'Women in the past had agency, were powerful'

For much of history, the story of the 'past' has been monopolised by men, which is why it's a relief to hear women talk about it. "I have been trained in the craft of writing, for academics, fairly impenetrable prose weighed down by footnotes," said Devika Rangachari, during the session, 'From Mauryas to Mughals', on the first day of the Times Litfest.
"But it's important as a historian to convey the past in an engrossing way. Because, the main purpose is to show that history can be fascinating and alive."
Making the past accessible is as important to Rana Safvi as it is to Rangachari. "When I was a teacher, I made sure that everyone in my class would understand the history that was being taught. I took that training into my writing while still retaining the tools for academic writing," Safvi, who specialises in early-modern and modern history, told the audience.
Indeed, the best histories are stories that are engagingly told, and the best historians are also storytellers. This is even more critical today when too many are picking up historical 'facts' from social media. "I write in the narrative form because I want to reach out to the maximum number of people, to write history that is accessible for those who haven't studied it," Safvi said.
Rangachari, author of 'The Mauryas', spoke captivatingly about Bindusara, the lesser known of the Mauryas and father of Ashoka, while Safvi shared how she ultimately figured out - after a search that took her to Srinagar, Boston and back to Delhi - the poet behind the 'Agar firdaus bar ru-ye zamin ast...' verse that is inscribed in the Diwan-i-Khas of Delhi's Red Fort.
Here indeed was history being brought alive, and the historians just happened to be women. They were thus well-placed to comment on the recognition (or lack thereof) given to women down the ages. "Women in the Mughal era had agency, were very powerful, and influenced the decisions that were made in court," reminded Safvi.
"Women in the past always had agency, though this would be time- and context-specific," Rangachari stressed, adding that between being praised as saviours or disparaged as destroyers, their life stories were for the most part ignored. Now, historians like Rangachari and Safvi are filling in the blanks with a wealth of autobiographical detail, and a keen and questioning eye.