Kevalaodhi Buddhist And Jaina History Of Deccan Vol 2

Author(s): Aloka Parasher Sen, B Subrahmanyam, E Siva Nagi Reddy
Publisher: Bharatiya Kala Prakashan

Page 154

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Kevala-Bodhi - Buddhist and Jaina History of the Deccan
Unlike the ever increasing number of T.V. serials based on themes drawn from the Mahabharata, Rāmāyana, Purăņas and other ancient writings in which the emphasis is on visual depiction of all-powerful astras and mantras, gorgeous garments and glittering ornaments, this proposed liberal education will aim at broadening of the mental horizons of the people. As such it can serve as an important instrument for inculcating what Nehru called scientific temper of mind among the Indian people. Stated in another way, a robust sense of the past needs to be accepted as an integral component of the intellectual empowerment of the people. In this respect one may draw attention to the Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen's emphasis on the inculcation of the spirit of critical openness of mind for appreciating our pluralistic past. No less important is his conception of development as freedom in which, over and above improvements in material conditions of life, full scope is provided for the developments of inherent capabilities of man."
I would like to conclude by saying that the need to adopt an unprejudiced approach towards the past was in fact already anticipated by Kalhana some 800 years ago. In his book Rājatarangini—the first attempt at scientific writing of history in India-Kalhana enjoined upon historians to produce connected accounts of past events and to avoid bias (raga) and prejudice (dvesha) in relating the facts of the past. He further remarked that history serves as a great source of inspiration in normal times and as a sedative in chaotic times. Jawaharlal Nehru echoed a similar notion of the relationship between the past and the present in his famous book The Discovery of India. He wrote: "The past oppresses me or fills me sometimes with its warmth when it touches on the present, and becomes, as it were an aspect of that living present. If it does not do so, then it is cold, barren, lifeless and uninteresting"." Great leads to present-day historian about how to write the past and how to use it in the present!
NOTES AND REFERENCES 1. David Lowenthal, The Past is a Foreign Country, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1985. 2. K. Paddayya, "Modern Impacts on Archaeological Sites in India: A Case Study from the Shorapur Doab, Karnataka',
Man and Environment, 21 (2), 1996, pp. 75-88. 3. Christopher Tilley, "Archaeology as Socio-Political Action in Present', in V. Pinsky and A. Wylie (Eds.) Critical Traditions
in Contemporary Archaeology: Essays in the Philosophy, History and Socio-Politics of Archaeology, Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, 1989, pp. 104-16. 4. Mountstuart Elphinstone, Letter No.E/4/506 dated 11 August 1824 of Bombay Despatches, India Office and Records
Library, London, 1824. S. H.D. Sankaila, An Introduction to Archaeology, Deccan College, Pune, 1965a. 6. H.D.Sankaila, 'Archaeology and Education', in V.N. Misra and M.S.Mate (Eds.) Indian Prehistory: 1964, Deccan
college, Pune, 1965b, pp.259-262. 7. S.P. Sathe, Judicial Activism in India:Transgressing Borders and Enforcing Limits, Oxford University Press, New Delhi,
2002, p.224. 8. B. Singh, Jawaharlal Nehru on Science, Nehru Memorial Musem and Library, New Delhi, 1986. 9. Amartya Sen, "Taking pride in a Pluralistic society', Span, June-July 1996, pp. 8-23. 10. Amartya, Sen, Development as Freedom, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1999a; also see his, 'Capability and
well-being', in M.C.Nussbaum and A. Sen (eds.) The Quality of life, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1999b,
pp.30-53. 11. Aurel Stein, Kalhana's Rajatarangini: A Chronicle of the kings of Kashmir. Translated, with an Introduction, Commentary
and Appendices, Volume I, Motilal Banarasidass, Delhi, 1961, (Reprint), p.2. 12. Jawaharlal, Nehru, The Discovery of India, Meridian Books, London, 1960, p.22.