This book provides a comprehensive and accessible account of the history of early India. The present book is based on a good portion of my Ancient India.

Book Contents

1. The Significance of Ancient Indian History
2. Modern Historians of Ancient India
3. Nature of Sources and Historical Construction
4. Geographical Setting
5. Ecology and Environment
6. The Linguistic Background
7. Human Evolution: The Old Stone Age
8. The Neolithic Age: First Food Producers and Animal Keepers
9. Chalcolithic Cultures
10. Harappan Culture: Bronze Age Urbanization in the Indus Valley
11. Identity of Aryan Culture
12. The Age of the Rig Veda
13. The Later Vedic Phase: Transition to State and Social Orders
14. Jainism and Buddhism
15. Territorial States and the Rise of Magadha
16. Iranian and Macedonian Invasions
17. State Structure and the Varna System in the Age of the Buddha
18. The Maurya Age
19. The Significance of Maurya Rule
20. Central Asian Contact and Mutual Impact
21. The Satavahana Phase
22. The Dawn of History in the Deep South
23. Crafts, Commerce, and Urban Growth (200 BC–AD 250)
24. Rise and Growth of the Gupta Empire
25. Life in the Gupta Age
26. Spread of Civilization in Eastern India
27. Harsha and His Times
28. Brahmanization, Rural Expansion, and Peasant Protest in the Peninsula
29. Developments in Philosophy
30. Cultural Interaction with Asian Countries
31. From Ancient to Medieval
32. Sequence of Social Changes
33. Legacy in Science and Civilization