History of India-I

Paper Code:

24CHIS 111

Credits:

Contact Hours:

90.00

Max. Marks:

100.00

Objective:

Course Objectives : This paper intends to provide an extensive survey of early Indian history to the students and familiarise them with the tools of studying ancient Indian history. The inter-disciplinary approach of the course provides the students a point of beginning from where they can build an understanding of the discipline of history. Spanning a very long period of India’s ancient past – from pre-historic times to the end of Vedic cultures in India – the course dwells upon major landmarks of ancient Indian history from the beginning of early human hunter gatherers to food producers. This course will equip the students with adequate expertise to analyse the further development of Indian culture which resulted in an advanced Harappan civilization. In course of time students will learn about the processes of cultural development and regional variations.

Course Outcomes:

Course Outcomes (CO)

Course

Learning outcomes (at course level)

Learning and teaching strategies

Assessment Strategies

Course Code

Course Title

24CHIS 111

History of India- I

CO1- Evaluate the Indian landscape, environment and its impact on the making of India’s History.

CO2- Assess the main features of prehistoric and proto-historic cultures

CO3-Analyse Neolithic and Chalcolithic cultures, investigating their interactions and exchange patterns

CO4- Explain the origins and decline of Harappan Civilization and also understand the polity, society, economy and religious practices during the Harappan period.

CO5- Critically reflect on societal, economic, political, and religious practices /in Early Vedic and Later Vedic texts.

CO6: Contribute effectively in course-specific interaction

Approach in teaching:

Interactive Lectures, Discussion, Tutorials, Reading assignments, Power Point Presentation

Learning activities for the students:

Self-learning assignments, Effective questions, Seminar presentation, Giving tasks.

Class test, Semester end examinations, Quiz, Solving problems in tutorials, Assignments, Presentation, Individual and group projects

18.00

Unit I:

Reconstructing Ancient Indian History

[a] Early Indian notions of History

[b] Sources and tools of historical reconstruction.

[c] Changing historiography

18.00

Unit II:

Pre-historic Cultures

[a] Palaeolithic cultures: sequence and distribution; stone industries and other technological

developments

[b] Mesolithic cultures: regional and chronological distribution; new developments in

technology and economy, rock art.

18.00

Unit III:

The advent of food production

[a] Understanding the regional and chronological distribution of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic Cultures.

[b] Subsistence; patterns of exchange

18.00

Unit IV:

The Harappan civilization

[a] Origins; settlement patterns and town planning; agrarian base; craft production and trade;

[b] Social and political organization; religious beliefs and practices; art;

[c] The problem of urban decline and the late/post-Harappan traditions

18.00

Unit V:

Cultures in transition-settlement patterns, technological and economic developments; social stratification; polity in vedic literature religion and philosophy; the Aryan Problem.

[a] North India (circa 1500 BCE-300 BCE)

[b] Central India and the Deccan (circa 1000 BCE – circa 300 BCE)

Essential Readings:

ESSENTIAL READINGS

Agrawal, D. P. Indus Civilisation. Aryan Book Depot, 2017.
Allchin, B., and R. Allchin. Origins of a Civilization: The Prehistory and Early

Archaeology of South Asia. New Delhi: Viking, 1997.
Chakrabarti, D.K. India: An Archaeological History. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Chakravarti, R. Exploring Early India up to c. AD 1300. Delhi: Primus, 2016 (3rd)
Kenoyer, J.M. Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization. Karachi: Oxford University Press and American Institute of Pakistan Studies, 1998.
Majumdar, R. C. et. al. eds. The Vedic Age. George Allen and Unwin, 1951.
Sharma, R.S. Material Culture and Social Formations in Ancient India. Delhi:Macmillan India, 1983.
Sharma, R.S. Aspects of Political Ideas and Institutions in Ancient India. Delhi:Motilal Banarsidass, 1996.
Singh, U. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the P Century. Delhi: Pearson Longman, 2008.
Thapar, R. Cultural Pasts: Essays in Early Indian History. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Thapar, R. Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300. New Delhi: Penguin, 2003.

References:

SUGGESTED READINGS

Allchin, F.R. et al.The Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia: The Emergence of Cities and States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Chakrabarti, D.K. The Oxford Companion to Indian Archaeology: The Archaeological Foundations of Ancient India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Kosambi, D.D. An Introduction to the Study of Indian History. Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1998 (reprint).
Lahiri, N., ed. The Decline and Fall of the Indus Civilization. Delhi: Permanent Black,2000.
Lal, B. B. Homeland of the Aryans. New Delhi: Aryan Books, 2005.
Lal, B. B. The RigVedic People: Invaders, Migrants or Indigenous? New Delhi: Aryan Books 2015.
Mehta, J. L. History of Ancient India. K. Sagar Publications.
Moorti, U.S. Megalithic Culture of South India: Socio-Economic Perspectives. Varanasi: Ganga Kaveri Publishing House, 1994.
Neumayer, E. Lines on Stone: The Prehistoric Rock Art of India. New Delhi: Manohar, 1993.
Ratnagar, S. Understanding Harappa: Civilization in the Greater Indus Valley. New Delhi: Tulika, 2001.
Ratnagar, S. Harappan Archaeology: Early State Perspectives. Delhi: Primus, 2015.
Roy, K., ed. Women in Early Indian Societies. New Delhi: Manohar, 1999.
Sahu, B.P., ed. Iron and Social Change in Early India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Sharma, R.S. Perspectives in the Social and Economic History of Early India. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 2003 (reprint).
Thapar, R., ed. Recent Perspectives of Early Indian History. Bombay: Popular Prakashan,
Trautmann, T.R., ed. The Aryan Debate. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2005.