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Because of their size, elephants have long been irresistible for kings as symbols of eminence. In early civilizations-such as Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus civilization, and China-elephants were used for royal sacrifice, spectacular hunts, public displays, and their ivory-all aspects driving them toward extinction. The kings of India, however, Thomas Trautmann shows, found a use for elephants that actually helped preserve their habitat and numbers in the wild: ...
Arthashastra (literally, ‘the science of wealth’) is a study of economic enterprise; specifically, Kautilya’s treatise advises the king on the business of creating prosperity. This ancient text provides a fascinating window into the social and economic structures of the time, and into the intricacies of statecraft-for the Arthashastra also addresses the question: what makes a good leader?
This book is intended to be an introduction to the ...
Did the Sanskrit-speaking Aryans enter India from Iran or Central Asia, or were they indigenous to India and authors of the Indus Civilization? This question is central to the debate that has informed Indian history writing, and has been strongly contested in public discussions for over a decade. This volume brings together a selection of significant writings since the eighteenth century to illustrate the historical development of `The Aryan Debate'. In a lucid ...