Draṣṭā // Course

Ancient Indian History

The unique story of a culture is captured in its history. But the arbiters of historiography have labeled every culture apart from their own as myth and legend. This course will explore the obfuscated history of Bhāratavarṣa in the light of the Purāṇas, and advance the case for writing and living the true history of this land.

05 Sep - 19 Sep 2023 Completed
About the Course Session Recordings Takeaways and Audience Know your Instructor

Overview

Every civilization has a past age vs. the current age, and a specific critical path of world history has ensured that modern civilization places this marker at the birth of Christ. We divide all of history into a Before Common Era (BC) and a Common Era (AD), or the age before Christ and the age now- the age of Christ. 

In this linear view of history, the past is always the age of myth, of gods and demons, of a time when humankind could not differentiate between truth and fiction, or natural and supernatural. The current age is the age of progress, of reality and history, of stories of personalities that we can take as truth. But this is so because what we have as “history” today is but the felt-experience of one specific civilization- the West. The felt-experience, or history, or civilizational memory of other civilizations can be approached academically, but it is not given stature or platform. The felt-experience of every other civilization is but mythology, the residual memory from a time when we were savages, primitive and supernaturalistic- or so it is said. 

History is but the art of deciding what to consider and what not to consider in the narratives we build. We of the Common Era have decided not to consider ancient literature in our historical narratives, to place it not in the content of the current age but of the age past- of myth. What else explains the dismissal of what ancient Indians called itihāsa- this is how it was? Or the reduction to an ahistorical mess what they called purāṇa- stories of old? In fact we have the wisdom of hindsight. We can see in their literature the accretion of material, the deposition of culture, paradigm and interpretation over archaic kernels of truth and history. That we throw the baby out with the bath water only hinders our knowledge, it does not reduce the relevance of ancient histories. 

And we do this for our history alone. 

That Alexander was considered a son of Zeus does not come in our way, when we think of him as a real monarch. That Achilles too was blessed by Zeus prevents not the historian in searching for the real Troy. In his foreword to The Vedic Age, the formidable KM Munshi wrote:

“To be a history in the true sense of the word, the work must be a story of the people inhabiting a country. It must be a record of their life from age to age presented through the life and achievements of men whose exploits become the beacon lights of tradition; ….; through efforts of the people to will themselves into organic unity. The central purpose of a history must, therefore, be to investigate and unfold the values which age after age have inspired the inhabitants of a country to develop their collective will and to express it through the manifold activities of their life. Such a history of India is still to be written.”

Such is the mission of this course on Ancient Indian History, in that it asserts that Indian history, from the advent of the Mesolithic to the Iron Age, no longer need be revealed to us by mute archaeology alone. Our tradition carries tales that show the Neolithic, hint at the Chalcolithic, and chronicle the Bronze and Iron Ages. Beginning with the first manvantara of Paurāṇika tradition, Indian history remembers seven ages, of which the seventh is the current. In them we see a transformation of the history of one age into carried memory of the next, over and over such that the history of the seventh age has become ‘mythological’ to us. 

Intent

This course will map stories in Indian traditions to what we know about life and civilization in the Indian subcontinent since prehistoric times, and to prove that what is myth to the Common Era carries true history of the ages past. It will show how the Indus Valley civilization isn’t as silent as we’re led to believe, and that both it and its antecedents are well attested in literature. The Palaeolithic humans that progressed through Mesolithic to Neolithic in India were not mute. In their festivals they sang the ballads of their times, and over late night fires and sleepy bedsides they transmitted stories to their children. Stories that are still available to us in an unparalleled continuity of civilization. 

When our ancestors settled down and began to plough the fields, when wild species were domesticated, when they learnt the passage of seasons, the nuances to tame the earth and the technicalities to extract metal from rock- this too was recorded. As were the tribes, men and women instrumental to such changes. Innovators of one age became mythic to the next and godlike to the rest, but the transmission of stories continued, and a continuity of civilization was thus entrenched. Several millennia of Indian and often world history is available to us if we approach our literature with the mindset of a sceptical historian, not a dismissive dogmatist. 

Structure

After the first two sessions of this course, we will follow in tradition of the great Purāṇas, which follow a specific structure in their contents- Sarga, Pratisarga, Manvantarāṇi and Vaṃśānucarita. 

Contents

Day 1

Introduction :

A definition of terms- history, itihāsa. Do we need a past, or do we need a history? Sources of historical data and their validities. Time and chronology- linear, cyclical, helical. The origins and development of Indology.

Day 2

Sources :

Sources of Indian civilizational memory and their validities. Understanding time, yugas and manvantaras in itihāsa. Sheet-anchors of ancient Indian history. Understanding chronological frameworks.

Day 3

Paurāṇika Accounts :

Paurāṇika accounts of creation, human origin and the first activities of Brahmā. The unfolding of epistemological event horizons. Svāyambhuva Manu and progeny, the earliest ṛṣis, Rudra and the First Flood.

Day 4

Early Neolithic Period :

Early Neolithic period of India, from 9th millennium BC onwards. Understanding the earliest names- Daityas, Ādityas, Rākṣasas, Yakṣas and more. The first great Daitya-Āditya wars to the Samudra Manthana. The dynasty of Priyavrata, and a geography of the ancient world.

Day 5

Dawn of Material Civilization :

Documenting the dawn of material civilization in ancient India. Paurāṇika linkages to the evidence at Mehrgarh, Bhirrana and other sites in the 7th to 4th millennia BC. Contextualizing the passage of time and waves of civilization, with all its decay periods.

Day 6

Sindhu Sarasvati Civilization :

The rise of archaeological Sindhu Sarasvati civilization, the formal compilation of the Ṛgveda and later Vedic literature, and the periods of Rāma and Kṛṣṇa. This is the metallic age, when early experiments with copper yield an indigenously developed Bronze Age. When true evidence can be gleaned for contact between north and south India, and the emergence of a civilizational self-awareness that covers the Indian sub-continent.

Day 7

Way to Bhāratavarṣa :

The genealogies of Sūryavaṃśa, Somavaṃśa, Pūru-Bhārata, and Kuru. The case with Indo-European languages, their origins, precursors and dispersals. Understanding and resolving the Aryan Invasion/Migration/Trickling-in paradigms. The cakravartins and samrāṭs that laid the foundations of Bhāratavarṣa.

Day 8

The Rise and Fall of Culture :

Dhvaṃsana and avadhvaṃsana. From the Mahābhārata to the Mauryas, and the bottleneck that is represented by Veda Vyāsa. The fundamental problems in historical trajectory of civilizations, and the lessons we must learn from our history, or our past.

Day 9

Q n A Session :

Bonus question and answers session on all the previous sessions.

Session Recordings

Introduction

Day 1

Introduction

Sources

Day 2

Sources

Paurāṇika Accounts

Day 3

Paurāṇika Accounts

Early Neolithic Period

Day 4

Early Neolithic Period

Dawn of Material Civilization

Day 5

Dawn of Material Civilization

Sindhu Sarasvati Civilization

Day 6

Sindhu Sarasvati Civilization

Way to Bhāratavarṣa

Day 7

Way to Bhāratavarṣa

The Rise and Fall of Culture

Day 8

The Rise and Fall of Culture

Q n A Session

Day 9

Q n A Session

Sign up to view session recordings

These recordings are part of our member-only exclusive access.

Upgrade to get full access to all course recordings and other membership benefits

Access to all member-only articles
Exclusive visual stories on Scrolls of Aryavarta
Recordings of our best Draṣṭā online course sessions
Digitally parsed and accessible texts and resources
And more..
Become a member

Key Takeaways

Clarity

For all the stories of our past we grow up hearing, what does their “truth” look like, and what does “truth” even mean? This course will leave participants with a feeling of clarity and resolution to such questions.

Plausibility

Our ancestors were not removed from time. Even as dharma is sanātana or eternal, the emergence of civilizational Bhārata occurred in the temporal realm- ie, the bhautika loka. The Pauraṇika corpus deserves a meritorious placement within this realm, and the course shall yield this.

Resolution

Who were the Aryans? Did they come, or did they go? Where does history end, and mythos begin? Or is there an overlap between them? Can we ever arrive at a chronological certitude to our epic memories? This course shall answer such questions, and more.

Who is this course for?

  • The stories of our past, especially those embedded in the Paurāṇika corpus, have always been meant for the masses- for us all. This course is designed to appeal to young children and thinking adults alike. It will be presented in simple language, and even when discussing issues of complex scholarship they shall be visited in lucid, simplified fashion. Young children are encouraged to participate, as are adults looking for a rational, plausible narrative of the ancient past.

Know your Instructor

Amritanshu Pandey

Amritanshu Pandey

Amrit combines more than a decade of professional experience rooted in product development, with a lifetime of engagement with ancient Indian history. He writes on history, civilizational thinking and design.

Our Draṣṭā online courses are designed to help you in your learning journey

Become a part of the community and engage, share, discuss and deepen your learnings

Interact with the course instructor through live sessions

Access to session recordings and materials

Become a member and dive into the Indic universe

Brhat subscription gives access to exclusive member-only content rooted in the Dharmic worldview.

Explore Plans

Starts at ₹500 per month.