The present volume may be judged on two levels. On the first level, it deals with the beginning and the current status of archaeology in the Indian university system, focussing primarily on the author’s own experience as a long-standing teacher of the subject. It also outlines the author’s personal background and early academic roots, hoping to give an idea of the types of students who were drawn to archaeology in India in its early phase. There are also notes on his professional experience in the Indian universities he has served. It should be possible to assess on the basis of these notes the general state of affairs in the historical studies section of the Indian universities. On the second level, this book offers a detailed review of the development of various ideas, research themes and field-projects in Indian archaeology over the last fifty years with special reference to the author’s own work. Indian archaeological writings have seldom been concerned with the historiography of ideas and research themes, and from this point of view the present book may be considered a reasonably elaborate examination of how archaeology has developed as an academic discipline in the Indian university framework.
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