Author: D D Kosambi
Editor: Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 832
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195642392
Description
This important book puts together, for the first time, the many essays, notes and reviews which D D Kosambi, an acknowledged pioneer who introduced new perspectives and methods in Indological studies, wrote and published over a period of almost thirty years.
Accepted as a polymath, Kosambi was professionally trained as a mathematician, but in addition to researching in various fields of science, also contributed prodigiously to Indological studies, both as an editor of classical Sanskrit texts and as an interpreter of India's historical past. He was the first to use an interdisciplinary method in historical investigation, and to deploy his mathematical and scientific genius to the study of issues as wide ranging as the reading of ancient Indian texts to their context, numismatics, phi logy, religion, historical reconstruction, archaeology, and anthropology.
Professor Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya has brought together these writings in an effort to publish a comprehensive anthology. Despite their disparate themes, the essays reflect an integrated framework, which in Kosambi's own characterization, was Marxist. Many of Kosambi's seminal ideas were worked out in great depth in these scholarly articles; published in different journals, in India and abroad, most of them have long remained outside the reach even of experts. This book will enable readers to sample the versatility and breadth of Kosambi's work.
The recovery and publication of these essays is an invaluable contribution to the discipline. The book will have a wide readership which includes Indologists, historians, sociologists, Sanskritists, and social scientists.
COMPILER and EDITOR
BRAJADULAL CHATTOPADHYAYA is Professor at the Center for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He is the author of 'The Making of Early Medieval India'.
Contents
Introduction
Section II
CONCERNING METHOD
Combined Methods in Indology
Living Prehistory in India
On a Marxist Approach to Indian Chronology
Stages of Indian History
Section II
THEMES IN HISTORY
The Vedic 'Five Tribes'
Early Brahmins and Brahmanism
On the Origin of Brahmin Gotras
Development of the Gotra System
Brahmin Clans
Early States of the Caste Syst4m in Northern India
The Beginning of the Iron Age in India
Ancient Kosala and Magadha
The Line of Arthasastra Teachers
Kaniska and the Saka Era
The Working Class in the Amarakosa
Origin of Feudalism in Kasmir
The Basis of Ancient Indian History (I)
The Basis of Ancient Indian History (II)
The Autochthonous Element in the Mahabharata
The Avatara Syncretism and Possible Sources of the Bhagavad Gita
The Historical Krishna
The Study of Ancient Indian Tradition
Section III
ARCHAEOLOGY, EPIGRAPHY, NUMISMATICS and ETHNOGRAPHY
Pierced Microliths from the Deccan Plateau
Megaliths in the Poona District
Prehistoric Rock Engravings Near Poona
Staple Grains in the Western Deccan
Dhenukakata
The Buddhist Caves of Western India
Notes on the Kandhar Edict of Asoka
Indian Feudal Tradee Charters
An Inscription at Palasdev of Saka 1079
Asokan Pillar: Banaras Mystery
Scientific Numismatics
Indo-Aryan Nose Index
Section IV
TEXTS, WORDS, and LITERARY CRITICSM
On the Authorship of the Satakatrayi
Some Extant Versions of Bhartrhari Satakas
The Parvasamgraha of the Mahabharata
Parvasamgraha Figures for the Bhismaparvan of the Mahabharata
The Sanskrit Equivalents of Two Pali Words
The Text of Arthasastra
The Cinatamnisaranika of Dasabala
The Quality of Renunciation in Bhartrhari Poetry
Introducing Vidyakara's Subghasitaratnakosa
Section V
REVIEWS and REJOINDERS
The Emergence of National Characteristics Among Three Indo-European Peoples
Race and Immunity in India
Caste and Class in India
Geldner's Rgveda
Marxism and Ancient Indian Culture
What Constitutes Indian History
The Basis of Despotism
On the Development of Feudalism in India
Primitive Communism
Archaeological Review 1
Archaeological Review 2