Summary:
She said that neglecting Sanskrit sources comes from an ‘orientalist bias’ of considering Indian histories either non-existent or ‘unreal’. Professor emeritus Irfan Habib presided over the lecture session.Truschke explained the scope of historical research by analysing Sanskrit sources on Muslim incursions in India. Agra: Noted historian Audrey Truschke, assistant professor of South Asian history at Rutgers University in the USA, delivered a lecture on ‘Becoming Indian Kings : Sanskrit Literary Histories of Indo-Islamic Rule’ at the centre of advanced study, department of history in Aligarh Muslim University on Wednesday. These sources, according to her, depict different terminologies of references to the Ghurid dynasty.Truschke established the dangers of making histories as narratives of violence and bloodshed instead of focusing on cross-cultural interactions and promoting non-sectarian histories.The lecture was followed by a question-answer session. She pointed out that ‘kavya’ genre of Sanskrit literature is a substantial source for understanding Indian response to Muslim migrations of the 12th century.She further spoke about three sources – Jayanaka’s Prithvirajavijaya (1911), Gangadevi’s Madhuravijaya (1380) and Nayacandra’s Hammiramahakavya - on which her latest project is based..