Ancient Indian Historiography

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Though there may not have been a conventional form of historical writing, there are nevertheless many texts that reflect the historical consciousness of Ancient Indians. Many scholars have described the Indian past as a static society that registered no historical change and therefore had no use for recording the past, relying only on cyclic time. But early Indian history was far from static — in fact, it followed both cyclic and linear systems of time.

There were three distinct historiographies (ways of explaining the past): the Bardic tradition, the tradition of the Puranas, and the Shramanic traditions, which were parallel but quite different from each other.

The historiography of the bards, or sutas, lay in their narrating the events of heroes in the form of ballads and epic fragments; it is treated as a kind of substratum source of history.
In both the Puranic and Shramanic traditions, there was a gradual change in form, information, and comment, moving towards the creation of a historic tradition.

This article examines the debate on whether ancient India possessed a sense of history, before tracing the flowering of Perso-Arabic historiography of medieval India following the advent of Islam, and surveying the major contemporary chroniclers of the Delhi Sultanate.

Ancient Indians’ View of Historiography

View I: The Absence of Historical Sense

Many scholars described the Indian past as a static society that registered no historical change, and therefore had no use for recording the past, relying only on cyclic time.
- Alberuni had said that Indians had no sense of history, and any query on the subject resulted only in storytelling.
- Early colonial historians like V.A. Smith and H.H. Wilson said that the art of historiography was absent in ancient India.
Comparisons were made with ancient Greece and China, whose history was recorded by historians in a systematic manner.
- In China, chronicles of dynasties and rulers were maintained, but such a trend was absent in ancient India.
- In India, there is an absence of literature that can be described specifically as historical writing until the 7th century AD. Though historical records are inherent in some literature, they cannot be considered historical documents in the strict sense.
- From the 7th century AD onwards, a number of historical biographies were written, such as the Harshacharita by Banabhatta, but many of these were not treated as history writing because of the absence of explanations and critical assessment.

View II: Refuting View I

Many Indian historians have offered their own definition of what constitutes a “sense of history.”
- According to Romila Thapar, the sense of history is, in fact, the consciousness of past events presented in an organised framework — but what event is considered relevant, and the form in which it is presented, varies from one society to another.
- Under this definition, it cannot be said that ancient Indians were devoid of a sense of history, since it is not necessary that the document in question be a purely historical one; these forms of presentation could equally be mixed genealogical records, historical narratives, and the like.
- There is one significant element of history — time — of which ancient Indians were well aware, since they followed both cyclic and linear systems of time.
- Though there may not have been a conventional form of historical writing, there are nevertheless many texts that reflect the historical consciousness of ancient Indians.
There were three distinct historiographies (ways of explaining the past): the Bardic tradition, the tradition of the Puranas, and the Shramanic traditions.
- In both the Puranic and Shramanic traditions, there was a gradual change in form, information, and comment, moving towards the creation of a historic tradition.

Examples of Historical Consciousness in Ancient Indian Texts

The sense of history among ancient Indians is manifested in the following:

Later Vedic texts:
- Later Vedic texts contain certain types of compositions that reflect a historical consciousness — the dana-stutis, gathas, narashamsis, and akhyanas. All these types of compositions were directly connected with the performance of sacrifices (yajnas), showing this historical consciousness:
  - The dana-stutis are hymns praising the generosity and exploits of kings.
  - The gathas are songs in praise of kings, sung on the occasion of certain sacrifices.
  - Narashamsis were used in rituals and are preserved in texts such as the Brahmanas and Grihyasutras.
  - Akhyanas are narrative hymns in dialogue form, referring to mythical and possibly historical events.
- The king-lists in the Puranas and epics represent more substantial evidence of an ancient Indian historical tradition.
Puranas:
- They reflect a strong sense of history — the entire cycle of existence is divided into five phases: sarga, pratisarga, vamsa, vamsanucharita, and manvantara.
- The Puranas also contain the chronological history of different dynasties.
Epics (Itihasa):
- The epics are known as Itihasa, and are supposed to record things that actually happened — whether they happened in the way in which they are described being, of course, another issue.
Bards (sutas and magadhas):
- The historiography of the bards, known as sutas and magadhas, lay in their narrating the events of heroes in the form of ballads and epic fragments; it is treated as a kind of substratum source of history.
- The poets and bards of the ancient Tamil land, who eulogised their royal patrons, can also be seen as creators and transmitters of a historical tradition.
Mythico-historical accounts:
- The Buddhist Dipavamsa and Mahavamsa, which offer a mythico-historical account of how Buddhism travelled to Sri Lanka, represent a historical tradition as well.
- Mention may also be made of sacred biographies in the Buddhist, Jaina, and Hindu traditions.
Eras:
- The conception of various eras, such as the Saka era, Vikrama era, and Gupta era, also reflects a consciousness of time and history.
Royal biographies and inscriptions:
- Notwithstanding their eulogistic nature, royal biographies too reflect a historical tradition. Royal biographies and inscriptions, even though eulogistic — a prashasti containing the king’s genealogy and references to his exploits, usually with a view to shower praise on him — nonetheless reflect a historical tradition, as in:
  - The prashasti of Samudragupta, by his court poet Harisena.
  - The Harshacharita of Banabhatta.
  - The Ramacharita of Sandhyakaranandin.
  - The Vikramankadevacharita of Bilhana (on Vikramaditya VI, the Chalukya king of Kalyani).
- Chronological description also appears in royal inscriptions, such as the Hathigumpha inscription, the Ashokan inscriptions, the Allahabad inscription, and the Junagarh inscription.
Royal archives to preserve official records:
- The Arthashastra and the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang mention royal archives preserving official records in every Indian city — for example, the royal archives of Harshavardhana.
- Al-Biruni’s 11th-century Tahqiq-i-Hind refers to the archives of the Shahi kings of Kabul.
- Unfortunately, no such ancient archives survive.

Conclusion: Ancient Indians and the Sense of History

While there is evidence of different kinds of historical traditions in ancient and early medieval India, these traditions were very different from our modern notions of history.
- The intellectuals of every age and society select the aspects of the past they consider important, and interpret and present them in their own way.
- Since ancient and modern societies differ from each other in so many respects, their ways of looking at the past were correspondingly different.
- Modern historians distinguish between myth and history; ancient texts do not.
- The historical traditions of ancient India were connected with religious, ritualistic, and court contexts, whereas history in our own times is an academic discipline based on research, linked to modern institutions such as universities. The ways in which the past was understood and represented in ancient texts are, therefore, very different from the methods, techniques, and goals of historical research today.
In conclusion, it can be said that history as a fully developed discipline was absent in ancient India, but a sense of history writing — though limited — was nevertheless definitely present in ancient times.

With the Advent of Islam

The taste for historiography among ancient Indians was, as discussed above, very much limited, and most scholars were oriented more towards religious, spiritual, and philosophical studies.
- After the advent of Islam in India, it was the Muslim Ulemas and chroniclers who showed a keen sense of history and wrote detailed accounts of day-to-day happenings and political upheavals.
- Their primary object in doing so was, of course, the glory of Islam. They took pride in the military exploits of an amir-ul-momnin who attempted to transform darul haram into darul Islam through the conversion of “infidels” to the faith.
The Muslim monarchs employed chroniclers, diarists, and court historians who maintained profuse records of their activities, very often in a systematic and chronological order, though usually with some exaggeration.
- Scholars produced books, and poets composed masnavis, on the dynastic, regional, or general history of the Islamic world. Writers penned biographical sketches of the high and low, and recorded historical anecdotes and chronological accounts of events. They wrote not only for literary fame, reward, or the edification of their patrons, but also to satiate their intellectual hunger and inner urge to write down their observations and experiences. The educated among the rulers and nobility, in turn, wrote memoirs or maintained personal diaries.
- Historiography, therefore, flourished in all its forms during the Sultanate period; the age produced a number of professional historians and chroniclers who bequeathed to posterity a rich treasure of historical literature.
The earliest literary records of the Muslim chroniclers are found in Arabic, the language of the Quran and the Arab elite.
- With the establishment of Islam in Persia, there took place a revival of Persian nationalism within the Muslim world; this resulted in the adoption of the Persian language and culture by the Turkish dynasties, founded mostly by the slave officers of the Persian monarchs.
- Consequently, along with the establishment of Turkish rule, the Persian tradition of historiography was planted in India.
The chroniclers of early medieval India were mostly Turks or Afghans of foreign pedigree, who were interested primarily in recording the military and political exploits of their martial leaders, and the affairs at the courts of the sultans of Delhi or other regional states.
- They dealt mostly with matters that did not concern the general public, and seldom paid attention to the socio-economic conditions of the country.
- The medieval system of education being “theologically oriented,” most writers traced the origin of every branch of knowledge to the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad. In order to use their material, therefore, it is essential to have “a clear understanding of the mentality of the men” who wrote it.
- They were not scientific historians; therefore, their works need to be handled with discretion and care, and their accounts have to be checked and verified on the touchstone of modern research methodology before being accepted as historical fact.

Contemporary Writers and Their Works

An introductory account of the contemporary writers and their works, which help in reconstructing the history of the early medieval period, is given below.

Chachnama

The Chachnama, written in Arabic by an anonymous author, is the most authentic primary source hitherto discovered on the history of the indigenous ruling dynasty of Sind on the eve of the Arab invasion of 711–12.
- The book gives a brief account of the Sudra dynasty of Sind: on the death of its last ruler, Rai Sahasi II, the throne was usurped by his Brahmin minister, Chach, in the seventh century.
- His son and successor, Dahir, ascended the throne c. 708 AD; it was he who faced the Arab onslaught on Sind and perished in the struggle, along with his entire family.

Al-Biruni

Al-Biruni (c. 972–1048), the first prominent Muslim Indologist, was one of the greatest intellectuals of the eleventh century.
- He was a man of “encyclopaedic learning” — a theologian, philosopher, logician, mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and physician, all rolled into one.
Al-Biruni accompanied the invading hordes of Mahmud to the Indo-Gangetic valley as a freelance observer in the 11th century.
- He travelled extensively in various parts of the country, studied the language, religion, and philosophy of the Hindus, and wrote the classic account of the country and its people in Arabic, entitled Tarikh-ul Hind; it was later translated into Persian.
- It is an authentic primary source of information on the socio-religious condition of India in the times of Mahmud of Ghazni.
- It gives a scholarly analysis of the social and religious institutions of the Hindus, and throws light on their rich cultural heritage, including science and literature.
- The book presents “a deep sociological study, characterised by a rare spirit of enquiry, modern scientific attitude, and sympathetic insight.” It also gives a dispassionate account of the weaknesses of the Indian character and the shortcomings of their socio-political order, which led to their defeat and humiliation at the hands of the invaders.
- Al-Biruni made extensive use of Sanskrit literature, from which he quotes chapter and verse in support of his contentions.

Utbi

Utbi, the celebrated author of the Tarikh-i-Yamini (or Kitabul Yamini, in Arabic), was attached to the personal staff of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni.
Utbi was fully acquainted with the background story of Mahmud’s Indian campaigns, although he seems never to have accompanied Mahmud’s convoy to India. His book describes the character and military exploits of Mahmud up to 1020 AD.
Utbi was ignorant of Indian languages, and his knowledge of Indian topography was also very poor; as a result, his description of Mahmud’s expeditions is full of mistakes. He was neither a court chronicler nor a professional historian; therefore, his book is deficient in dates and lacks chronological sequence.
Utbi applauds the achievements of Mahmud as nasir-amir-ul-momnin, who carried the banner of Islam to the land of the “idol-worshippers” by the “order of Allah” and committed slaughter of the “infidels” wherever they went. It was popular with the historiographers of the Mughal period, who freely quoted from it.

Hasan Nizami

Hasan Nizami’s Tajul Maasir — “The Crown of Exploits” — deals primarily with the history of Qutbuddin Aibak. He joined service under Qutbuddin Aibak.
The narrative of his book commences from the year 1191–92, when Muhammad Ghori invaded India to avenge his defeat previously suffered at the hands of Prithviraj III, the Chauhan ruler of Delhi and Ajmer, and fought the second battle of Tarain.
- The author gives detailed accounts of the military exploits of Aibak. He does not mention Aram Shah but describes the events of Iltutmish’s reign up to 1217.
The Taj ul-Ma’asir is the first historical narrative dealing with the beginning of Muslim rule in India; it thus untags the history of the Delhi Sultanate from that of Ghazni, Central Asia, or Islam — the usual starting points of many other contemporary chronicles.
- Its medium of expression is a unique mixture of Arabic and Persian, in poetry as well as prose.
- It is partly history and partly fiction; in the midst of the historical narrative, the author starts giving fantastic accounts of certain other subjects or characters in an eloquent style. Hasan Nizami also introduces, in the style of the Panchatantra literature of ancient India, a subordinate series of descriptions within one leading subject, including the qualities of mirrors, the rules of chess, natural elements, seasons, fruits, and flowers.

Minhaj us Siraj

Minhaj us Siraj accompanied Iltutmish to Delhi and was patronised by him; he served as chief Qazi under Sultan Iltutmish and Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud (1246–66).
Minhaj us Siraj was a historian par excellence. He produced an elaborate history of the Islamic world in his book, the Tabaqat-i-Nasiri.
The book gives the history of Aibak and his son Aram Shah, Nasiruddin Qabacha, Bahauddin Tughril, the first four rulers of Lakhnauti, Iltutmish, and the early history of Balban.
The book contains biographical sketches of the eminent courtiers, military generals, provincial governors, and other men of repute of the Sultanate period, ending with the early history of Balban.
The Tabaqat-i-Nasiri preserves a valuable record of the Mongol menace in Central Asia, including India, and makes references to Chengiz Khan and his descendants.
It is written in simple, straightforward, and accurate language. By its very nature, the work is brief; the author does not resort to useless discussion or side-tracking of the main issues. It can be said to his credit that his judicial profession and his true historian’s spirit carry a deep imprint on the methodology and contents of the book.
The Tabaqat-i-Nasiri was well known to later medieval historians, though the Mughal emperors did not encourage its wide circulation, because in the twenty-third volume, the author had spoken plainly about the Mongol marauders and the destruction they wrought in Central Asia — the atrocities they committed against Muslims were exposed, particularly, by Minhaj.

Amir Khusrau

Amir Khusrau (c. 1252–1325) was not a professional historian, nor did he claim to be one, though he has to his credit about half a dozen historical works, including prose chronicles and masnavis (poetic compositions), such as Qiran us Sa’adain, Miftah-ul-Futuh, Khazain-ul-Futuh, Nuh Sipihr, and Tughluq Nama.
He adorned the courts of all the sultans from Balban to Ghiyasuddin Tughluq as the poet laureate, and was popularly known as Tuti-e-Hind (“the parrot of India”).
- He is said to have composed several couplets in Persian and Hindavi (or Dehlvi, later Urdu), and wrote many works of literature, including the above-mentioned historical works, five divans (collections of poetic compositions), about a dozen novels, four collections of Shaikh Nizamuddin’s Sufi philosophy and sayings, and numerous treatises, in prose and poetry, on theology, philosophy, and art.
The Qiran us Sa’adain is a historical masnavi giving an eye-witness account of the meeting between Sultan Kaiqubad and his father Bughra Khan, the governor of Bengal, at Oudh; it throws light on the political condition, the court atmosphere, and the socio-cultural life of the period.
The Miftah-ul-Futuh contains, in poetry, an account of the military campaigns of Jalaluddin Khalji.
The Khazain-ul-Futuh (or Tarikh-i-Ilahi) is a historiographical composition in prose describing the conquests and achievements of Alauddin Khalji, giving details of his military campaigns in the Deccan.
- Its description of the Mongol invasions of India and the strong policy adopted by Alauddin to combat them, being based on first-hand knowledge, is of great historical value.
The poetic composition Nuh Sipihr deals with the reign of Mubarak Shah Khalji, the unworthy and incompetent successor of Alauddin Khalji.
Tughluq Nama, also a historical masnavi, was composed by Amir Khusrau to commemorate the victory of Ghiyasuddin Tughluq over Khusrau Khan (1320 AD), leading to the establishment of a new ruling dynasty; it is a valuable primary source for the reign of Ghiyasuddin Tughluq.
These works were prepared by Amir Khusrau either under the direction of the reigning monarchs or for presentation to them.
- His “primary concern” in composing them was to demonstrate his literary ability and gain a lasting reputation, as well as to receive reward for his literary performances. He applauds the achievements of his patrons and glosses over their shortcomings and failures; the works generally suffer from factual and topographical errors, and show a lack of chronological sequence.
- He gives fanciful accounts of some very insignificant happenings, in a verbose style, employing poetic imagery and literary art forms.
- Amir Khusrau cannot be called “a deliberate liar,” although he “omitted what he did not want to express”; he does not distort facts in the manner that Barani did in the case of Muhammad bin Tughluq.
One of Amir Khusrau’s compilations, entitled Ijaz-i-Khusravi, is a massive collection of diverse documents, personal letters, and treatises written to his friends or masters, or simply to satisfy his literary and intellectual hunger.
- Some of these are official documents — such as the Fathunama of Lakhnauti, drafted on the orders of the sultans — which are of immense historical importance.
- The contents of the Ijaz-i-Khusravi constitute an invaluable source for the study of the socio-cultural history of the times.

Ziauddin Barani

Ziauddin Barani (b. 1285), the celebrated author of the Tarikh-i-Firoze Shahi, has been rated the greatest of all the contemporary historians of early medieval India. Barani joined the imperial court under Muhammad bin Tughluq.
Barani started his work just where Minhaj us Siraj had left off; his narrative is thus a continuation of the Tabaqat-i-Nasiri, giving the history of nine rulers from Balban to Firoze Shah Tughluq, up to the sixth year of the latter’s reign.
- Barani’s write-up, excluding the narrative of Firoze Tughluq’s reign, constitutes a standard work of history that establishes his reputation as the premier historian of his age.
Barani’s description of Muhammad bin Tughluq’s reign, however, is unfair — he distorted the facts deliberately and wrote with a biased mind.
- Similarly, his narrative of Firoze Tughluq’s reign was prepared under duress: having been disgraced by the royal court, Barani set aside his duties as a historian and instead resorted to flattery of the Sultan in order to pacify his wrath.
- The title of the work, Tarikh-i-Firoze Shahi, is, in fact, a misnomer — Barani’s true worth as a scientific historian is known not by what he writes about Muhammad bin Tughluq or Firoze Tughluq, but by what he writes about the preceding sultans.
Barani is, admittedly, deficient in dates; at certain places, he presents an analysis of events and political developments out of chronological order — though this might be because he wrote the book from memory during the last, wretched years of his life, without the benefit of notes or other references to verify and correct himself.
Barani’s account is not descriptive but analytical and critical; he does not concern himself with details, but instead takes up political and administrative issues as a “compact whole,” and, through a manner of scientific presentation, reveals the characteristics of the period to which they belong.
- His references to events throw a flood of light on the workings of the minds of rulers, and on the pride and prejudices of the age.
- In spite of his subjective approach — involving his religious outlook, class consciousness, aristocratic complexion, and his subsequent personal discomfiture — Barani reveals the true historian within him.
Barani’s Fatawa-i-Jahandari is a complementary volume to the Tarikh-i-Firoze Shahi.
- In this book, the author recapitulates and further elaborates the political philosophy of the Sultanate on the basis of his earlier narrative.
- The book deals with subjects such as the powers and functions of the crown, the privileges of the nobility, the doctrine of the safety of the state, law and order problems, crime and punishment, religion and politics, the role of the army, and the intelligence services of the sultans.

Shams-i-Siraj Afif

Shams-i-Siraj Afif (b. 1354 AD) adorned the court of Firoze Tughluq as a scholar, though he never accepted official employment.
He is said to have written three books on the life-history, military expeditions, and administrative achievements of each of the three Tughluq rulers — Ghiyasuddin, Muhammad bin Tughluq, and Firoze Tughluq — of which only one, entitled Tarikh-i-Firoze Shahi, has survived.
- It is devoted exclusively to the reign of Firoze Tughluq and constitutes the most accurate and authentic contemporary account of his times.
He wrote, in the true spirit of a historian and biographer, the reminiscences of the glorious past, for the edification and benefit of posterity, without self-interest or prejudice.
- In the book, the author gives not only the political and military activities of Firoze Tughluq, but also his administrative policy, with special reference to public welfare activities.
- The book is unique in that it also describes the life and condition of the people at large — an aspect usually ignored by contemporary writers.

Conclusion

The historiography of ancient and early medieval India was never a single, unbroken tradition — it moved from the bardic ballads, Puranic genealogies, and eulogistic royal prashastis of the ancient period, through a long phase in which many scholars (from Alberuni to early colonial historians) denied ancient India any real sense of history, to the emergence, from the 13th century onwards, of a vigorous Perso-Arabic tradition of court chronicles under the Delhi Sultanate. As Romila Thapar’s definition reminds us, a “sense of history” need not take the form familiar to the modern academic discipline — it can equally be embedded in genealogy, eulogy, and ritual, as it largely was in ancient India, before becoming more explicitly “externalised” in the systematic, if often biased and theologically oriented, chronicles of writers such as Minhaj us Siraj, Amir Khusrau, Ziauddin Barani, and Shams-i-Siraj Afif. Read critically, and cross-checked against modern research methodology, both bodies of historiography — the embedded traditions of ancient India and the court chronicles of medieval India — remain indispensable to reconstructing the history of the subcontinent.