Indian Thought Through the Ages

By B. G. GOKHALE, M.A., PH.D.

Summary

In the rendered pages — the front matter plus the opening of Chapter One — B. G. Gokhale frames Indian Thought Through the Ages (1961) as a historian’s attempt to trace nine ‘dominant concepts’ that have shaped Indian thinking across the centuries, rather than a conventional political history or a survey of Indian philosophy. The preface (printed pp. vii–viii) sets out the scheme: a chapter on the Indian view of history, then chapters on the three classical aims of life (Dharma, Artha, Kama), on Karma and Punarjanma and Samsara, on authority and freedom, on war and non-violence, and a closing essay on ‘Man Perfected’ (Uttamapurusha). Gokhale stresses that he treats these not as metaphysical abstractions but as ‘living and changing ideas’ that influenced ordinary lives, and he flags the questions that animate the book — among them whether Indian ‘spirituality’ explains economic backwardness, and the economic and political implications of caste enshrined in the concept of Dharma.

Chapter One (‘Thus It Has Been: The Indian View of History’), the only body chapter visible in the rendered pages, argues that ideas — not merely material conditions — are the threads that bind societies and drive historical action, drawing on Goethe, Napoleon, Collingwood, the Buddhist Dhammapada, and repeatedly on Ludwig von Mises. Gokhale then confronts a difficulty: ancient India, for all its scientific achievement, produced almost no critical historiography, with the Puranas offering genealogy rather than history and only Kalhana’s Rajatarangini approaching a critical historian’s standard. In the rendered pages the chapter is building toward an account of why historical awareness was weak in a civilisation otherwise rich in mathematics, astronomy and engineering.

Key points

• In the rendered pages the book is framed as a historian’s study of nine ‘dominant concepts’ in Indian thought, not a political history or a philosophy survey.

• The preface lays out the nine concept-chapters: the Indian view of history; Dharma, Artha, Kama; Karma/Punarjanma; Samsara; authority and freedom; war and non-violence; and ‘Man Perfected’.

• Gokhale insists on treating these concepts as living ideas shaping real lives, and raises whether Indian ‘spirituality’ and caste-as-Dharma bear on economic backwardness.

• Chapter One argues that ideas, not material conditions alone, are the binding threads of society and the engine of historical action.

• It leans heavily on Ludwig von Mises’s view of history as the study of human value-judgements and action, alongside Goethe, Napoleon and Collingwood.

• It contends ancient India produced little critical historiography — the Puranas give genealogy, not history — with only Kalhana’s Rajatarangini approaching critical standards.

• The scanned copy carries Central Archaeological Library, New Delhi accession stamps (acc. dated 31/5/61).

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