Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

LURE - THRU THE AGES

One has to make sense of the past and not simply chronicle it. This is where the question of interpretation comes in and the medieval times more than the others, have been infused with new thought on their subjects. It is outdated to classify an age by its dominant religion or caste. Be it the period of the Sultanate, or Vijay- anagar and its contemporaries or even the unforgettable Mughals, all without exception have to be studied as a people with their steps on the stages of time.

Gopura - Brihadeshwara Temple, Tanjore

Tomb – I’timad ud-Daula, Agra.

Stone Chariot - Hampi, Vijayanagar

When a country is able to keep up with the pace of movements in other parts of the globe, it becomes modern. This is so true of what historians term "Modern India". Some refer to the period as a record of the exploiters and the exploited. Others call it the birth of nation- alism and the dawn of a nation. Still others prefer to define it as the devolution of power by the once-great maritime empires to the peoples of their colonial dependencies. Whatever may be the defini- tion of this period, it was undoubtedly replete with events and role of a people whose history can no longer be passed off under the titles 'British India' or 'India Under the British'. Here then is a presentation which delves deep and for long into aspects of a society and its culture. One hopes that after a truly absorbing reading, a reader is able to mark with confidence the pointers to say that these are India's roots, these are her antece- dents, this is her inheritance and this is her past. Be it the arts or administration, man or monuments, one would have passed through passages and contrived issues with a historical sense involving a perception not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence. (R.P.)