Eminent historian and former teacher of Kiel University of Germany Prof Hermann Kulke today cautioned the historians here to be careful not to rely only on the argumentum ex silentio, the silence of their sources about much sought-after data.
Speaking on "Looking for Yayati Kesari: Reflections on Puri's temple chronicles" here during ongoing Indian History Congress (IHC), Kulke said tackling and analysing the predominantly undated and anonymous traditional accounts as historical sources pursues two different hermeneutic approaches.
"Traditional research focus on the verification or/and falsification of historicity of traditional accounts by rejecting possible historical facts with trusted historical facts. The second method is to detect the history and possible date of the text and to analyze cultural and socio-political environment of its construction and contestation," Kulke said while addressing delegates at the Odisha panel of IHC.
For the first time in the history of 78 years of IHC, the Odisha panel was set up here to discuss History and the Present: Rethinking Society, State and Region in Odisha'.
Earlier the Odisha Panel was inaugurated by Prof Kulke in presence of two MPs and two MLAs of the State.
Speaking on the occasion, Kendrapara MP Baijaynt Panda said Odisha history has been hugely "undiscovered" and called upon the historians to make sincere effort to address it saying "many of our archaeological marvels are not our history alone but they are our civilisation as well".
Cuttack MP Bhartruhari Mahatab quoting from the speech delivered by his illustrious 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.
