Ancient and Medieval Indian Thought- Themes and Traditions

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thoughts and traditions are an important and rich source to enlighten or transform the past T structures of any society. They not only guide the human behaviour in different social and political milieus but also ensure peace and harmony in the society. In the history of socio-political thought, Indian thought represents the East (or non-West), whereas the Western thought represents the Western societies. It is evident that for a very long time, the existence of well entrenched Indian thought, particularly pre-modern Indian thought' has been sidelined, partly because of the popularity of Western (or the 'mainstream) political philosophy and lack of interest in Indian philosophy Philosophers and scholars have argued that unlike the Western philosophy, which is material and rational in its nature, the Indian philosophy is essentially religious and focuses more on the idea of other world instead of this world. It means that Indian philosophy does not have any secular way of thinking and could not be separated from religion, as an element of mysticism is involved within it. In fact, just a few decades back, serious doubts were cast on the health and vigour of Indian philosophy. It is believed that Indian philosophy does not have a capacity to build or imagine an ideal society.

Moreover, in modern times, it is generally argued that the thought processes which have been produced in the ancient Greek societies are the only marker of a true and scientific philosophical knowledge system as they are based on observation, experimentation, confirmation or regularity, and thus have universal claim of superior' knowledge. For them, the Indian knowledge system which is based on various traditions is not a part of philosophy!

However, such kinds of arguments reflect only 'eurocentrism' and the hegemony of the West, and also a pathetic lack of knowledge of ancient Indian philosophy and culture. That does not of course mean that we should reject the Western philosophy for upholding the Indian one. Instead of rejecting, we need to accept that Indian intellectual traditions actually represent different forms of philosophy which are lesser known in the West than Plato and Aristotle's philosophy. But they have also dealt with the universal issues such as power, justice, ideal social order, forms of government, war and diplomacy.

Thus, despite differences, both the systems of thought, especially political thought, have addressed some of the crucial questions that are relevant even in contemporary times. Here comes the need of a creative, continuous and open dialogue between all the knowledge systems without any sense of hegemony or domination. The present book promises to take a fresh look on these issues.

We are indebted to a number of people who have, directly and indirectly, helped us in the preparation of the book. First and foremost, we would like to express our deepest gratitude and profound intellectual debt to all our teachers who honed our academic skills as well as provided a lively intellectual setting that helped us to pursue our individual teaching and research interests. We are also extremely grateful to all the contributors for having readily consented to be a part of the project and patiently revising the chapters to incorporate all the suggestions put forward from time to time to improve the quality of the work. We hope that the volume at least partially vindicates their steadfast belief in our academic project and the long wait for its completion.

We are highly honoured to be associated with SAGE. Our special thanks to SAGE and their representatives for responding so promptly and positively to our proposal and agreeing to publish the book for wider attention. In fact, it would not have been possible without the personal care and interest of Ms Indrani Dutta, Senior Development Editor and her competent team members. The constant feedback and untiring efforts from the editorial and production team kept us on our toes and allowed our understanding and vision to be transformed into this volume within stipulated deadlines. We extend our thanks and acknowledgements to the anonymous reviewers at SAGE for accelerating the progress of this project and enabling its journey from conception to completion. We would like to take this opportunity to record our heartfelt gratitude to Professor Ranjan Chakrabarti, honourable Vice- Chancellor of Vidyasagar University, West Bengal, for writing the foreword of the book. We express our special thanks to Professor Sibaji Pratim Basu of Vidyasagar University for kindly agreeing to write the introduction of the volume. We also express our profound indebtedness to our students, whose critical queries in the classroom compelled us to produce a quality work on the pedagogy of ancient and medieval Indian thought. If they find the book useful and intellectually stimulating, we will achieve what we aimed for.

Last but not least, we fondly acknowledge the unflinching support and contribution of our families who have always been wonderful, ever trusting and supportive during the process of writing this book. This project would not have been possible without their constant support, love and encouragement.

The ancient civilisation of India differs from those of Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece, in that its traditions have been preserved without a break down to the present day. Until the advent of the archaeologist, the peasant of Egypt or Iraq had no knowledge of the culture of his forefathers, and it is doubtful whether his Greek counterpart had any but the vaguest ideas about the glory of Periclean Athens. In each case there had been an almost complete break with the past On the other hand, the earliest Europeans to visit India found a culture fully conscious of its own antiquity-a culture which indeed exaggerated that antiquity, and claimed not to have fundamentally changed for many thousands of years. India and China have, in fact, the oldest continuous cultural traditions in the world.

-Basham (1959)

Ο ne might not completely agree with the above narrative of 'continuous cultural traditions as found in A. L Basham's classic book on ancient India, but deep in their minds, even the sceptics would acknowledge that the story (or stories) of India can neither be fully understood through the specs of discontinuous history Rather it should be seen as a complex of continuities and changes. It also stands true for any discussion on Indian political thought.

The beauty of the Indian political thought is that the flow of continuity always assimilated new changes and evolved into a syncretic flow in which, notwithstanding the coming of new systems and institutions, some of the basic values and understandings flowing from the past have been retained. This is true in the case of the first change/break during the medieval period, despite new influences of blamic political thought and institutions, we find the instances of the syncretic bhakti movement along with the syncretic and secular political philosophy of Akbar, the emperor. It remained so even during the British colonial times. Although with the advent of the colonial regime, a host of 'new/modern political ideas and institutions influenced the minds of the Indians as never before, the basic spirit of the modern Indian political thought was still never fully 'derivative Rather, it tried to claim supremacy in the realms of 'spirituality" and "culture' over the notion of the power of the West.