A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE BUDDHIST HISTORIOGRAPHY IN INDIA

It is still a popular belief that the Indians were an a historical people and kept no records of their history. It is true that most of their writings and records do not deal with political events and activities, but these are very much concerned with the nature of genealogies, legends, cultural and monastic chronicles- all legitimate constituents of a historical tradition. History is not just a dry narration of events of the past nor an assemblage of information derived from written chronicles. It has to be built up, especially in an ancient land like India from a wide range of sources. Literature is just one of them. At a time when much headway was registered in the task of compiling history in countries like Greece, Italy and China, the study of the discipline, in question, was in its infancy in the Indian subcontinent. The ancient Indians, doubtless to say, evinced interest in their ancestors and past but for several centuries" interest in the past was severely circumscribed by a mythic view of life and cosmos, and was totally bereft of the spirit of rational enquiry. Consequently, early Indian interest in the past did not develop into what may be called history.