How do historians reconstruct the lives of ordinary people?
When we look into the sources of the past ordinary people has rarely left any account of their life's experience or thoughts. Hence it becomes very difficult for the scholars to construct their life, however scholars have tried various methods to understand ordinary people by:
1. Examining stories contained in anthologies such as the Jatakas and the Panchatantra. Although stories this tales tends to tell us lots about the ordinary people.
2. Different types of foodgrains and animal bones have been found during excavation. It gives us information about dietary practices of people.
3. Remains of houses and pots inform us about their daily and household life.
4. There is a mention of different types of crafts and craftsmen on certain inscriptions. It is a very good source of knowing economic life of people.
5. Some inscriptions and scriptures inform us about king-subject relations, different types of taxes and miseries or happiness of people.
6. Changing agricultural tools and equipments throw some light on changing life of ordinary people.
Discuss the evidence of craft production in early historic cities. In what ways is this different from the evidence from Harappan cities?
Describe the salient features of Mahajanapadas.
Compare and contrast the list of things given to the Pandyan chief (Source 3) with those produced in the village of Danguna (Source 8). Do you notice any similarities or differences?
List some of the problems faced by epigraphists.
