Page 7 - SST Class 06

books, monuments, inscriptions, coins etc. They Secular Literature
tell us about the past times in vivid details. We This type of literature does not deal with religion
can divide these sources into two broad
in essence, though we cannot imagine religion not
categories: being a part of life. This includes poetry, stories,

1. Literary sources 2. Archaeological sources plays, travel accounts etc. The number of this type
of books is limited, but they are very fine works of
Literary Sources
writing and give us information about the
Early Man was no better than a wild animal as he prevailing times.
led the life of a hunter-gatherer and lived in rocks Kautilya’s Arthashastra deals with the Mauryan
and on trees. With time, he started to attribute the rule. Vishakhadatta’s Mudra Rakshasa deals with
picture of sun for the sun and the picture of a
the rule of Nandas and their tussle with Mauryas.
horse for a horse. This was the initial stage of Banabhatta’s Harshacharita gives accurate and
language. Gradually, he developed many signs
valuable information about King Harsha and
and these signs evolved
includes detailed information on social relations
into scripts. It was about and conditions. King Harsha too has written three
10,000 years ago that man
books—Nagananda, Ratnavali and Priyadarsika
started to live in groups and
which tell about the contemporary times and
settled at one place. Mutual society. Chand Bardai’s Prithviraj Raso tells in fine
interaction gradually led to
language about the exploits of Prithviraj Chauhan.
the development of Kalhan’s Rajatrangini deals with history of
language. A manuscript on bhojpatra
Kashmir. And of course, Kalidasa’s many books
As the language developed further, man was able are marvellous books in literature,
to express himself fully and he wrote books on Abhijnanasakuntalam,
different topics. As paper had not yet been made, Meghaduta and
he wrote on rocks, tree leaves, tree bark, copper Malvikagnimitra being
plates etc. Many manuscripts were written on only a few of them. Some
bhojpatras . Of course, all of these manuscripts are historical facts can also be
not available at present. gathered from Panini’s

We can divide literary sources into two sub Ashtadhyayi and
Patanjali’s Mahabhashya.
groups :
Kalidasa
Religious Literature Activity
Religious literature chiefly deals in religion. It can Collect any two currency notes, and try to gather
include religious teachings, rituals and tales. This different facts from it. Write any two observations.
includes the four Vedas, Upanishads, Smritis,
Brahmanas, Ramayana, Mahabharata etc. from A number of travellers visited our country and
wrote travel accounts which give a detailed view
Hinduism; the Tripitakas, Jatakas etc. from
of the prevailing events and society. Megasthenes
Buddhism; the Angas from Jainism etc. Though
essentially dealing in religion, this type of came from Greece and wrote the Indica in which
he mentioned the Mauryan administration,
literature also reveals many things about the social
aspects, like food-habits, dresses, lifestyles, society, geography and products. Ptolemy too
customs, traditions etc. was a Greek traveller who wrote the Geography
giving a detailed geographical account of India.
Info Bits
Info Bits Travellers from China were Fa-Hein, Hiuen
Tsang and Itsing who have written in detail about
Kalidasa has produced fine books in Sanskrit, so he India and much of our knowledge depends on
is popularly called the Shakespeare of India. their writings. We can have similar information
History : When, Where and How
7