The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c11.2

c11.2

With the invention of writing, Man had developed the unique power of transmitting his ideas and his intellectual achievements to his contemporaries as well as his successors. Hence, the story of mankind after the invention of writing has been designated "History" to differentiate it from that of Pre-literate societies called "Prehistory". As the diagram shows (Fig. 11), literature, contemporary inscriptions (Epigraphy), and coins (Numismatics) lend a greater precision to the story of the Historic periods. Yet, as already pointed out, the nature of our extant ancient literature introduces a greater complication, as they incorporate a large body of uncorroborated data and ill-recorded traditions making a historical and chronological treatment difficult. Hence we have the odd feature that our well-corroborated history begins about 600 B.C., in the North and slightly later in the South. Secondly, even the application of these two definitions lands us into difficulties, when we take up the question of the Indus Valley civilization. Those people had practised writing of a type preserved on their seals, but we have not yet succeeded in deciphering the script satisfactorily. Several attempts have been made by Father Heras, Prananth, Hunter, Hronzy, Ramachandran and other writers, but these heroic efforts can neither be proved nor disproved unless some bi-lingual seals are discovered. Hence for the present, we have to leave this civilization out of both the categories of History and Prehistory. But the existence of a vast body of legends of an unhistorical character forces us to recognize the sub-division called "Proto-history" to cover the transitional period between Prehistory and History. For the present, we may include the Indus Valley civilization in this category.