Definition

• History cannot be easily defined, and there is no universally agreed definition among historians.
• Historians express conflicting views regarding the nature, significance, and value of history.
• Each definition of history explains some aspects, but not the whole, due to its many points of view.
• History has been approached from various perspectives, leading to more varied definitions than even the novel.
• Interpretations of historical materials by historians like Herodotus, Thucydides, Livy, Kalhana, Gibbon, Spengler, Toynbee, and Will Durant have resulted in different “Histories.”
• The Greeks were the first to give a rational meaning to the term history.
• The word history itself is derived from the Greek word “istoria”, meaning enquiry, research, exploration, or learning.
• The German equivalent of history is “geschichte”, meaning an intelligent and intelligible narration of past events.
• The Arabic word “tarikh” stands for chronology.
• The Sanskrit word “itihasa” refers to legend.
• One definition of history is “the study of man’s struggle through the ages” against nature, wild beasts, and other humans who tried to oppress or exploit him.
• Another definition of history describes it as “a significant record of events of the past”, a meaningful story depicting what happened and why.
• History can also be defined as “a mirror of the past as though it were present”.
• Herodotus titled his work “History of the Persian War”.
• The German word for history, “Geschichts”, stands for event.
• The Arabic term “tarikh” refers to dates.
• The Sanskrit terms itihasa and Charitra mean long tale or legend and the biography of great men or a survey of events, respectively.
• The Greeks in the 5th century BC played a key role in shaping the future course of history.
• They developed a reasoned approach to the past, critically pursuing the authenticity of materials.
• Greek historians like Herodotus and Thucydides applied a method of investigation to reach conclusions about the past.
• This Greek historical-mindedness and spirit of inquiry led to various definitions of history over time.
• St. Augustine discovered spiritual meaning in history, asserting that God ruled human affairs and placed God in history.
• Aristotle suggested that history is an account of the unchanging past.
• E.H. Carr defined history as “a continuous process of interaction between the historian and his facts”, an unending dialogue between the present and the past.
• G.J. Renier defined history as “the story of the experiences of men living in civilized societies”.
• A.L. Rowse described history as “the record of the life of men in their geographical and physical environment”.
• Thomas Carlyle stated that history is “the essence of innumerable biographies”, particularly focusing on the accomplishments of great men, warriors, rulers, artists, or prophets.
• G.W.F. Hegel, the German Idealist philosopher, envisioned history as the progressive realization of the World Spirit, a non-material phenomenon he termed the Absolute or Universal Idea.
• Karl Marx saw history as “the activity of men in pursuit of their ends”.
• Lord Acton defined history as “the unfolding story of human freedom”.
• Robin G. Collingwood, a philosopher and historian, gave a metaphysical twist to history, stating “All history is the history of thought”.
• If we distill these viewpoints, a useful working definition of history emerges, particularly for a practicing historian:
  1. History as events (res-gestae)
  2. History as records
  3. History as reflective thought (historia rerum gestarum)

Characteristics of History

• Doctors may disagree on the definition of history, but there is significant agreement on its cardinal characteristics.
• History is chronological. The time element is the backbone of history, providing continuity and a sequence to events. Significant events are arranged in their time sequence, and the intervals between them are fixed.
• History concerns socially significant events and answers questions about human deeds that have affected the destiny of people.
• History is humanistic. It is a narrative of human actions, including deeds and misdeeds, successes, and failures. It seeks the cause of events in human agency, not divine influence. Human will freely chooses its ends and is limited by its own forces.
• The power of intellect helps humans apprehend their goals and work out the means to achieve them. In essence, history occurs due to the direct result of human will.
• The fourth characteristic is that history proceeds through interpretation of evidence based on documents. Past events gain meaning and contemporary relevance through interpretation.
• History is a special form of thought. It provides answers to questions about the nature, object, method, and value of studying the past.
• History is a science because it is an inquiry that seeks to uncover facts, striving to discover what is unknown and find things out.
• Lastly, history is autonomous. It is an independent branch of study with its own concepts, theories, and methodology to collect and evaluate data, leading to meaningful conclusions.

Nature of History

Is History Science or Art?

• The term “history” is derived from the Greek word “istoria”, meaning enquiry, research, or exploration.
• Thucydides, the ancient Greek historian, is honored as the Father of Scientific History for realizing the hope of his predecessor Herodotus to achieve a scientific knowledge of past human actions.
• Thucydides was predominantly influenced by Hippocratic medicine, which is evident in his description of the plague and his investigation into the laws governing historical events.
• However, humanism, not scientific temper, was the dominant characteristic of Greco-Roman historiography.
• The scientific outlook of Greco-Roman historiographers was largely obscured in medieval Christian historiography.
• With the Renaissance, a revival of humanistic views on history occurred, and accurate scholarship regained importance.

Impact of Science on Historiography

• The impact of science on historiography at the end of the eighteenth century was incalculable.
• As science contributed to man’s knowledge of the world, it also advanced his understanding of the past.
• The method by which science studied the world of nature was systematically applied to the study of human affairs throughout the nineteenth century.
• The Newtonian tradition, Herbert Spencer’s Social Statics (1851), and Darwinian Evolution brought history into the realm of science.
• These developments reinforced the practice of applying scientific principles to historical writing.
• The evolution of science confirmed and complemented progress in history.
• Fascinated by the scientific method, J.B. Bury declared in the early twentieth century that “History was a science and had nothing to do with literature.”
• John Seeley also asserted that history was a science, separate from literature.

History is a Science

• History can be considered a science in several respects.
• First, as an enquiry after truth, history is a science. It is an inquiry or research, not just collecting what is known and arranging it. It aims to discover what is unknown, making it a means to an end, not an end in itself.
• Second, like science, history begins with the knowledge of our own ignorance and proceeds from the known to the unknown, from ignorance to knowledge, from the indefinite to the definite.
• Third, history seeks to find things out. It answers questions posed by historians. History, as the science of res gestae, attempts to answer questions about human actions in the past. In short, it is an investigation to determine what happened at a specific time and place.
• Fourth, history is based on evidence and reasoning. It is built on facts like a house is built on stones. However, simply accumulating facts is not enough to make it a science. The data must be scientifically analyzed, classified, and interpreted.
• Fifth, history employs scientific methods of enquiry. It uses methods such as observation, classification, formulation of hypotheses, and analysis of evidence. The inductive method of collecting facts and interpreting them is a key scientific approach in history.
• Sixth, like scientists, historians approach their subject with a scientific spirit, aiming to acquire accurate knowledge. History seeks to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. To the extent that history adopts a rational approach to uncover the truth, it can be considered a science.

History is an Art

• The question of whether history is a science or an art was hotly debated, especially in Germany during the last decade of the nineteenth century.
• The general consensus favored the idea that history is a science.
• However, this view was countered by Benedetto Croce, the distinguished Italian historian, who argued that history is an art.
• In his first essay on the theory of history, “History subsumed under the Concept of Art”, written at the age of 27, Croce asserted that history is an art.
• Earlier, Dilthey in 1883 and Simmel in 1892 had compared history to art.
• Later, A.L. Rowse reiterated that, despite the use of scientific methods in historical writing, there will always remain an element of art in history.
• Rowse emphasized that reducing history to a natural science would suppress key aspects of introspective knowledge and misapply a false analogy with the sciences.
• It is unfortunate that methodologists and theorists often view the essence of history and the writing of history as secondary.
• The art of writing must be used in support of the historian’s work.
• Wrong theories about history do not necessarily lead to bad history. Croce and Collingwood provide proof that incorrect theories can still result in valuable historical writing.

Scope of History

• History initially existed as oral traditions, consisting of fables, folktales, legends, and mythologies based on imagination, memory, and tradition; this can be called “Folk history”.
• The Greek historians were the first to delimit the scope of history, with Herodotus writing about the Greco-Persian wars and Thucydides focusing on the Peloponnesian war.
• The scope of history at that time was limited to describing wars between countries or struggles between city-states.
• Roman historians inherited the Greek tradition but expanded the scope of history by narrating the Roman conquest of the world.
• History was conceived as a form of thought with universal value.
• The Medieval Christian historians focused on the theological interpretation of historical events, viewing human actions as the manifestation of the Divine Will.
• Christian historiography had a universal character but was essentially theocentric.
• During the Renaissance, historians restored the classical humanistic approach, placing man at the center of historical writing, extending history’s scope through a secular approach.
• In the 17th century, Natural Science influenced history, leading historians to adopt a more scientific approach, focusing on reliable and verifiable data.
• Thinkers like Bacon, Locke, Hume, Berkeley, Descartes, and Vico promoted this new scientific dimension in history.
• The 18th century was the Age of Enlightenment, where historians like Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Gibbon revolted against institutional religion and the theological interpretation of history, working to further secularize history.
• The 19th century retained the secular-rational approach while expanding history’s scope.
• Kant argued that history was a progression toward rationality, while Hegel incorporated philosophical interpretation, leading to the birth of universal history.
• Marx further developed the Hegelian dialectic by providing an economic interpretation of history, which significantly influenced historical writing through his concept of Dialectical Materialism.
• The 20th century is seen as the Age of Synthesis, where historians like Spengler, Sorokin, and Toynbee sought to identify patterns in historical changes, with Toynbee representing synthetic idealistic historiography.
• Toynbee’s work expanded the scope of history, surveying the story of mankind in a way not attempted before or improved since.
• The 20th century also saw the rise of three schools of thought: New History, Total History, and Structured History, all reacting against the traditionalist myth-making history.
• New historians incorporated advances from social sciences, integrating multiple branches of knowledge into a more inclusive and heterogeneous historiography.
• In a restricted sense, history is limited to political, military, diplomatic, religious, economic, or biographical history.
• In a broader sense, history encompasses humanity as a whole, addressing human achievements and failures in all aspects and providing a philosophical explanation of human progress.

History and Historiography

• History existed even before the discovery of writing, in the form of oral traditions, recited for the knowledge and amusement of people.
• After the advent of written script, these oral traditions were set into the form of poetry.
• When the Greeks appeared on the scene, they laid the foundation for historical writing and began writing history in prose.
• Greek history was humanistic, while medieval history was theocentric, centered around the working of Providence of God.
• The Renaissance revived classical learning, and historical documents were studied with critical care and caution, leading to the secularization of historical thought.
• Under the impact of science, the theoretical knowledge of the past and its development became crystallized.
• History was no longer just a record of past events but became a process of human progress in space and time.
• The conceptual study and writing of this process were termed “historiography”.
• Historiography emerged in the 19th century, as historians adopted a more critical approach.
• Before that, historians used a non-critical approach, focusing on men, events, and institutions, interpreting them based on religious and moral principles, and mixing historical facts with legends, fables, and mythologies.
• In the 19th century, writers linked history with research, using the Greek word “historie” (meaning inquiry or investigation).
• A distinction was made between historiography (the study of the past) and history (the narration of the story of the past).
• G.J. Renier lamented that historiography was an “ill-starred word,” while Sir Charles Oman considered it as “the art of dealing on paper with past events”.
• Historiography is not the same as history; it is the history of historical writings.
• Historiography focuses on the art, craft, and science of historical writing, not on the events or figures themselves.
• It is a graphic-interpretative-evaluative study of historical accounts, not a chronological-descriptive-narrative.
• The historian’s treatment of history, method, style, attitude, approach, philosophy, and problems are the core of historiography.
• Historiography focuses on the nature, concept, content, scope, theory, practice, and value of history.
• In short, historiography is historical thought and writing.
• Historiography has emerged as an independent historical discipline with its own object of knowledge: historical reality.
• It is a systematic, scientific, and orderly study of the evolution of historical writing.
• It is a professional body of historical knowledge, ideas, theories, and concepts explaining the growth of human society and understanding its development.
• Like Geography, Calligraphy, and Choreography, historiography is a distinct discipline and branch of study.

Kinds of History

• History is often described as a magnificent mansion, with Trevelyan likening it to a dwelling place for all subjects.
• History is like a joint-family, where various aspects of human life are interconnected.
• In the past, human history was divided into several political, social, religious, and cultural units.
• It was only during the 19th century that history began to be treated as universal and all-embracing.
• Despite this, the tradition of dividing history into distinct categories like political history, military history, constitutional history, etc., continues to persist.

Political History

• For a long time, historians were preoccupied with political matters.
• Seeley stated, “History is past politics; and politics is present history.”
• R.G. Collingwood argued that “Political history is the history of political thought.”
• Political history once focused on kings, queens, countries, and their intrigues, wars, treaties, etc.
• The deeds and misdeeds of rulers, along with conquest, were central to political history.
• Voltaire, Machiavelli, Guizot, Augustin, Pirenne, Thierry, Macaulay, Droysen, and Ranke were primarily interested in political history of states.
• Hegel extolled the state as the noblest of God’s earthly achievements.
• These historians placed the state—an artificial phenomenon—in the first rank.
• However, not all history is politics; it is not unidimensional.
• The new interest in the experiences of common people has brought a welcome change in historical writing.

Constitutional History

• Constitutional History is an important branch of political history and has attained the status of an independent discipline.
• It focuses on the constitution of the government, an aspect of state organization.
• Unlike political history, constitutional history is not concerned with the struggle for mastery over the state.
• It deals with political institutions, which Renier describes as “habits of societies.”
• Constitutions are human habits made concrete, including the methods, conventions, and practices adopted by men to govern the state.
• The subject matter of constitutional history includes written constitutions and constitutional conventions.
• Constitutional history lacks self-sufficiency. For example, a medieval manor cannot be considered solely a constitutional expression of medieval politics, as it also represents a socio-economic manifestation of medieval life.
• Constitutional history must incorporate multiple aspects to provide an accurate and satisfying history.

Parliamentary History

• Parliamentary history is a sub-section of Constitutional history.
• It focuses on one specific political institution—the parliament—which holds a significant position in the governance of the state.
• Parliamentary government provides a unique political experience in certain democratic countries, including India.

Legal History

• Legal history is an offshoot of Constitutional and Parliamentary history, but differs in several respects.
• Legal historians must be lawyers or well-versed in law.
• There is a strong connection between the subject of legal history and jurisprudence.
• The history of parliamentary enactments, their interpretation, and application holds significant practical importance.
• Codified laws such as the Code of Hammurabi (Babylon), Manu (India), and Napoleonic Code (France) are important to legal historians.

Military History

• Military history narrates the story of military operations, dealing with warfare in every form and aspect, including technical, tactical, and strategic elements.
• It also covers military engineering, ballistics, logistics, and military transport.
• Military historians are concerned not only with military planning but also with the impact of wars on the fate of nations and the lives of the people.
• A classic example of military history is Thucydides’ The History of the Peloponnesian War.
• Other important works include studies of the South Indian Rebellion, the Great Indian Mutiny, the American Civil War, and the World Wars.

Diplomatic History

• Diplomatic history focuses on the history of relations between sovereign states, also known as International History.
• A distinction is made between diplomatic history, which deals with the actions of diplomats, and international history, which examines the factors affecting negotiations and inter-state relations.
• Diplomatic history became especially important after the First World War.
• External relations are maintained by ambassadors, who are experts in diplomacy.

Social History

• Social history focuses on the daily life, beliefs, habits, and culture of people, excluding political, military, and diplomatic aspects.
• Historian Trevelyan defined social history as “history with the politics left out”.
• Dutch historian P.J. Blok defined it as “the thought and the work, the daily life, the belief, the needs, the habits of our ancestors”.
• August Comte argued that historical facts should be used as raw materials for social historians.
• Social history includes morals, manners, religion, food, dress, art, and culture.

Economic History

• Economic history was once considered a branch of social history, a view held by Van Dillen, who referred to it as Socio-Economic History.
• Over time, economic history became a distinct discipline.
• Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations was a classical treatise in economic history.
• Karl Marx’s economic interpretation of history expanded the scope of economic history and emphasized economic factors and forces.

Intellectual History

• Intellectual history focuses on the transformation of ideas, beliefs, and opinions held by intellectuals throughout history.
• R.G. Collingwood viewed history as a special form of thought, specifically the expression of ideas.
• H.E. Barnes stated that intellectual history seeks to review the transformations of ideas from primitive times to the present.
• Samuel Johnson believed the progress of the human mind was the most useful part of history.

Biographical History

• Thomas Carlyle famously stated that “history is the biography of great men.”
• Masson, the biographer of Napoleon, believed that every aspect of a person who shaped historic events, even the most private aspects of their personality, is historically significant.
• Bauer argued that a biography places a person’s experiences and characteristics in relation to the economic, political, social, and artistic conditions of the period in which they rose.
• Karl Marx claimed, “History does nothing, it possesses no immense wealth, fights no battles. It is rather Man, real living Man, who does everything, who possesses and fights.”
• Miss Wedgwood focused on understanding individual behavior, believing it more interesting than that of groups or classes. She wrote to understand how men felt and why they acted as they did in their own estimation.

National History

• The emergence of nation states is a key development in Modern History.
• Nationalism became the political creed of the people, and the nation became the unit of historical study.
• National history treats the complete biography of a people from its beginnings.

Universal History

• The idea of universal history was absent in ancient Greece due to its city-state structure.
• The concept of ecumenical history emerged during the Hellenistic period after Alexander the Great’s conquests, uniting non-Greek peoples into a single political entity.
• Romans viewed universal history as the history of their corporate spirit and the unification of the world under their leadership.
• Livy considered history as humanistic, and his history of Rome was regarded as universal history.
• Local history focuses on the history of specific regions or areas, often overlooked in favor of broader historical topics.
• Despite limited attention, local history has significant potential for research and can provide valuable insights into the past when linked to broader historical contexts.

Local History

• Local history must not degenerate into “sterile antiquarianism” and should always connect to general history and larger issues.

New History

• New History emerged after World War II as a reaction to traditional historical methods.
• Edward Eggleton‘s Transit of Civilization (1837-1902) is considered the seed of New History.
• James Harvey Robinson (1863-1936) popularized the term New History, which criticized old history as pedantic, irrelevant, and neglectful of human experience.

Total History, Structural History, Pop-History

• Total History is closely related to New History, representing integrated history through cooperative historical research.
• Total History aims to represent the fullness and richness of human life in society and seeks to bridge the gap between historical and social studies.
• Fernand Braudel, a French historian, expanded on New History with his concept of Structural History in his work The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II (1949).
• Pop History gained popularity in the 1960s as publishers recognized the marketability of history books.
• Best-selling books like Robert Blake’s Disraeli, E.P. Thompson’s The Making of the English Working Class, and Leroy Ladurie’s Montaillou became highly successful.
• According to Arthur Marwick, these books have “the most unimpeachable academic pedigree.”

Subaltern History

• The word ‘sub-altern’ originally referred to any subordinate officer in the army below the rank of captain.
• The term was adopted from Antonio Gramsci’s writings, although Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher, is credited with coining it.
• Lucian Febvre and Marc Bloch, pioneers of the Annales school of historiography, laid the foundation for subaltern history.
• E.P. Thompson’s The Making of the English Working Class is a classic example of ‘history from below’, spanning 800 pages.
• In historiography, the term ‘subaltern’ refers to any inferior or subordinate subclass, such as specific groups, genders, castes, ages, or offices.
• Subaltern history focuses on events related to marginalized or suppressed sections of society, including tribals, peasants, workers, and women.
• Subaltern history is considered non-traditional and locally-produced, exploring the experiences of those often left out of mainstream narratives.
• Ranjit Guha is considered the pioneer of subaltern history in India.
• He edited six volumes of Subaltern Studies that contain a range of monographs on South Asian history and society.
• These volumes form a valuable compendium of subaltern history in India, exploring the marginalized groups and their struggles.
• Some notable monographs in Subaltern Studies include:
  • Rebellions of hillmen in the Gudem and Rampa hill tracts of Andhra during 1839-1924.
  • Peasant revolts in Awadh during 1912-1922.
  • The condition of Calcutta jute-mill workers from 1890-1940.
  • Forest and social protest in British Kumaun from 1893-1921.
  • Jitu Santhal’s movement in Malda, North Western Bengal from 1924-1932.
  • Four rebels of 1957.
  • The Kalki – Avatar of Bikrampur: A village scandal in early 20th-century Bengal.
  • The peasant revolts of Awadh during 1919-1922 and their impact on Indian Nationalism.
  • The colonial construction of ‘communalism’: British writings on Benaras in the 19th century.
  • The relationship between caste and subaltern consciousness.

History and Related Subjects

• History is composite in character and inclusive in its scope, making it a central and pivotal social science.
• It serves as a feeding ground for all social sciences and humanities.
• H.C. Darby compared history to mathematics in natural sciences, stating that it is basic to social sciences.
• History is the study of different facets of human life and experience, making all social sciences dependent on and heavily influenced by it.
• G.M. Trevelyan observed that history is like a house in which all subjects dwell.
• Specialization has broken knowledge into compartments, yet the relationship between history and related subjects remains close and intimate.
• The connection between history and other subjects is as close as the relationship between reciprocal lovers.

History and Politics

• Politics is a part of the whole of history, focusing on the organized state and its governance.
• History provides essential raw material for political science, and historical knowledge is necessary for understanding the evolution of political institutions and the exercise of political power.
• History offers numerous examples of organized states, including ancient Greece, Rome, India, China, and the post-Renaissance nation states.

History and Geography

• Geography and Chronology are considered the right eye and left eye of history.
• Geography emerged as a science in its own right with the work of Alexander Von Humboldt (1769-1859).
• Geography is indispensable for fixing a historical event in space, as stated by Renier, who advised that “an historian should always have a map at his elbow.”
• The indelible influence of geographical factors on history is widely recognized.
• The Himalayas and the jungles of Assam have restricted foreign invasions of India to the North and North Eastern India.
• The Vindhyas have acted as a barrier, separating South India from the North and limiting close relations between the two regions.
• The Gobi and Mongolian deserts provided security to China.
• The geography of Egypt has played a key role in preserving her ancient civilization.

History and Economics

• Economic activities of man are positively correlated with historical developments.
• History also explores the economic experience of man through different ages.
• Karl Marx believed that the unity of history lies in economic factors, and that other factors like political, social, artistic, and religious aspects are reflections of these basic economic configurations.
• Saligman proposed that economic factors ultimately decide social transformation.
• It is important to recognize that the economic interpretation of history is just one of the explanations of historical phenomena.

History and Sociology

• History is the study of the deeds of men living in societies.
• Sociology is the scientific study of society.
• History and Sociology were closely inter-linked until Auguste Comte made Sociology a separate science.
• Despite this separation, the interaction between the two subjects remains intimate.
• Eminent sociologists like Émile Durkheim and Max Weber profoundly influenced history through their studies of social institutions.
• Sociologists worked with the same historical facts and sought to discover causal connections between them.

History and Literature

• The relationship between History and Literature has been close and continuous.
• There was a time when history itself was considered a branch of literature.
• Literature depends on history for themes, plots, and characters.
• Similarly, history relies on literature for evidence needed for the reconstruction of the past.
• Literary style adds charm and grace to the writing of history.
• Literature serves as an effective means to make historical themes, conceptions, and characters immensely popular.
• Literature portrays human beings in action and provides the author’s considered opinion on human character.

History and Psychology

• History is related to psychology in several ways, as both focus on the study and understanding of human behavior.
• Human behavior is human nature in action, and character is habitual behavior.
• The historian needs to understand human behavior to explain the actions of men who lived in the past.
• An understanding of human behavior, conduct, and character can be gained from literature and the doctrines of psychology through observation.
• Psychological insights help historians make a meaningful analysis of the motives and actions of men and societies.
• Mass psychology explains mass hysteria, which moves millions into mass action.
• It also helps to better understand the charisma of historical heroes.
• A psycho-analytical study of figures like Buddha, Christ, Mohammed, Alexander, Asoka, Aurangzeb, Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Gandhi can offer clues to their immense popularity.

History and Philosophy

• Philosophy is an inquiry into the nature of human life and thinking; it is the pursuit of wisdom.
• At specific periods of history, certain problems claim the special attention of the philosopher.
• Some philosophical problems are unchanging, while others change from age to age, influenced by the special characteristics of human life and thought at the time.
• For example, in the Middle Ages, theology was the primary focus of philosophical speculation.

History and Religion

• History and religion may seem poles apart: history is based on reason, while religion is grounded in faith.
• One is secular, and the other is spiritual.
• The religious man affirms that God created man, while the historian seeks to understand how man created God.
• The task of religion is to explore the relationship between the two opposing concepts of Man as finite and God as infinite.
• This exploration has given rise to several religions that have profoundly influenced the course of human history.
• As a result, religion is included within the scope of history.
• Greco-Roman historiography was secular, while the task of medieval historiography focused on rediscovering the divine plan.
• Voltaire reversed this trend through his crusade against religion, and along with Hume, they were pioneers in secularizing historical thought.
• Descartes and Vico contributed to making historiography more scientific.
• Although history became secular and scientific, historians have never stopped studying the role of religion in history.

History and Ethics

• Ethics deals with morals and rules of conduct, with morality being its mainstay.
• Lord Acton defended a rigid code of morality in history, urging historians to pass severe moral judgments on historical persons and events.
• The historian can trace the evolution of ethics from the primitive stage to post-industrial society.
• Relativist philosophy raises ethical questions, challenging absolute moral standards.
• Man’s recognition of the distinction between good and evil is one of the stable ingredients in human nature.

History and Science

• History and science may seem like polar opposites, but they share communalities.
• Both historians and scientists are engaged in the dispassionate pursuit of knowledge.
• History and science are systematic disciplines that employ methods and standards commanding respect from the most rigorous scientists.
• As Bernadotte Schmitt states, if science is defined as “systematized, organized, formulated knowledge,” then history is also a science, as its purpose is to ascertain truth based on facts.
• E.H. Carr asserts that the chasm between the historian and the geologist is not deeper than the one separating the geologist from the physicist.
• According to E.E. Evans-Pritchard, the conscientious historian is as systematic, exacting, and critical in research as a chemist or biologist.
• In short, both historians and scientists are concerned with discovery, using methodical methods, involving rigorous checks, and presenting evidence and conclusions.

History and Computers

• We are living in an Age of Information Technology, where the use of computers is all-pervasive.
• Computing is not new to professional historians and researchers.
• In the 1950s, R.R. Palmer used comparative statistics in his study of the Atlantic Revolution.
• In the 1960s, R.W. Fogel and other demographers involved computers in their research.
• In the 1970s, some historiographers began talking about quantitative history.
• The 1980s saw the application of microchips by some historians.
• With improved skills and the introduction of new-generation computers and new software programs, history databases were created in the 1990s.

History and Auxiliary Sciences

• An historian’s primary task is to ascertain facts.
• Accuracy is a duty of the historian, but not his virtue.
• Praising a historian for his accuracy is like praising an architect for using well-seasoned timber or properly mixed concrete—it’s a necessary condition but not the historian’s essential function.
• To ascertain historical facts, the historian relies on what are called the “auxiliary sciences” of history.
• These auxiliary sciences act as “repositories of facts”.
• Although they are not sciences in their own right, they are recognized as departments of knowledge.

Archaeology

• The term Archaeology comes from two Greek words, “archaio” (meaning ancient) and “logia” (meaning discussion), referring to the discussion of antiquities.
• Archaeology is the scientific study of antiquity through the analysis of material remains of ancient human occupations.
• It encompasses architecture, epigraphy, sculpture, paintings, ceramics, and more.
• It is an empirical discipline focused on the recovery, systematic description, and study of old artifacts.
• Archaeological studies are especially valuable for pre-literate periods of human history.
• Archaeology also deals with the material remains of the historic past, helping to understand human progress from the Stone Age to the Space Age.
• Archaeology aims at studying the human, social, and cultural past, forming a close alliance with history.
• The primary differences between archaeology and history lie in method rather than philosophical outlook.
• While archaeology relies on material remains and monuments, history uses textual references coexistent with the past.
• History relies on archaeology for direct evidence of the past, which is unedited by any author.
• Archaeology’s picture of some aspects of civilization cannot be improved upon by tons of descriptive literature.
• Although archaeology is considered technology of the past, it cannot fully recover political history.
• Archaeology remains an important auxiliary aid to historical research and writing.
• Archaeologists and historians are not relic hunters or entertainers but are concerned with the meaningful accumulation of data, analyzing it to find predictable models.

Epigraphy

• The word Epigraphy is derived from the Greek prefix “epi” (meaning upon) and “grapho” (meaning to write).
• It refers to writings or inscriptions, mostly found on stone and copper plates.
• Epigraphs can be classified into historical, religious, donative, or commemorative records.
• They often record donations to individuals and institutions, commemorative foundations, endowments, or announce the activities (political, religious, etc.) of kings and other persons, both official and non-official.
• Inscriptions do not limit themselves to their immediate purpose of composition and provide invaluable information in various fields such as genealogical, geographical, administrative, economic, and cultural.
• In periods of history where written records are lacking, archaeological evidence and inscriptions help historians reconstruct the past.
• Most inscriptions are contemporary and free of textual corruptions.

Numismatics

• Numismatics is the study of coins and coin legends (inscriptions on coins).
• The study of coin images and symbols is considered under art.
• The most distinctive aspect of Numismatics is the metallurgy of coins.
• Numismatics plays a key role in resuscitating the history of some Indian dynasties and enhancing knowledge of others.
• It holds significant value for chronological, political, administrative, economic, religious, and cultural history.
• Numismatics is an indispensable auxiliary for Indian historians.
• The Indo-Greek, Saka, Kushan, and Gupta coins are notable for their inscriptional value.
• The bilingual coins of the Indo-Greeks and Indo-Parthians have provided “the master-key to the decipherment of Indian inscriptions”.
• Roman coins found in South India are useful in studying Indo-Roman commercial contacts during the early centuries of the Christian era.

Sigillography

• Sigillography is the study of seals, focusing on their use for authenticating official documents.
• The term is derived from the word “sigil”, meaning a seal or signature.
• It is also referred to as sphragistics, the study of engraved seals.
• Sigillography examines various aspects of seals, such as their authenticity, age, history, content, and significance.
• It also explores the form of the seal, including the manner in which it is attached to the document.
• The material of which the seal is made is another important area of study.
• Sigillography helps in understanding the context in which the seal was used and the function it served in authenticating documents.

Paleography

• Paleography is the study of old handwriting and the evolution of written forms over time.
• It describes the evolution of each letter in time and space.
• The study also involves the abbreviations used by scribes in historical manuscripts.
• Paleography allows historians to determine the dates of old handwriting, providing insight into the content and history of the text.
• It helps in understanding the history of the characters used in writing and the changes they underwent over time.
• Paleography aids in interpreting abbreviations found in manuscripts, enhancing the understanding of historical documents.

Graphology

• Graphology is the study of the character of the author of the handwriting, since there is connection between one‟s handwriting and his character.
• It helps the historian to estimate a person through his handwriting. It gives us certain useful indications about the psychology of a person.

Diplomatic

• Diplomatic is the study of official documents and their structure.
• Official writing follows a rigid order in the arrangement of subject matter and has a stereotyped format.
• Official documents have a unique style of writing specific to their nature.
• The authenticity of a document can be ensured by comparing findings from both diplomatic and paleography.
• When diplomatic and paleographic findings align, they help confirm the genuineness of a document and provide insight into its real meaning.
• Diplomatic plays a key role in helping history ascertain the truth and context of official documents.