The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c3: Foreword
The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c3
- Language
- English
Foreword
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"Histories," says Bacon, "make men wise." To read with understanding the record of men's strivings in the past for good and for evil, of the ambitions of individuals and the struggles of masses in their play and counter-play, is often saddening, but always helpful for the knowledge of the present. Most of the worst errors of society might be avoided if its leaders had knowledge of its past and power to use it. Even the driest bones of historical fact are precious: they reveal conditions and forces in the past which have still a significance for the present, for man changes little, and "bleibt stets von gleichem Schlag," even the most sweeping revolutions being unable to destroy the bonds which unite him to former generations.
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Indian culture has produced singularly few works of genuine historiography; but it has preserved abundant materials for the historian in the form of inscriptions, literary data, and documents of various kinds. By judicious use of these, it is possible to construct a record of the political and social experiences of many centuries. The story is indeed very incomplete: great gaps yawn in many parts of it, and even where the facts are visible, the causes which brought them about are often obscure. But the main lines of Indian history are now certain, thanks to the patient and skilful labours of generations of scholars, and, in the present work, Dr. Ray has rendered a service of immense value by supplying a complete critical survey of them as they run through the North from the latter end of the classical period down to the beginnings of the modern era. He has not only collected all the relevant materials and arranged them in lucid connexion, but he has likewise examined them in the spirit of judicious and constructive historiography, emending where possible their errors, discounting their exaggerations, and endeavouring to interpret obscurities by the light of sober sense. No such comprehensive work in the domain of Indian history has yet appeared, and Dr. Ray deserves credit as much for the boldness of his design as for the skill and industry with which he has executed it.
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L. D. Barnett.
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TO THE MEMORY
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OF
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ASUTOSH MOOKERJEE