Itihasa made itihasya...

The need to study temples (Pardon formatting errors...) (My response to my earlier blog on temples... .) One of the major problems with teaching of Indian history for children is that they find no physical bearing of the past in their lives. Hence for many children history, which is largely taught in the four walls of the classroom, is a big bore. While past remains with us in so many aspects, material and non-material, for children it is important that they see, hold, and feel the past manifest in coins, artifacts, sculpture and temples. Hence visits to medieval temples and forts becomes an important entry point for taking the children into the past. The word entry point is to be noted since study of temples should not become an end in itself. It is important that, as many middle school textbooks do, not to burden the children with details of temple planning, execution, temple sculpture etc.

Well...snaps of temples in Badami and Aihole picked from different websites.Leading my students from TVS School, Tumkur in 1999 (where my romance with history and history teaching really began) into this grand rift in the sandstone hillock of Badami, with the (slimy looking as you can see in the second picture, run in by a temple ) Agastayar lake providing a visually appealing setting, my interest in temples were aroused (no, I did not come across any erotic sculpture) which continues to ignite my passions... These stately temples, spread across Badami, Aihole and Pattadakal, are all distinguished by different shapes, sizes, designs, and in my opinion defied canonical traditions of temple building. The Chalukyas were no doubt experimenting with form here before evolving their distinctne style as evidenced in the temples in Pattadakkal. Want to say something more on how temples can be taught meaningfully in classrooms. Comments invited... The first snap on the top is one of the four cav

This in response to my earlier blog 'what is good history teaching' all about... Ms Srivastava’s intention and passion is indeed laudable. It’s just that she is not up-to-date with recent researches in history which helps to make history more inclusive, broadbased, helps in answering questions which are central to the present. Modern historiography has helped us to see the changes and continuities which otherwise escapes our attention. Without such an understanding, to say we learn from the past, or that history repeats itself, is a meaningless or an empty statement. We need to understand the past in all its complexities. Otherwise it’s just information delivery on kings, administration, art etc. Historical knowledge today is equated with the amount of information we have about the past (which is again political). Information in itself does not become knowledge. Knowledge has to fathomed through a dialogic process in which these different aspects of the past (i.e. the informati