Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c8.3

c8.3

THE distinction between ‘history’ and ‘prehistory’ in India is a peculiarly elusive one: one can say, with Henri Berr, ‘India has had some episodes, but no history’, and indeed this unfair generalization does come home when one is attempting to work out any sort of coherent chronological framework in periods allegedly within the realm of recorded Indian history; but nevertheless there are certain phases of ancient Indian culture which lie distinctly beyond any possible form of literary record. Western Asiatic prehistory in general ends with the appearance of the arts of writing in Mesopotamia, the adjacent parts of Iran, and in Egypt in the centuries immediately after 3000 B.C. With the art of writing there comes the record of dynasties, king-lists and the like, which, however controversial in details, yet can be interpreted to form the outline of a fairly reliable chronology in terms of actual years before the Christian era.