeast Asia, New Delhi, 1993, essay nos. 9, 10, 11 & 12.
10. See Vijay Nath, "From 'Brahmanism' to 'Hinduism': Negotiating the Myth
of the Great Tradition", Presidential Address, Ancient India Section, Indian
History Congress, Calcutta session, 2-4 January 2001.
11. See Romila Thapar, From lineage to State (Social Formations in the Mid-
First Millennium BC in the Ganga Valley), New Delhi, 1984, ch. II; R.S.
Sharma, "Problems of Continuity and Interaction in Indus and Post-Indus
Cultures", Social Scientist, nos. 320-21, Jan-Feb 2000, pp. 3-11.
12. See Kum Kum Roy, "In which part of South Asia did the Early Brahmanical
Tradition (1st millennium BC) Take its Form?" Studies in History, 9(1), 1993,
pp. 1-32.
13. Ibid.
14. Richard W. Lariviere, "Dharmasastra, Custom, 'Real Law' and 'Apocryphal'
Smritis", in Bernhard Kolver et al. (eds), The State, the Law and
Administration in Classical India, Manchen, 1997, pp. 97-110.
15. H. Kulke, "The Early and Imperial Kingdom: A Processural model..." Supra
n. 1.
16. See Vijay Nath, "Tirthas and Acculturation: An Anthropological Study",
Social Science Probings, 10(1-4), 1993, pp. 28-54.
17. See Romila Thapar, "Imagined Religious Communities? Ancient History and
the Modern Search for a Hindu Identity", Modern Asian Studies, 23(2),
'1989, pp. 209-31; also in idem, Cultural pasts..., op. cit.,pp. 965-989.
18. Supra, nos. 10 and 16.
19. See, for example, A. Eschmann, H. Kulke and G.C. Tripathi (eds), The Cult
of Jagannatha and the Regional Tradition of Orissa, New Delhi, 1978.
16 SOCIAL SCIENTIST
20. See George W. Spencer, "Religious Networks and Royal Influence in Eleventh
Century South India", Journal of the Economic and Social History of the
Orient (hereafter JESHO), 12(1), 1969, pp. 42-5; James Heitzman, "Ritual
Polity and Economy: The Transactional Network of an Imperial Temple in
Medieval South India", JESHO, 34, 1991, pp. 23-54 and Nandini Sinha,
"A Study of State and Cult: The Guhilas, Pasupatas and Ekalingaji in Mewar,
Seventh to Fifteenth Centuries AD." Studies in History, 9(2), 1993, pp. 161-
182.
21. H. Kulke, "The Integrative Model of State Formation in Early Medieval
India: Some Historiographic Remarks" (forthcoming)/ Also see B.D.
Chattopadhyaya, The Making..., op. cit., p. 30.
22. See Romila Thapar, "Imagined Religious Communities? ..." op. cit. Also see
Suvira Jaiswal, "Semitising Hinduism: Changing Paradigms of Brahmanical
Integration", Social Scientist, no. 223, Dec. 1991, pp. 20-32.
23. Thapar, ibid. For the political sphere see B.D. Chattopadhyaya, "Political
Processes and the Structure of Polity in Early Medieval India - Problems of
Perspective", Presidential Address, Ancient India Section, Burdwan session,
Proceedings Indian History Congress (hereafter PHIC), 1983, pp. 25-63.
24. Ainslie T. Embree, "Brahmanical Ideology and Regional Identities", Idem,
Imaging India: Essays on Indian History, New Delhi, 1989.
25. Ibid.
26. See Romila Thapar, The Mauryas Revisited, New Delhi, 1987, pp. 1-31. For
a different perspective see R.S. Sharma, Aspects of Political Ideas and
Institutions in Ancient India, Delhi, 1991, 392-402.
27. For example, see the diagram showing the history of sites in R.S. Sharma,
Urban Decay in India (c. 300-1000), Delhi, 1987, pp. 192-97. Also see D.K.
Chakrabarti, The Archaeology of Early Indian Cities, New Delhi, 1995, ch.
on Early Historical cities.
28. See for example, I.W. Mabbett, Truth, Myth and Politics in Ancient India,
New Delhi, 1972, ch. 6; Thapar, "The Mauryas Revisited, op. cit., and G.
Fussman, "Central and Provincial Administration in Ancient India: The
Problem of the Mauryan Empire", The Indian Historical Review (hereafter
IHR), 14(1-2), 1987-88, pp. 43-72.
29. See S. Seneviratne, "Kalinga and Andhra: The Process of Secondary State
Formation in Early India", IHR, 7(1-2), 1980-81, pp. 54-69 and B.D.
Chattopadhyaya, "Transition to the Early Historical Phase in the Deccan: A
Note", in B.M. Pande and B.D. Chattopadhyaya (eds), Archaeology and
History, Vol.II, Delhi, 1987, pp. 727-32.
30. S. Seneviratne, ibid.
31. B.D. Chattopadhyaya, "Transition to the Early Historical Phase in the
Deccan...", op. cit.
32. For Kalinga see B.P. Sahu, "Authority and Patronage in Early Orissa", in
K.K. Basa and P. Mohanty (eds), Archaeology of Orissa, Delhi, 2000, pp.
431-40.
33. See Surajit Sinha, "State Formation and Rajput Myth in Central India",
Man in India, 42(2), 1962, pp. 35-80; K.S. Singh, "A Study in State Formation
Among Tribal Communities", in R.S. Sharma and V. Jha (eds), Indian Society:
Historical Probings, New Delhi, 1977, pp. 317-36 and Surajit Sinha (ed),
Tribal Polities and State Systems in Pre-Colonial Eastern and North Eastern
India, Calcutta, 1987.
BRAHMANICALIDEOLOGY,REGIONALIDENTITIES 17
34. See B. Puri, "Ideology and Religion in the Kushana Epoch", in B.G. Gafurov
et al., (eds), Central Asia in the Kushan Period, II, Moscow, 1975, pp. 183-
90.
35. Even in Gupta and post-Gupta times royal patronage was broad based. The
compulsions of political power mostly made it necessary to recognise and
address the rich socio-religious ground reality.
For the Kushana state see R.S. Sharma, Aspects of Political Ideas..., op. cit.,
pp. 291-309; A.K. Narain, "The Kushana State: A Preliminary Study", in
H.J.M. Ciaessen and P. Skalnik (eds), The Study of the State, The Hague,
1981, pp. 251-73.
36. R.S. Sharma, Urban Decay in India, op. cit., p. 168.
37. For details of the argument see B.P. Sahu, "The State in Early India: An
Overview", PIHC, Aligarh Session, 1994, pp. 94-95.
38. B.D. Chattopadhyaya, The Making of Early Medieval India, op. cit.,
Introduction.
39. See B.P. Sahu, "Agrarian Changes and the Peasantry in Early Medieval Orissa
(c. AD 400-1100)", in V.K. Thakur and A. Aounshuman (eds), Peasants in
Indian History, Patna, 1996, pp. 283-311.
40. B.P. Sahu, "The Past as a Mirror of the Present: The Case of Oriya Society",
Social Science Probings, 9(1-4), 1992, pp. 8-23.
41. For the Madala Panji see H. Kulke, Kings and Cults, op. cit., pp. 137-191.
Regional historiographies elsewhere also seem to have served similar
functions. See in the same volume essay nos. 11 and 12.
42. Research on these documents is in progress. H. Kulke, G.N. Dash and S.K.
Panda of Berhampur University are working on these records.
43. See Cynthia Talbot, "Inscribing the Other, Inscribing the Self: Hindu-Muslim
Identities in Pre-Colonial India", Comparative Studies in Society and History,
37(4), 1995, especially pp. 710-19.
44. See B.P. Sahu (ed), Land System and Rural Society in Early India, op. cit.,
Introduction.
45. See Romila Thapar, "The Scope and Significance of Regional History",
Presidential Address, Punjab History Conference, 1976, reprinted in Idem,
Ancient Indian Social History - Some Interpretations, New Delhi, 1987
(reprint), pp. 364-67
46. See B.D. Chattopadhyaya, "Autonomous Spaces and the Authority of the
State: The Contradiction and its Resolution in Theory and Practice in Early
India", in Bernhard Kolver et al (eds), The State, the Law and Administration
in Classical India, Munchen, 1997, pp. 1-14.
47. Supra n. 1; also Kulke, "The Integrative Model of State Formation...", op.
cit.
48. For the equation of the idea of the Kali Age with a systemic crisis see B.N.S.
Yadava, "The Accounts of the Kali Age and the Social Transition from
Antiquity to the Middle Ages", IHR, 5(1-2), 1978-79, pp. 31-63; R.S. Sharma,
"The Kali Age: A period of Social Crisis", in S.N. Mukherjee (ed), India:
History and Thought, 1982, pp. 186-203.
49. See B.P. Sahu, "Conception of the Kali Age in Early India: A Regional
Perspective", Trends in Social Science Research, 4(1), 1997, pp. 27-36.
50. See H. Kulke, "Some Observations on the Political Functions of Copper-
Plate Grants in Early Medieval India", Bernhard Kolver, et al. (eds), The
State, the Law..., op. cit., pp. 237-43.
18 SOCIAL SCIENTIST
51. See Georg Berkemer, "The 'Centre Out There' as State Archive: The Temple
of Simhacalam", in Hans Bakker (ed), The Sacred Centre as the Focus of
Political Interest, Groningen, 1992, pp. 119-130.
52. B.P. Sahu, "Inscriptions and their Changing Context: From the
Sarabhapuriyas to the Panduvamsis in Early Medieval South Kosala", paper
presented at the Conference on Text and Context in Orissa and Beyond, at
Salzau (Germany), 10-13 May, 2000 (forthcoming).
53. See B.D. Chattopadhyaya, "Markets and Merchants in Early Medieval
Rajasthan" and "Urban Centres in Early Medieval India: An Overview", in
Idem, The Making of Early Medieval India, op. cit.; Idem, Aspects of Rural
Settlements and Rural Society in Early Medieval India, Calcutta, 1990, ch.
3.
54. I am thankful to my colleague Dr R.P. Rana for drawing my attention to it.
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