Posted on: 22 September 2010

The making of an Indologist
D.D. Kosambi: Combined Methods in Indology and Other Writings; compiled, edited and introduced by Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya
Published by Oxford University Press, 2002
By K.M. Shrimali

WITHIN the first decade of India's Independence, studies on early Indian history moved away from the humdrum style of documenting political and dynastic events. Interest in the routine melange of dates and events, wars and conquests, and the "achievements and failures" of individual potentates started dwindling when two very significant works came out in the 1950s. A.L. Basham's The Wonder That Was India (1954) and D.D. Kosambi's An Introduction to the Study of Indian History (1956) epitomised this shift. The first one is the work of a professional historian and the second is from an "amateur Indologist".

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http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1918/19180720.htm


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Read the full article : http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1918/19180720.htm

Damodar Dharmananda Kosambi is the historian son of the historian Dharmananda Damodar Kosambi ( Wow !!). The Wiki : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damodar_Dharmanand_Kosambi

I am increasing my vocabulary since joining this site. Found myself unaware of what an Indologist is. What a fabulous word!!!

To add to the complexity... DD Kosambi who was a historian was also a Marxist Indologist ! : )

Sorry to be a carping voice but the term itself is completely out of favour, not used as it smacks of patronage and condescension and exoticisation of India ( Indologist) or Egypt ( Egyptologist) or the Orient.

Sumedha, now with people interested in the exotic "West", maybe it's time for Eurologists?

I don't wish to spam here, but in case anyone is interested, there is a blog on DD Kosambi (http://ddkosambi.blogspot.com/) as well as an FB group dedicated to DDK:http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=137109523721&ref=ts. The blog has links to most of his works available online besides other stuff.

Its a very nice book, but i don't know if we can call him an indologist. I think he fits into the broad category of what we call as historians, admitting that he did take inputs from indology, sanskrit/pali studies, anthropology, numismatics, science, linguistics, archaelogy. I think he is undoubtedly the first Indian historian to use the Marxist method as a scientific tool to study history, and not use it as a dogmatic political agenda(thats why he was at loggerheads with the party marxists of the time). Also he did not sympathize with other Marxists, if he did not agree with their ideas and research(his critique of Dange's 'primitive communism to slavery' is well known). The first thing which drew me to his work and thoughts was that he said that history starts outside your own door, you just have to keep your eyes open. He also combined desk research with a lot of field work and was an incessant rationalist. Btw, His father's works(dharmanand kosambi's) are now available in English translation published by some 'permanent black' publishing house...

Balaji Murthy : !!!

@Sumedha: It is not as if Marxism has become irrelevant. Marxists may have become so. To quote (attributed to Damodar Dharmanand) from the article: "Marxism is not a substitute for thinking, but a tool of analysis which must be used, with a certain minimum of skill and understanding, upon the proper material."

D.D.'s daughter Meera Kosambi has just written a book on Dharmanand Kosambi.

I guess its easier to refer to this illustrious duo as DD Sr. and DD Jr.

@ Balaji :) Doubt if enough traction can be gained on this one, is it interesting enough?! @ Shekhar Sathe Couldnt agree with you more. Am doing the same in practice. @ RBS Thanks for generating this interesting debate. Information about availability of the father son duo's work is most welcome.