"The Past Before Us: Historical Traditions of Early North India."

SAI Book Talk
Romila Thapar, Emeritus Professor of History at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Chair: Emma Dench, Professor of the Classics and of History, Harvard College Professor, Director of Graduate Studies, Department of the Classics, Harvard University
The claim, often made, that India-uniquely among civilizations-lacks historical writing distracts us from a more pertinent question, according to Romila Thapar: how to recognize the historical sense of societies whose past is recorded in ways very different from European conventions. In The Past Before Us, a distinguished scholar of ancient India guides us through a panoramic survey of the historical traditions of North India. Thapar reveals a deep and sophisticated consciousness of history embedded in the diverse body of classical Indian literature.