On History and Historians

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On History and Historians

Vyāsa and Sanjaya

History as a field of study is primarily a retelling in an another time & place of events, contexts, motivations of characters of a time long gone, from a perspective which is by definition alien to the teller of said history. The ideal position to “tell” history should be that of Vyāsa or Sanjaya.

For Vyāsa, as someone who has transcended the vagaries of ego and desire is able to enter into the skin of characters. In him we find the poet most lucid, reflecting limpidly the configurations and distortions of the characters he seeks to portray. So, Vyāsa first.

And then Sanjaya. For he is gifted with a vision, a divine sight, that sees what is, and which he narrates as he sees it. Not recollected from memory but seen. A smaller version perhaps of the Divine Sight, the mystic seeing that Sri Krishna confers to Arjunā.

These two alone, Vyāsa and Sanjaya, in all spoken and written literature, are competent to speak and write history. And given their antiquity, the first true historians. From all others, what we receive is hearsay, a rumour travelling through muddled minds and hearts, or a spring wind gathering fragrances pell-mell as it wafts through garden and gutter.

Picture Courtesy Syamarani Dasi via SanjayJha108