Sources Of History Illumined by Literature (An Old and Rare Book)

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It is with great pleasure that I write this short Foreword to this excellent work of Dr. C. Sivaramamurti, one of our foremost living Indologists. I first became acquainted with him, when I read his interesting articles illustrated with beautiful sketches in the Journal of Oriental Research, Madras, nearly four decades ago. His delightful little book Sculpture inspired by Kalidasa brought him great renown as an appreciative critic of Sanskrit literature and ancient Indian art. Since then he has published several works on ancient Indian art in its various aspects.

In the present work Dr. Sivaramamurti has dealt exhaustively with six main sources of our knowledge of ancient Indian history, viz., sculpture, painting, architecture, coins, epigraphy and manuscripts. The Indians made history, but did not write any. The only exception is the Rajatarangint of Kalhana. So our present knowledge of that history is derived mainly from the aforementioned six sources which have been studied patiently by scholars, Indian and foreign, during the last two centuries. Dr. Sivaramamurti has not, however, only summarised the results of other scholars' investigations. He has himself dived deep into every subject and opened up new vistas of knowledge. His profound knowledge of Sanskrit has enabled him to point out the hidden significance of several signs and expressions, of which we had not even dreamt before. His work is of special interest to Sanskritists like me; for it is full of apt quotations from several works of Classical Sanskrit literature which throw a flood of light on the significance of art motifs.

The University of Bombay invited me to deliver the Pandit Bhagvanlal Indraji Endowment Lectures in August, 1974. I considered it a rare good fortune to associate myself with the name of so distinguished a pioneer in Indology But, with the work in the Museum occupying my attention fully, I had to put off preparing the talks for quite some time. It was only towards the middle of 1975, 1 could commence this and got ready the material choosing my subject appropriately with all the deference due to so preeminent a scholar in the field of historical research, but with my usual predilection for the stress on the value of literature to shed light in understanding the historical sources themselves.

I am glad I could deliver the lectures in the last week of August, 1975 enlivening them by lantern slides illustrating several points and themes I had in mind. I offer my best thanks to the authorities of the University of Bombay both for the interest evinced in these talks and for the permission granted by them for their publication as a book with appropriate illustrations as accompanying plates. Nothing can give me greater joy than to see it in the hands of scholars, who, like the proverbial hamsa can readily enjoy whatever good may be in it. My thanks are due to the Archaeological Survey of India, the National Museum, the Mathura Museum, the Madras Museum, the Chandigarh Museum and Art Gallery, the Bharat Kala Bhavan Museum, the Kannada Research Institute, Dharwar, the French Institute of Indology, Pondicherry, the Department of Archaeology of Madras State, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Bangalore Museum for illustrations accompanying this book.