3 pitfalls to avoid in reading Indian history 🏗️

1. Contradictions
2. Orientalism
3. other tropes
4. Re: Medieval Revivals in the West

Three pitfalls I’ve observed among people who talk about Indian history:

Wikipedia University. “Wikipedia University” should be seen as just as cringe as relying on “WhatsApp University”. Wikipedia has its own ugly and cliquey politics under the hood (plus some projects activists demand be emphasized like “Women in Red” and “WikiProject Africa”), and navigating its social politics is a nuisance to anyone seeking to actually understand truths. Even by design, it can only reflect mainstream academic consensus at best, and mainstream Indology today is just not very competent. See history/secondary_sources.org.

Not knowing where to find signal amongst the noise. Not knowing what the actually good sources are on Indian history (it’s neither Irfan Habib nor some schizo Swarajya writer, but competent folks mostly from before the 1970s, like RC Majumdar), or reliable repositories of primary source full texts and archaeological artefacts. See history/primary_sources.org

Not knowing what Indian history was actually centered around. Politics didn’t center around kings and dynasties, religion did not center around the currently popular pantheon, science and technology were obviously not modern-tier, national unity didn’t occupy the minds of those not threatened by insecurities, and philosophy didn’t center around feminism or environmentalism or whatever 21st century American leftists care about.

If you’re going around searching for a Shiva temple, or (a favourite) “king’s palace”, in 5th century BC artefacts, or for depictions of homosexuality in the Dharmasutras, then, well, you might find something, but emphasizing it won’t be very helpful in understanding the history of the period.

Perhaps relatedly, it helps to have a comparative context so you don’t run around trying to explain things that aren’t even notable on a global context, e.g. the whole discourse around historical foreign invasions of India (ironically, such insularism is one of the few weaknesses truly unique to Indian civilization).

1. Contradictions

Upinder Singh has a book titled Ancient India: Culture of Contradictions. Owing to her left slant, the themes she focused on were anachronistic and basic (”misogyny”, “goddess worship”, “inequality” etc.) but I thought the idea was a good one, and better-chosen themes would help highlight the notable features of Indian civilization and the depth and variance of Ancient Indian thought.

Truth vs cunning
Artha Materialism vs emphasis on eternal
Centrality of wealth vs voluntary poverty
Chastity vs courtesan culture
Sensual restraint vs indulgence

Kr̥ṣṇadevarāya’s Āmuktamālyada 278

The king is non-violent, though he kills.

Chaste, though he has women.

Truthful, though he lies.

Ever fasting, though he eats well.

A hero, though he uses trickery.

Rich, though he gives away.

Kingship is rather strange.

https://iks.iitgn.ac.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Krishnadevaraya_and_his_political_theory_of_Vijayanagara.pdf

https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc145599.html

Xuanzang: made light of the things of the present world

2. Orientalism

As with all such characterizations of India though, there is a significant sense of “what is true in India is not true in India” to keep in mind – it’s a large civilization, ours is perhaps the most “high-variance” of all the races of the world, and there were often distinct subcultures that competed with each other in the same arena.

This nuance applies whenever people say things about how ancient Indian culture treated free speech vs blasphemy, economic expansion vs environmentalism, sexual modesty vs feminist or libertine ideals, the life of a householder vs ascetism/voluntary poverty, rationality vs mysticism, etc.

To portray the whole of Ancient Indian civilization as having one view, like the old Orientalists did, is suspect (especially so when you see people claiming that it had a view on some very modern political issue, like random stuff about gay and trans).

3. other tropes

Common themes in foreign accounts of India:

Honest men, chaste women
Long lives
Low crime
Simple yet give attention to looks; tall/handsome
Good steel [1]
Brave
Rarely invaded or invaded anyone else; more generally insular

Some Hindu king had perished at the hand of an enemy of his who had marched against him from our country. After his death there was born a child to him, which succeeded him, by the name of Sagara. On coming of age, the young man asked his mother about his father, and then she told him what had happened. Now he was inflamed with hatred, marched out of his country into the country of the enemy, and plentifully satiated his thirst of vengeance upon them. After having become tired of slaughtering, he compelled the survivors to dress in our dress, which was meant as an ignominious punishment for them. When I heard of it, I felt thankful that he was gracious enough not to compel us to Indianise ourselves and to adopt Hindu dress and manners…. (Ethiopian story)

https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/kathasaritsagara-the-ocean-of-story/d/doc118769.html – intellectual swayamvara