Indian Historian

1. Second.Semester/History/IV/B.S./NCN/13/2018
D.D.Kosambi (1907-1966)
Summary: D.D. Kosambi was born in 1907. He was regarded as one of the greatest Indian
historian in the world. Indian historiography underwent new changes when Kosambi turned into the field.
Kosambi, a hard scientist was impatient of the kind of soft knowledge that historians fabricated around
India’s past. Hence he was looking for ways of charting the main crescent of Indian history without losing
the main logic about science. His goal was to be scientific about the past.
Contribution to History: Kosambi was Marxist historian specializing in ancient Indian history.
He employed the historical materialist approach in his work. He is particularly known for his classic
work An Introduction to the Study of Indian History (1956), The Culture and Civilization of ancient
India in its historical outline (1965) Exasperating Essays; Exercise in the Dialectical Method, Myth
and Reality and Studies in the Formation of Culture (1962). The greatest impediment to any study of
ancient India is the lack of reliable records and a dependent chronology. For this reason, Kosambi offers
his new definition of history as “the presentation of in chronological orders of successive development in
the means and relation of production. Kosambi revolutionized Indian historiography with his realistic and
scientific approach. He understood history in terms of the dynamics of socio-economic formations rather
than just a chronological narration of "episodes" or the feats of a few great men – kings, warriors or
saints. In the very first paragraph of his classic work, An Introduction to the Study of Indian History, he
gives an insight into his methodology as a prelude to his life work on ancient Indian history. Kosambi
introduced a new method into historical scholarship, essentially by application of modern mathematics.
By statistical study of the weights of the coins, Kosambi was able to establish the amount of time that had
elapsed while they were in circulation and so set them in order to give some idea of their respective ages
According to A. L. Basham, "An Introduction to the Study of Indian History is in many respects an epoch
making work, containing brilliantly original ideas on almost every page and has stimulated the thought of
thousands of students throughout the world.
Methodological approaches: Like any other historian Kosambi was confronted by the question
of how history of India could be written in the absence of sufficient documentation. Therefore to
reconstruct ancient Indian history Kosambi employs combined method or comparative method and
interdisciplinary techniques of investigation. Seeing that India abounded in the living survival of the dead
past, laid bare by archaeology-houses, grave, goods, instruments of production and utensils of household
use, stones, shelter, then religious and social practice even of modern Indian and finally primitive human
types. Kosambi turned his knowledge of Sanskrit and etymological analysis in the account in
reconstruction the social background of the Vedic period. Kosambi’s study of cultural survivals using
etymological analysis and anthropological materials is best illustrated his book An Introduction to the
Study of Indian History. Kosambi maintained that one of the lines of understanding the Indian past is the
factor of transition from tribe to caste, small localized group to a generalised society. This transition was
largely the result of conduction of plough agriculture in various regions that was brought changes in the
system of production, broke the structure of tribes, clans and made caste as alternative form of social
organization. He suggested that iron tool tools in the forms of Iron tools and horses seem to have
responsible to the dominance of Aryan races in the Gangetic Valley. Plough agriculture and iron
technology when introduced in the Gangelic valley led ultimately to the growth of urban centres as well
as new form of caste system. Factors such as technological changes, detribalization and urbanism
constitute an economic interpretation of the Buddhism and Jainism.
Conclusion: Kosambi is an inspiration to many across the world, especially to Sanskrit
philologists and Marxist scholars. He is one of the few along with James Mill and Vincent Smith, who has
so deeply influenced the writing of Indian history. The Government of Goa has instituted the annual D.D.
Kosambi Festival of Ideas since February 2008 to commemorate his birth centenary. Historian Irfan
Habib said, "D. D. Kosambi brought peasants into the study of Indian history for the first time”.
(By,Bloomingstar Syiem )FOR
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