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LURE - THRU THE AGES
Eternal India
encyclopedia
Gopura - Brihadeshwara Temple,
Tanjore
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It is outdated to classify an age by its dominant religion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.
Stone Chariot - Hampi,
Vijayanagar
Tomb – I’timad ud-Daula, Agra.
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.)