A History of India: Volume 1 (v)

by Romila Thapar

When European scholars first established a relationship with India in the eighteenth century and became curious about its past, their sources of information were the brahman priests – the acknowledged guardians of the ancient tradition, who maintained that this tradition was preserved in the Sanskrit sources with which only they were familiar. Thus, much of the early history of India was reconstructed almost entirely from Sanskrit sources, i.e., from material preserved in the ancient classical language. Many of these works were religious in nature and this naturally coloured the interpretation of the past. Even somewhat more secular literature such as the Dharmashastras (Law Books) had brahman authors and commentators and was therefore biased in favour of those in authority and generally adhered to the brahmanical interpretation of the past, irrespective of its historical validity. For example, the caste system as described in these sources appears to have been a rigid stratification of society, apparently imposed from an early period and thereafter preserved almost intact for many centuries. Yet the actual working of caste in Indian society permitted of much variation, which naturally the authors of the Law Books did not wish to admit.