The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c16.s1.2

c16.s1.2

"Unfortunately, the Hindus do not pay much attention to the historical order of things; they are careless in relating the chronological succession of their kings and when they are pressed for information, and are at a loss not knowing what to say, they invariably take to tale-telling", laments the great Muslim historian Alberuni, who visited India in the 11th century.¹ This singular charge, representative of a legion, is true, if it means that Indians never developed history as a science and an art. But subjected to a critical study, material is not lacking for a reconstruction of our history—not merely the political history of kings and battles, but true cultural history of the people. Here we are more concerned with the Proto-historic period, when our sources of information are limited to the class of literature called the Puranas or the store houses of tradition and other semi-religious and secular literature, which may be tapped. The limitation of our traditional sources are discussed in this paper. The most urgent task is a synoptic study of all the Puranic texts and a proper correlation of Puranic, Vedic and Post-vedic literature.