Since last fourteen years I have been engaged in teaching and doing researches in Anthropology and have covered so far different dimensions of Indian anthropology including both the Primitive and the Complex societies. During all these years my chief aim has been to throw light on the unity and diversities of different Dimensions of Indian Civilization with a view to strengthen the "Indianness" in Indian anthropology. Keeping these things in mind I wrote several Anthropological essays from time to time, besides other major works, which have been incorporated here in an integrated manner and have formed the contents of this book.
In writing of these essays as well as in its publication, in different scientific Journals, I came into contact with many eminent Anthropologists of India, who not only helped me at several occasions to write and publish these papers but also helped me in developing methodological hypotheses and concepts and to arrive at certain scientific conclusions. Among those Anthropologists, I am specially thankful to late Professor N.K. Bose, Dr. Surajit Chandra Sinha, the Vice-Chancellor of Viswabharti University, Shantiniketan, Professor L.P. Vidyarthi, Head of the Department of Anthropology, Ranchi University, Ranchi, Dr. B. N. Saraswati, Visiting Fellow, Viswabharti, Shantiniketan, etc. While as a member of the Anthropological Surrey of India I received help and encouragements from a large number of Anthropologists of the Survey in writing different papers and among those I am specially thankful to Dr. A.K. Danda, Deputy Director, Udaipur Station, Rajasthan, Dr. P.K. Mishra, Deputy Director of Mysore Station, South India. Shri SG. Morab, Anthropologist of the Mysore Station and Shri K. N. Thusu, Anthropologist of the Central India Station, Nagpur.
In Indian Anthropology, now it is well known, that during the last twenty-five years, much progress has been made in the field of studying different dimensions of Indian civilization and a significant conclusion which has emerged from these researches, is this, that the four dimensions viz., the Tribal, Rural, Urban and Textual, of the Indian civilization have been identified, which finally go to unfold the underlying unity and continuity of Indian civilization. These four broad dimensions of the Indian civilization, are not to be visualised in isolation and are not separate from one another as a few critics have argued, but there is unifying bond among them and each one is interwoven and integrated with one another through several cultural linkages, which have been termed in the anthropological literature as "Cultural Continuum".
The genesis and function of an indigenous civilization, like India, has been conceived by Redfield (1955) as involving continued interaction between "Great and Little Traditions". According to him the intellectual influences those come from out side the village may be termed as "Great Traditions" and those come from the local areas, are termed "Little Traditions". Ho also introduced the term "Cultural Specialist" for such organised groups of people who mediate between great and intel traditions. A Little Community or the Peasant Society, according to him, is that social group, which perpetuates little traditions in relation to civilization (ibid.), and it may be distinguished from the isolated self-sufficient "Folk-Society" which Redfield conceived as an ideal type, in his book on "The Folk Culture of Yucatan" (1941).
However, unlike this "ideal folk society" as put forward by Redfield, we find in India that the so called folk society and the peasant society are in continuous interaction with the country wide "net-works" of Indian civilization. It, thus, may be argued that the urban dimension of a primary civilization like India, is intimately linked with, or is product of, elaboration and systematization of a core culture pattern believed in, and shared by, the people of Tribal and Rural peasant villages. In this way the Tribal, Rural and Urban dimensions, I believe, may be conceived collectively as these important pillars where the unity and continuity of Indian civilization rest firmly.
The tribal culture of India gives us an idea of the initial primive level of cultural raw materials which contributed to the development of Indian civilization and thus, may be called as a backward branch of traditional Indian civilization. A number of anthropologists and anthropologically oriented scholars have emphasised on the relation of tribal culture to the traditional Hindu cultural system, and among them mention may be made of Risley (1916), Hutton (1931, 1946), Roy (1922), O'Malley (1911). William Crooke (1911), Elwin (1957). Surajit Sinha (1957, 65, 75) and various Census Commissioners such as W.G. Laccy (1931) of Bihar and Orissa, W. H Shoobert (1931) of Central Provinces, Bradley Birt etc.
The contribution of the tribal cultures of India for the rise and development of Indian civilization may also be examined from the point of view of both textual and contextual levels. At the textual level we find the references of various tribes in the sacred Hindu scriptures such as the Epics, the Puranas etc..... For instance we get references of tribes in the Vishnu Puran, where the Khasa, a tribe of U. P., is said to be the daughter of Daksha, wife of Kashyapa and the mother of the Yakshas and the Rakshasas. Again in the Karna-Parva of the Mahabharata, the Khasas are referred to as the inhabitants of Punjab.
The most famous preference to the tribes in Indian antiquity may be found in the Valmiki Ramayana, where we are told how Rama and Lakshman, in course of their search for Sita, came to the bank of lake (or river) Pampa, where an aged Sabri, belonging to the famous tribe of Central India, offered her hospitality to them. Thus, textually, in the form of Sabri we get a glimple of the tribal contributions for strengthening the "Formative" phase of Indian civilization.
Hindu (889)
Agriculture (94)
Ancient (1021)
Archaeology (619)
Architecture (535)
Art & Culture (867)
Biography (600)
Buddhist (545)
Cookery (158)
Emperor & Queen (497)
Islam (237)
Jainism (275)
Literary (876)
Mahatma Gandhi (360)
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