Author: Romila Thapar
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 556
ISBN/UPC (if available): 071399407X
Description
This history of early India has a unique grandeur and importance. The allure and excitement of its ancient legends, the sheer longevity of its ancient legends, the sheer longevity of its civilizations, the evocative historical sources and monuments that remain and its overwhelming significance for Eurasian history as a whole make it one of the cornerstones of human experience.
This definitive work brings to life thousands of years of Indian history: its prehistoric beginnings; the great cities of the Indus civilization; the emergence of mighty dynasties such as the Mauryas, Guptas and Cholas; the teachings of the Buddha; the writing of the heroic epics the Mahabharata and the Ramayana; the development of states and regional cultures that are the foundation of India today. The book introduces figures ranging from the remarkable and visionary ruler Ashoka to other less exemplary characters. In exploring subjects as diverse as marriage, class, art, erotica and astronomy, Romila Thapar gives an incomparably vivid and nuanced picture. Above all, she shows that there is no master narrative here, but rather a rich mosaic of diverse kingdoms. Landscapes, languages and beliefs.
Romila Thapar is among those who have given a new direction to Indian history. The author of the early India volume in the original penguin History of India, here she returns to the topic she has made her own. Informed by a generation of extensive research, not least her own, Early India should become a standard work on this endlessly fascinating subjects.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Note on the Bibliographies
Chronology: c. 1000 BC-AD 1300
Introduction
Perceptions of the Past
Landscapes and Peoples
Antecedents
Towards Chiefdoms and Kingdoms: C.1200-600 BC
States and Cities of the indo-Gangetic Plain: c. 600-300 BC
The Emergence of Empire : Mauryan India; C.321-185 BC
Of Politics and Trade: c. 200 BC –AD 300
The Rise of the Mercantile Community: C.200 BC-AD 300
Threshold Times: c. AD 300-700
The Peninsula: Emerging Regional Kingdoms; c AD 500-900
The Peninsula: Establishing Authorities and Structures; c A D 900-1300
The Politics of Northern India: c.AD 700-1200
Northern India: Distributive Political Economies and Regional Cultures; C. A D800-1300
Maps
Glossary
Select Bibliographies
General Bibliography
Index