Convergence : Rethinking India\'s Past

Contents: Introduction Texts contexts Sources : foreign Sources and India's history/Radhika Seshan. 1. Maps on India and the Indian Ocean as Source Material for Historical Research/Rila Mukherjee. 2. Select Tibetan sources for the Study of Indian History/M N Rajesh. 3. South East Asia and the Eastern sea Board of India through the Lens of Zhao Rugua/Suchandra Ghosh. 4. Travellers Tales From Mandeville to Mundy/Radhika Seshan. 5. The Portuguese Sources for the Indian History/Teotonio R De Souza. 6. English East India Company Records and Historical Reconstruction of the West Coast of India/Ruby Maloni. 7. In Search of White Gold: Chandernagore in the Records of the Compagine des Indes Orientales and the Compagnie Des Indes 1701-49/Rila Mukherjee. 8. Japanese Approach Towards Gandhi During the Sino Japanese War/Masao Naito.

Convergence: Rethinking India's Past explores the multiplicity of sources that can be used for studying Indian history. Texts, literature, inscriptions, and other sources have long been but the fountainheads of history. The contributors to this volume, however, begin with the premise that such sources, in the true spirit of historical research, need to be re-interrogated. Without ignoring questions of the validity of a source, they also emphasize the hybridity and range of material that can be used as a historical source. Starting, therefore, with the idea of 're-search', Convergence examines sources that have so far been used, before proceeding to study newer ones that have yet to be utilized. Keeping this in mind, it re-examines the better known sources, such as Portuguese, French and English factory records, travel accounts, Chinese texts, and also maps, travel accounts, Tibetan and Japanese sources.