THE PRESENT VOLUME is a collection of nineteen papers read at the eleventh Annual Conference of the Institute of Historical Studies, convened at Kolhapur in 1973. We regret the delay in bringing out the publication. This has been largely due to the fact that one or two papers in their revised and final shape did not reach us in time. This is perhaps a not wholly uncommon experience in dealing with the compilation of a corporate project. But we are glad that the papers arrived not too late to enable us to present the volume on the lines originally planned.
The principal theme of the Conference which now appears as the title of the volume was Historical Biography in Indian Literature. In a sense it is a companion to the volume entitled History in Modern Indian Literature published in 1975. While the objective of the earlier volume was to survey, in a general way, historical ideas and concepts as found in the literature of modern Indian languages from the eighteenth century to the present day, the aim of the present work is to trace and assess in depth the growth of a branch of literature in the main Indian languages from the earliest to the modern times, in so far as it concerned biographies of historical importance. It is also not entirely unconnected with the other earlier publication, viz., Historical Writings of the Nationalist Movement (published in 1977). The latter attempted a rapport between the historians and the litterateurs in so far as both contributed to the growth of the concept of nationalism in India, the present volume, as said earlier, aims at assessing the nature and character of the branch of Indian literature from the earliest to modern times dealing with biographies in general. The three titles are thus a sort of trilogy and they complement one another in specific ways of their own.
It hardly needs to be stressed that a biography is more than a mere exercise in literature; it is more often than not also a branch of history. Biography as such, is or can be as much a part of literature as it is of history, if only it is based on well-ascertained data and presented in an objective manner, as far as practicable. In other words, a biographical work may be categorised, for practical purposes, as a historical biography if it meets the demands and fulfils the attributes of history.
It is true that the art of writing biography has undergone radical changes since the days of the classical writers. Under-stand ably enough, the approach and treatment of a biography of to-day are basically different from those adopted in the ancient and Middle Ages. A modern biography, unlike the one conforming to the classical pattern, is not didactic in approach and does not aim at "teaching a lesson", magnifying some definite norm of conduct. It is not surprising that a standard biographical work of to-day, while broad-based on the research and integrity of orthodox scholarship does not rule out the demands of artistic and imaginative presentation primarily with a view to ensuring its readability. But then one cannot get away from the maxim that there is always a larger place for chronicle in a biography than creation. A historical biography is not worth its name if it does not attempt first to reconstruct the life of an individual it chooses as its subject on the basis of unimpeachable evidence, and second to interpret and assess the impact of the personality on the age to which it belongs, or for that matter, the influence of the age and environs on the making of the individual whose life-story it delineates. It is an exacting task by any standard.
Like any other branch of literature or of history, historical biography has passed through a long process of evolution. Such a process has necessarily varied from country to country, and from age to age. Its forms have been many and varied to suit the changing concepts of the age and the source of patronage behind the literary-cum-historical (?) venture. The nomenclature of 'historical biography' is thus found to have been applied indiscriminately to extensive objects-mythological, religious and even legendary, presented in a pronouncedly didactic or panegyric manner. It took many years for the proper attributes of historical biography to emerge and develop.
Hindu (930)
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Mahatma Gandhi (380)
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