DataBase

To make sense of scat­tered knowl­edge and sources of his­tory, is to first organ­ise it in a mean­ing­ful form. The sheer num­ber of sites, records, pub­li­ca­tions, research — old and new – is so huge and scattered that it would take decades just to gather and make sense of it. An Indian His­tory Data­base sys­tem is imper­a­tive. Data­base that is defined specif­i­cally for the Indian con­text — his­tory, con­cepts, fields of art and archi­tec­ture, would enable a more, deeper, wider and faster research.

Indian History Database

Our sources of his­tory are vast and scattered mainly in the form of literature, both ancient and modern, and archaeological remains comprising of mon­u­ments, ruins and inscrip­tions. Much of this infor­ma­tion has been recorded in reports, gazetteers and pub­li­ca­tions of the Archae­o­log­i­cal depart­ments orig­i­nat­ing from the time of the British colo­nial rule. More knowl­edge is scat­tered in sep­a­rate local pub­li­ca­tions, stud­ies, papers and books. And even more lies hidden, buried under numerous mounds yet to be exca­vated, recorded and stud­ied. New research con­tin­ues but again, is hardly acces­si­ble. With­out an inven­tory it is a slow and mam­moth task to research any topic. Com­par­a­tive stud­ies are almost impos­si­ble unless lim­ited to selected sites. The scenario, therefore, is overwhelmingly depressing and leaves much to be desired.

We are devel­op­ing data­bases in the spe­cific con­text of Indian his­tory and archaeological sites to enable faster, accu­rate and acces­si­ble research into Indian his­tory and heritage.

Inventory Database (direct sources of history)

This data­base is focused on archaeological remains mostly seen as ruins or monuments. The database captures details of a site in a meaningful form, to enable querying specific attributes or aspects of a site or a region. The query can yield results in time ranges or without time ranges.

History Database (direct and secondary sources)

The history database tries to bring all things of a particular person, event or place – published or known otherwise – into proximity. This enables tracing the sources of knowledge (authentication), comparison and analysis to chart out sequence and relationship of historical facts – events, places, people and personalities.

Documentation Database (secondary sources)

Many sites and places have been documented by different people at different times – old British records, ASI department reports, independent architects, institutions and even public created content (photos, local stories heard from grandparents). The documentation, methodical or otherwise, depicts the site, structure, landscape or artefact in question. If this scat­tered infor­ma­tion can be con­sol­i­dated and made acces­si­ble, it will pro­vide valu­able insight and help tar­get newer doc­u­men­ta­tion in a more use­ful manner – avoid repetitions and focus on portions lacking documentation.