365bet娱乐

In the academic tradition, history is referred as the study of historicized past^[1] and the same is reconstructed by historian through employing records collectively referred as sources that the past had left.^[2] Broadly speaking, sources are divided into conventional and non-conventional categories. With regard to present thesis, which hinges around Trika Saivism, researcher has employed both the categories which the present chapter endeavours to discuss. The employment of diverse sources will not only help us to look into the religious milieu prior to the advent of Trika Saivism, but will also help us to interrogate critically various aspect of Trika Saivism like origin, development and impact, in a multi-dimensional way.

Conventional Sources:

This category mainly includes literary and archaeological sources of diverse nature. For the present study, literary sources both of primary and secondary nature have been employed. Apart from them, archaeological Remains in the form of sculptures, monuments and numismatics have also been drawn upon.

Archaeological Sources:

With regard to the archaeological operations in Kashmir, like the other regions of India, explorations have surpassed excavations of sites. Whatever archaeological Remains we have in different varieties are mostly retrieved through explorations than excavations. Besides these two processes, artefacts collected from individual possessions have also added to this branch of knowledge. This archaeological data at present is preserved by Archaeological Survey of India in the form of various archaeological sites, further, various museums within and outside India have given safe shelter to the artefacts of Kashmir.^[3] Pertaining to the religious history of Kashmir鈥檚 ancient past, archaeological sources in the form of monuments, sculptures and numismatics are of great help.

Footnotes and references:

[back to top]

[1]:

See, Keith Jenkins, Re-thinking History (U.K: Routledge, 2003).

[2]:

E Sreedharan, A Textbook of Historiography:500 B.C. to A.D. 2000 (Hyderabad: Orient Black swan, 2004), 3.

[3]:

These include the museums like S.P.S museum (Srinagar, J&K, India), National Museum of India (New Delhi, India), Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond, U.S.A), British Museum (London), Los Angeles County Museum of Arts (California, U.S.A), Cleveland Museum of Art (New York, U.S.A) etc.