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Time as a Metaphor of History: Early India: The Krishna Bharadwaj Memorial Lecture

Online ISBN:
9780199081912
Print ISBN:
9780195637984
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Time as a Metaphor of History: Early India: The Krishna Bharadwaj Memorial Lecture

Romila Thapar
Romila Thapar

Professor Emeritus

Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
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Published online:
18 October 2012
Published in print:
26 September 1996
Online ISBN:
9780199081912
Print ISBN:
9780195637984
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

This book examines the link between time and history in the Indian context. It debunks the concept of time as cyclic in early India and subsequently the denial of history. The book indicates the existence of linear time in Indian texts such as genealogies, biographies, and chronicles, where time-reckoning was recorded through generations, regnal years and eras. The volume suggests that cyclic time was used in cosmological contexts while linear time was used in historical contexts. It further argues that historical consciousness existed in early India.

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