Romila Thapar Biography 
Romila Thapar is an Indian historian. Her main area of study is all about India in the past. Her greatness as an alleged historian is recognized. Her works include the history about the Mauryas, the Guptas, the Chalukyas, the Rashtrakutas, the Cholas and Pandyas, the Vijayanagar Empire, etc.
She was born in the year 1931 and studied at the Punjab University. At the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London she obtained her doctorate degree in the year 1968. A. L. Basham was her guide there.
She started her career as a Professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University at New Delhi teaching the Ancient Indian History. She is the Professor Emeritus of the institution at present. She recorded the origins of Hinduism and the historiographies of the Gujarat temple. She worked about the Mauryan Empire and Asoka. In 1963, she worked out the decline of the Mauryan dynasty. This was her first historical work.
She wrote a volume that has the history of India from the early times known until the arrival of the European settlers in the 16th century B. C. She also wrote the Ancient Indian Social History in which she has compared her studies on the two religions Hinduism and Buddhism and their social systems. She also analyzed the role of Buddhism against the caste system of India.
She served as the visiting professor of the Cornell University at the University of Pennsylvania. She also worked as a professor at the College de France in Paris. In the year 1983 she served as the General President of the Indian History Congress.
She is an honorary member of the Lady Margaret Hall at Oxford and the Fellow of the British Academy in 1999. She got honorary doctorate from the University of Chicago, the University of Hyderabad and the University of Calcutta and from the University of Oxford.
She turned down the Padma Bhushan award from the Indian Government in 1992 and again in January 2005 stating that she would accept awards only that if only they were associated with her professional work and that she did not want any state awards.
Published: N/A
Updated: May 14, 2012
