Time As a Metaphor of History: Early India

by Romila Thapar

This essay examines the link between time and history through the use of cyclic and linear concepts of time. While the former occurs in a cosmological context, the latter is found in familiar historical forms. The author argues for the existence of historical consciousness in early India on the evidence of early texts.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

53 pages, Paperback

First published May 23, 1996

About the author

Romila Thapar is an Indian historian and Professor Emeritus at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

A graduate from Panjab University, Dr. Thapar completed her PhD in the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.

Her historical work portrays the origins of Hinduism as an evolving interplay between social forces. Her recent work on Somnath examines the evolution of the historiographies about the legendary Gujarat temple.

Thapar has been a visiting professor at Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the College de France in Paris. She was elected General President of the Indian History Congress in 1983 and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy in 1999.

Reviews

[Sarwesh Shah · Rating 5 out of 5]

In her thoroughly conclusive lecture note, historian Romila Thapar calls upon the hypocrisy of former colonial Indologist who discard the idea of circular notion of time in ancient Indian text.
As she argues about the notion of time and recording of history in ancient India, she touches upon the topic of dharma, Kaliyuga and philosophical aspects and implications of adopting multiple (linear and circular) frameworks of depicting time. This heavily cited book draws points from not just Hindu but also Buddhist and Jain cultures in India and Sri Lanka.
A compelling yet tough read!

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Romila Thapar’s Time as a Metaphor of History is what happens when “time” stops being a thing on your phone and becomes a 200-page philosophical battlefield. It’s erudite, yes. It’s important, yes. But it’s also the kind of book where you nod gravely while secretly wondering if you’ve wandered into a grad seminar that got stuck in a temporal loop.

Thapar takes the idea that cultures imagine time differently and builds an intellectual buffet of Sanskrit texts, Greek philosophy, anthropology, and Marxist historiography — a spread so rich you risk academic indigestion. It’s like she’s speedrunning the “name-drop every discipline” challenge and winning.

The tone is pure “legendary historian addressing her peers”: gravitas with just a hint of if you don’t get this, that’s your problem. The promised “metaphor” is dissected so thoroughly it starts to resemble a frog in a high school lab—technically fascinating, but no longer hopping.

The payoff? You finish convinced that history is never neutral but also slightly worried about your own relationship with clocks.

This is high-density intellectual protein: nutritious, expertly cooked, and possibly requiring a nap after consumption. If you want breezy, go find a TED Talk. If you want your brain tied into elegant knots, Thapar’s waiting.

[Sharayu Gangurde]

I confess that I did not understand this book. Hard as I tried to grasp the fundamentals of time as expounded in the puranas and vedas, it was a very difficult book for people like me who have no academic training in Ancient History. Since science has expanded our visions and understanding of the universe and cosmos, the very descriptions and notions about a mythological and imaginary exhibition of time, proved to be a tad too vague for me. I am a huge fan of Romila Thapar's other books, but this one since it was also a lecture could not interest me.