Methodology

Generally, there are three accepted methods of educational research viz. the historical method, the survey method, and the experimental method. Since this study attempts to explore the impact of vedic culture on society during the early and early medieval period, the historical method has been considered most suitable. In the present survey we have mainly utilized the data supplied by the early and early-medieval Sanskrit inscriptions found in Northern India. The process involves investigating, recording, analyzing, and interpreting the events of the past for drawing generalizations that are helpful in understanding the past, understanding the present scenario, and to a limited extent, in anticipating the future.

The selection of relevant data is important as the success of research depends on the validity of the information collected. As the title suggests, this study draws information from Sanskrit records found in northern India. And in order to give more legitimacy to that information, the records obtained in northern India issued by dynasties belonging to other parts of the country have also come under discussion.

Review and analysis of the internal and external evidences have been done during this work. The presentation of facts in a readable form involving problems of organization, composition, exposition, and interpretation have also been examined with extensively used primary sources viz. edited Sanskrit inscriptions, books, newspapers, reports, published documents, periodicals, and journals and websites. It is not possible to obtain primary evidence all the time, and therefore at times, the historians have to rely on secondary sources (the sources of information transmitted by one who was neither a participant in nor an eye witness to the original event). The validity of secondary sources may be questioned at times. Attempts have been made to cross-check such documents as may not be reliable and to make the study more objective by consulting other contemporary documents.

Analysis of available data arranged chronologically is essential for historical writings; however, they may be also be organized according to the theme or topic. The method suited for this study is sometimes a combination of both. Attempt has been made in this study to arrange the materials chronologically as much as possible. In some cases, however, the chronology had to be ignored for the sake of maintaining focus on certain concepts.

In a very few cases in the ‘Notes and References’ section of the thesis, it was not possible to provide all the information during citation due to missing pages and pages without page nos of original sources. ‘Ē/ ē’ is used for enlonged ‘ए (e)’, especially in South India and also some other symbols such as Ō/ō are used, but we have followed the transliteration as per the ‘Transliteration Table’ given prior to this chapter. Along with the personal collection, in most cases, Copyright-free images have been downloaded from Google Images and used in the thesis.

In the writing portion of the whole thesis, Times New Roman font size 12 has been used, but in the case of notes and references and quotes, font size 11 has been used. Although, Chapter titles and sections, larger font sizes have been used. 1-inch margins on the top, bottom, and right sides of the page and for ease of reading after binding, the margin on the left side has been kept 1.5-inches. In the case of Referencing and Citation Bibliography, the MLA 8th edition has been followed. Although it is unnecessary to give the name of the Publishing Place as per the 8th edition, it is mentioned in the Citation Bibliography section according to the old rules. In the case of proper nouns, capital letters and their adjective form small letters have been used which is applicable for all English and non-English words. Places that need to be italicized have been followed in all other cases except headings. And diacritics have been used in accordance with the standard rules throughout the thesis.