Vyaasa's three-fold typology of historians

Swaminathan Madhuresan smadhuresan at YAHOO.COM
Thu Jan 4 18:51:18 UTC 2001


Eric Wolf, Europe and the people without history:
Were there actually three types of "historians" in India?
Was there a deliberate design not to develop/evolve historical writing
in India because a major language shift to IA was takingplace.
Efforts went more into mythmaking rather than history, is it not?

--- Shrinivas Tilak <shrinivast at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
>     S.D.Kulkarni, in his The Puraanas: The Encyclopaedia of Indian History
> and Culture (vol II 1993: 47-48) argues that kings in ancient India
> maintained three types of recorders: (1) the Suta narrated the exploits of
> the kings of the past; (2) the Maagadha recorded prominent events in the
> lives of those kings who have departed in the recent past; and (3) the
> Bandin described the wars and other exploits of the ruling monarchs.
>     In support Kulkarni quotes the Mahaabhaarata (Aadi parvan, part 1:
> 240-241). A quick check, however, could not trace this reference in the
> critical edition. Does it come from another version? Has any list member
> worked on this or related issue?
>     S.Tilak


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