Indian History Online Courses | BharatVidya by BORI

BharatVidya × Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute

Study Indian History, Source by Source

Bharatvidya's self-paced online courses from the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute span the full spectrum of India's history and heritage = IVC, the Vedas, the epics, the dynasties, and the classical age, to the tradition as it is still practised. Each course is taught by a scholar from the primary sources. 

A survey of Indian history has to be assembled from many kinds of record, because the tradition kept its history in many forms: hymn, epic, law code, manual of statecraft, medical treatise, temple wall. This page arranges the catalogue along that line. Eight stages, each with the period it covers, the kind of source it reads, and the courses that read it.

The sequence is a map, not a rule. Every course stands on its own, assumes no prior training, and carries a BORI certificate of completion. Learners who want the shape of the whole will find it in the order below. Learners who want one thing can go straight to it.

Evidence on Ground Before the texts

Archaeology and Geography

History begins with where and how. Archaeology recovers what no text recorded, and geography fixes where the texts happened. Two courses that make everything after them legible.

The Tradition c. 1500 to 500 BCE

The Vedic Tradition

The oldest layer. The Rigveda's hymns, the literature that grew around them, and the Upanishads that turned their questions inward. Carried by voice for well over two thousand years before writing became its usual vehicle.

"ItihasA" The epic, composed c. 400 BCE to 400 CE

Epics

The tradition's own word for history, applied to its longest text. A war between cousins and some 89,000 verses of argument about what a person owes to family, kingdom and truth. Read here on the critical edition BORI spent forty-seven years establishing.

Civilisational Record c. 600 BCE to 300 CE

Ancient Indian Systems of Dharma, Governance, Law and Economy

The rise of kingdoms and empires, and the literature that told rulers how to run them. Kautilya on revenue, espionage and diplomacy; the Dharmashastra on law and its interpretation; the dynasties themselves, read from inscription and coin.

Culture and Society c. 300 to 1200 CE

The Classical Literature, Medicine, Mathematics, Sciences and Arts

Philosophy sorted into schools, drama at its height, medicine and mathematics written as systems. The centuries in which the record becomes a library.

Trade and TEmples c. 200 BCE to 1300 CE

Trade, Geo-politics and Temples

The record in built form: temples as documents, Ellora carved from a single hill, and the routes along which goods, monks and ideas crossed the frontier in both directions.

Begin with the Chapter You Have Always Meant to Read

Every course on this page is open now, self-paced, with lifetime access.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Twenty-seven separate courses, arranged in reading order. Each is enrolled in and certified on its own. The pathway is a map, not a bundle.

No. Every course is self-contained and assumes no prior training. The order follows the chronology of the sources, for anyone who wants the shape of a survey.

From the Harappan cities and the Vedic age, through the classical centuries, to the Maratha state of the 17th century. Most of its weight is on ancient and classical India.

Scholars affiliated with the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune, founded in 1917. They teach from primary texts, inscriptions and sites.

Yes. BORI issues a certificate of completion for each course you finish.

Courses are priced between roughly ₹300 and ₹3,500, paid once, with lifetime access. Most are taught in English; those taught in Marathi are marked on this page.

Academic. The courses are taught by scholars, built on primary sources, and framed as history, literature and philosophy. They are open to learners of any background.