Historical Kavyas in Sanskrit

The civilisation in India is very old and the literature it produced was really a vast one. But charges are often levelled against the authors of early India that they lacked in producing useful works on history. The charge is true to some extent and it is a pity that India has failed to produce even one outstanding historian noted for his critical insight and scientific presentation of facts.

The causes of the lack of historical literature are generally traced to the peculiarities of Indian psychology aided by the environment and the course of events. Foreign invasions during the century before and that after the birth of Christ and the paucity of the growth of a national feeling of unity among the different states may also be taken as partially responsible for the dearth of historical literature. From the standpoint of the psychology of the Indians, it may be pointed out that the Indian mind believes in the workings of fate, doctrine of karma, intervention of superhuman elements in the daily life of the peoples and impermanence of the world. These had once prevented the Indian mind from appreciating or taking serious note of contemporary occurrences. The Brahmin, Buddhist and Jaina writers of early days were equally indifferent to this matter. But inspite of these deficiencies, earlier authors attempted at the recording of some important events in their poetic works which are generally called Historical Kavyas.

By the word 'history' we do not mean itihasa' used by the Sanskrit writers, though both these words are commonly believed to be synonymous. The word itihasa, according to the Indian sense, has a peculiar connotation of its own. According to the Indian view, Itihasa and puravrtta are identical. In this sense, the following writings have some historical significance (1) stray reference to historical matters, (2) the two great epics and the puranas, (3) the various anukramanis of the Vedas, (4) the different scattered references available in different classical Sanskrit works, (5) Buddhist and Jaina works, (6) the inscriptions, royal edicts and grants, and other archaeological discoveries which are the most valuable and most important branch of Indian historical literature.

The Puranas contain a great deal of religious and social matters, accounts of genealogies of sages and kings and such other matters which give us lots of materials of history. The Puranas as a class of literature resemble the epics very closely in both form and substance. They name five normal forms, sarga, pratisarga, vamsa, manvantara and vamsanu-carita. The historical material of the Puranas is confined to the topic vamsanucarita where the story of the royal dynasties ruling during the four yugas is preserved. They are not works of real history, but they may be regarded as the germ of history in India, for, they can help us in reconstructing the history of ancient india.