What’s so great about the greats? July 24, 2021, 11:30 AM IST
An eclectic mind in a peripatetic body!
Alexander and Ashoka had more things in common than the first letter of their names. They were ambitious, ruthless, driven, cruel, murderous, egotistical, cunning and manipulative. They were also bestowed the title ‘the Great’ post-facto by historians and continue to be revered by generations of readers of school history textbooks. Historians have been clearly miserly with their bestowal of the ‘great’ title for reasons that appear to neither fair nor logical.
Consider India’s very long history. How many rulers have been given this rare ‘award’ by historians? Court chroniclers obviously do not count. Besides Ashoka the Great, we have, well, Akbar the Great; Kanishka is subjective. Apart from them, nary a ruler in the over two millennia have achieved that distinction. Not Chandragupta-Maurya or Vikramaditya-or Harshavardhan
Misleading points will be eliminated from the pages of history due to National Education Policy
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Expert Panel to A Fact Check on History Textbooks and Remove Misconceptions
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