Dwijendra Narayan Jha

Dwijendra Narayan Jha
Prof. Jha in November 2012
Born	c. 1940
Nationality	Indian
Occupation	Historian
Known for	Authoring books about Indian history

Dwijendra Narayan Jha is an Indian historian, specialising in ancient and medieval India. He was a professor of history at Delhi University and a member of the Indian Council of Historical Research.

Jha completed his BA (Hons.) in History at Presidency College of the University of Calcutta and then his MA in History at Patna University where he was a student of Professor R.S. Sharma.

Jha has repeatedly taken a position against Hindu nationalist ideology, arguing against what he claims is "communalism" and "saffronisation", especially during the 1998 to 2004 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of the Republic of India.

Works by D. N. Jha:

As editor:

Jha has received death threats over his book The Myth of the Holy Cow in which he outlines the practice of eating beef in ancient India as documented in Vedic and Post-Vedic texts. Since Hindus consider the cow holy, his book caused much controversy.

He has also spoken out against the changes in the context of the Californian Hindu textbook case.

Jha was accused by Arun Shourie of deliberate distortion of the facts behind the destruction of Nalanda University by Islamic invaders in 12th Century AD. Shourie accused Jha of selective lifting of sources, obfuscation and intellectual compromise. In a signed article in the Indian Express, Jha stated that Shourie was distorting what he had said, and that Shourie's allegations of plagiarism are baseless. Jha also criticized Shourie's book Eminent Historians, saying that it contains "slander" and "has nothing to do with history."