What are the advantages and disadvantages of archaeological and literary sources?



Advantages of archaeological sources
 
1)  It is one of the primary form of finding evidence and information about our ancient past as they are buried for a long period of time. Example : Archaeologists came to understand that a highly sophisticated and developed civilization flourished in our country through Harappa and Mohenjadaro sites
 
2)  They have provided historical evidences to epics like Mahabharata that is; submerged city of Dwaraka was found by great efforts of historians
 
3)  Several monuments have been discovered with the help of archaeologists and they been preserved for understanding cultural heritage of our country
 
Disadvantages of archaeological sources
 
1)  Climate plays a vital role in the destruction on these archaeological finds as humid climate make them either rust or make them difficult to detect and as such, only structures made out of burnt bricks, stones are found
 
2)   Archaeological excavations are very expensive because whole region has to be excavated or dug if useful evidence of the past is available in part of the region
 
Advantages of Literary sources
 
1)  Written records provides the best knowledge about our past as they are preserved in the form of books, archives
 
2)  They are written by scholars, and hence, great literary sources like Upanishads, Vedas provide the base for making a good society, and Puranas highlight the life of people who lived in the past
 
Disadvantage of literary sources
 
1)  These literary sources are written on palm leaves, bark of trees etc which were considered as soft materials
 
2)  As a result they would be destroyed or damaged in due course of time, and they had to be manually copied
 
 
 

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The difference between archaelogical sources and literary sources are that the archaelogical sources include writings in the pillars ,on the caves walls,clay tablets, boulders and literary sources also include writings but in the form of books such as Kalhana's Rajtarangini.

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