Immature Western model of history
[quote] To sum up the whole discussion following points emerge:
1. Broadly speaking up to the age of Renaissance (to some extent even after that) Europe was the land of incoherent barbaric tribes. The southern part was under the tyrant rule of Romans who were more interested in their African and West Asian parts of empire. Then Europeans came under the dominance of the Church and were exploited spiritually and economically. The Church was intolerant to any knowledge that did not suit their religious belief. However, this served as a sort of binding tie for all of them.
2. Then came the age of Enlightenment that filled Europeans with new vigour and thirst for knowledge. The desire for wealth, power and conversion made Europe dominat world power by the middle of the nineteenth century.
3. In this process, they accidentally discovered America while trying to reach India. Another party, however, reached India. This second discovery proved more fruitful to Europeans as they were introduced to the Sanskrit literature. This not only gave rise to many disciplines in linguistics but also made Europe conscious about its own past. It was concluded that the ancestors of Indians and of Europeans spoke same language and therefore must have emerged from the same stock. These common ancestors were named Proto-Indo-Europeans.
4. Initially Indian civilization attracted many thoughtful Europeans that is called by historians the Indomania. Many others in Europe took it as threat to the Christian religion and the European culture. Therefore concerted efforts were made to ‘kill the Indomania’ and create an anti-atmosphere for everything that concerned India.
5. Furthermore, Europe’s contact with India triggered history conciousness among them and they began searching respectable ancestry for them. In the process the direction of the well established current of history was reversed and the Europeans became the ‘real Aryans’ while the Indo-Aryans (Rgvedic Arya) occupy the last position in sequence.
6. The thesis that history begins with the use of writing was proposed to counter Indian claim of hoary antiquity because written records in India start from the Maurya period. Similarly the practice of providing date for every event also was prompted by the fact that Puranas never give date of any historical event.
7. The proposal of history beginning from the use of writing gave rise to the concept of prehistory and thus the entire European perception of history entangled in a vicious ine of faulty proposals that now has reached in a blind lane. New proposals like deep history and deep time show the discontentment on the issue.
8. Thus Europe’s perception of history and prehistory is ‘little more than groping in the darkness by ignorant people who had no background in historical study. The same is true their concept of chronology, prompted by the myth of Old Testament. Now it has reached in a blind lane from where there seems no way out.
The only way out:
Now it is high time to revive the Hindu history of human civilization that is as old as 120 million years. The Puranas have preserved ample record of it. Thus a bigger line can be drawn to dwarf the immature Western model of history that is based on assumptions, speculations, and imaginations.[unquote]
Read on the full text of Prof. TP Verma's article:
Itihas Darpan, Vol. XIX (2), 2014: TP Verma, 'Europe perceives history', pp. 325-348
https://www.scribd.com/doc/245560240/Europe-Perceives-History-Part-1 (Pages 325-334)
https://www.scribd.com/doc/244463273/Europe-perceives-history-by-Prof-TP-Verma-2014 Part 2 (Pages 335-348)