Eminent historian Professor Hermann Kulke on Sunday cautioned historians here to not rely only on argumentum e silentio — conclusions based on the absence of historical data rather than their presence.
Speaking on “Looking for Yayati Kesari: Reflections on Puri’s temple chronicles” here at the 74th session of the Indian History Congress (IHC), Padma Shri awardee Professor Kulke said analyzing predominantly undated and anonymous traditional accounts as historical sources pursues two different hermeneutic approaches.
“Traditional research focuses on the verification or/and falsification of the historicity of the traditional accounts by detecting or rejecting possible historical facts with trusted historical facts. The second research method is to detect the history and possible date of the text and analyse the cultural and socio-political environment of its construction and contestation,” Professor Kulke said, while addressing the delegates attending the Odisha panel here.
For the first time in the history of the IHC, the Odisha panel was set up to discuss ‘History and the Present: Rethinking Society, State and Region in Odisha’. More than 20 papers would be presented in this panel over the next two days.
Earlier, this panel was inaugurated by Professor Kulke in the presence of two MPs and two MLAs of the State.
Speaking on the occasion, Kendrapara MP Baijaynt Panda said Odisha history has been largely “undiscovered”. He called upon historians to make sincere efforts to address this issue. “Many of our archaeological marvels are not our history alone but our civilization as well,” he said.
Cuttack MP Bhartruhari Mahatab, quoting from the speech delivered by his father Harekrushna Mahatab during the IHC session held here in 1949, said: “Study of Odisha history should not end as history chapters do not end.” The senior Mahatab, who was instrumental in holding the 12th session of IHC here, had said: “If I am permitted to say so, I should think that the study of the history of Orissa has just begun and I do not know how and where it will end.”
Papers on the Kali Bhagavata text, the inscriptions of Ranabhanjadeo, the Changing Contours of Odishan Historiography, and Archeological Heritage, Society and Literature in Pre-Colonial Odisha were presented, among others.
