India ajalugu

by Alain Daniélou, Martti Kalda (Translator)

Alain Daniélou teos pajatab India ajaloost enam kui 10 000 aasta vältel, varasest muinasajast kuni tänapäevani. See raamat on loominguline teejuht läbi Hindustani poolsaare kultuuride, ajastute, riikide, rahvaste, usundite, jumalate ja valitsejate rägastiku, milles teetähisteks India tsivilisatsioonile ainuomased ja igikestvad pidepunktid.
„Tänu oma asukohale, ühiskondlikule ülesehitusele ning tsivilisatsiooni jätkuvusele on India omamoodi ajaloomuuseum, mille erinevad osakonnad säilitavad kultuure, rahvaid, keeli ning usundeid, mis on sellel tohutul maal ilma segunemata ja üksteist lämmatamata kokku juhtunud. Ükski sissetungija pole suutnud täielikult hävitada varasemate rahvaste kultuuri ning uued uskumused ja teadmised pole ealeski asendanud varasemate aegade uskumusi ja teadmisi.“ (A. Daniélou)

Alain Daniélou (04.10.1907–27.01.1994) oli prantsuse päritolu indoloog. Katoliiklikust perekonnast Daniélou õppis nooruses laulmist, tantsu ja komponeerimist, hiljem tegeles ta ka fotograafia ja maalikunstiga ning mängis India keelpilli vīnā’t. Pikkadel rännakutel Lähis-Idas ja Aasias armus ta Indiasse ning elas 15 aastat Vārānasīs. Tema guruks oli swami Karpatri. Daniélou on kirjutanud üle 30 teose Šiva kultusest, India erootikast, kunstist, muusikast ja joogast.

Genres: History, India, Nonfiction, Hinduism, Islam

384 pages, Paperback

First published May 11, 1983

About the author

Alain Daniélou :
1935-1948, études du sanskrit, philosophie, théologie, musique dans les écoles traditionnelles hindoues à Bénarès ;
1948-1954, professeur à l'université hindoue de Bénarès ;
1954 1956, directeur de la bibliothèque de manuscrits et des éditions sanskrites d'Adyar à Madras;
1956-1963, membre de l'Institut français d'indologie et de l'Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient ;
1963-1977, directeur de l'Institut international d'études comparatives de la musique à Berlin et Venise.

Reviews

[Karissa Laurel]

I agree with others who said they wished more maps were included. I also felt the style made a lot of assumptions about the reader's knowledge--it's not a great book for a "beginner" historian like me who had little knowledge or frame of reference from the start. I spent a lot of time looking up references and information in secondary sources to gain a better understanding of subjects presented in this book. Still, I'm much better informed about Indian History than I was before reading this book.

[Kathryn Lane]

The immensity of Indian history is made possible to absorb in this fascinating book by Hindu scholar, Alain Daniélou, who has spent more than twenty years in India studying Sanskrit, music, and philosophy with Hindu scholars. The book provides an overview of the important historical happenings in India. So vast are the topics he could have covered in detail that he obviously made a choice to give readers a here taste of Indian history, after all, it's only a 350 page book. An in-depth history would require several volumes. I enjoyed the book, especially toward the last third of the book where he covered events from more recent history, topics familiar to me. He offers an interesting perspective of India, a country I've been fascinated with and I wish I knew more about.

[Michael Norwitz]

What ought to have been a long book which has not survived the translation to a short book well. Most of it consists of a list of names with little in a way of historical context or sense of place. When we reach the modern (20th century) period it slows down, but the author proceeds to spout opinions with too little to back them up (he's vituperative about Ghandi, curiously enough given his status as a secular saint in this country, but his reasons are vague).

[Jesse Ward-Bond]

That was certainly a History of India. I learned a lot, I've forgotten it all.

I am not sure what the optimal history book is for me, but this one seemed a little too dense with names, and a little too light on putting things in context. I think I would have liked to spend more time focusing on some of the largest people/events, rather than spreading my attention over 10000 random mamluk rulers.

The author clearly has some anti-islam biases, but they only made brief appearances.

[Melinda Stewart]

My rating of this book has nothing to do with its detailed accuracy, only that I am not a scholar of India's history, and, therefore, had many chapters of its tribal history to wade through in order to get what I wanted from this book.

[Gérard Doux]

Début très prometteur, malheureusement vite gâché par des biais historiques et idéologiques profonds, qui fatiguent et font douter de la véracité de l'ensemble du discours.

[Gayathri]

Couldn’t get into this book and boy! did I try.
I trudged my way till the end but sadly the dry prose was the only consistent thing in the book.

[Vashti Braha]

Refreshing perspective and with interesting tidbits. I learned a lot.

[Cold Cream 'n' Roses]

Alain Daniélou was a famous Indologist. He had an amazing life: read Shiv Sharan: Not Your Typical French Hindu.

I have read Part 1: Origins, which covers:

* The First Civilization: the Proto-Australoids (Munda)
* The Second Civilization: the Dravidians
* The Third Civilization: the Aryans

I have to say it's rather fanciful. Daniélou states that Shaivism predates the Vedas, whereas all other sources that I've read indicate the opposite. Furthermore, he perpetuates the Aryan Invasion Theory myth. He characterizes the Aryans as more primitive than the Dravidians. If the Aryans were that primitive, how did they develop a language as evolved as Sanskrit? Furthermore, he employs what I think is dubious etymology.

My other criticism is about Daniélou's characterization of the Mahabharata War. He describes it as a war between the (good) Dravidians, as represented by the Pandavas (of the Pandya dynasty) and the (bad) Aryans, as represented by Kauravas. Later on, however, he writes [p. 43]:

It appears that by the time of the Mahabharata war, the Aryans had already largely assimilated the ancient Dravidian civilization, and the Dravidians the Aryan institutions. The conflict was social, rather than cultural.

[Luís Branco]

Firstly, I would wish to recognize the beautiful work of the author. It is not easy to take a country such as India and write its history in a single and concise volume. The author did a marvelous job. However, I would like to highlight that the book is too vague in some areas of India's history, perhaps too vague sometimes. I cannot concur with the author's assumption that Hinduism is not a religion, but a philosophy. The deficiency of a messiah doesn't make Hinduism more philosophical than religious. In fact, Hinduism has more than just a prophet or messiah it has avatars, gurus, sadhus and holy man. It contains millions of gods and goddesses. Hinduism is the most religious of all faith. The other failing of the book is to blame Islam and Christianity for Hinduism fail. Hinduism has failed in treating all men with equality, created a cast system of privileged, destined an entire group, the Dalits, to clandestine, and so on. Islam and Christianity may have failed in one point is the other, but their contribution to India development is much greater than their weakness. The author's judgment is wrong in these arenas.

[k k]

The history of India spans an incredible amount of time, from to fourth millennium B.C.E. to present day. Any attempt to create a “brief” history of the subcontinent is an impressive feat by itself, especially considering the difficulty of accurately portraying prehistoric cultures. Alain Daniélou accomplished his brief history by keeping his focus on historical institutions or elements that either survived (Munda culture) or hold significant importance to later portions of India’s history (the arrival of Dravidians). Yet, I personally find the best historiographies are those in which the authors remain aloof to the period or topic they are writing about. At times, Daniélou felt emotionally attached to his subject, which called into question his ability to offer unbiased interpretations of historical data. His etemological connections we a bit of a stretch as well. For that reason, as impressive as a feat it is to chronicle India's long and rich history, the book felt too biases and the scholarship too shakey.

[Johnny Cordova]

I'm mostly interested in ancient history and found the first 40 to 50 pages of this book very satisfying (enough so that I am inspired to read more of Danielou's works). The rest is a well-presented overview of India's long line of empires, invasions, wars, occupations, and so forth. Interesting but not exactly my cup of tea. The book contains three maps. 30 would not have been too many.

Another reviewer complained that the book is emotional at times. I don't see that as a fault. I appreciate a historian with strong opinions. Danielou is obviously passionate about his subject.

[Damian]

I learned a great deal from this book... a very different picture of India than the standard one we get in the States. However, much of the book was presented more or less as long lists of facts with little attempt to put a human face on any of it, or get at motivations, which made for awfully dry reading for large chunks at a time.

[Masen Production]

I think this book is a little outdated YET its a great book that gives you a quick brief insights to Various eras of Indian History. The various important dynasties are elaborated in chronological order, various aggressors & settlers of our country are introduced.

In all a book that can be a handbook for light reading about Indian history.

[Allen]

Two stars for lack of maps and end notes. Four stars for all the things I learned I never knew before about the Indian sub-continent.

[Seekordsiis]

Interesting, but emotional and makes the reader dubious.