In the era of independence India has produced a large number of eminent historians. They are easily divisible into two categories – those who carried on the indigenous tradition of the pre-independence period, and those who developed the theory and tools of Marxist approach to Indian historiography. In the present work its author Dr. Shankar Goyal has studied eminent historians of both the schools. From amongst those who represent the flowering of the Indian tradition he has selected such great names as Professors R.C. Majumdar, V.S. Agrawala, G.C. Pande, V.S. Pathak, S.R. Goyal, Ajay Mitra Shastri and Lallanji Gopal while from the second category, he has emphasised on the contribution of Professors D.D. Kosambi, R.S. Sharma, Romila Thapar, D.N. Jha and V.K. Thakur. Dr. Shankar Goyal, who is fast emerging as an authority on Indian historiography, has not only given a short life-history, account of academic journey, contribution to learned bodies, etc. of each of them but has also provided an authoritative analysis of their approach to history alongwith a critical survey of their works. Thus, the present monograph seeks to give a complete picture of the life, personality, historical vision and contribution to indology of each of the historians included in it. We are sure that it will be greatly welcomed not only by the teachers and students of historiography, but also by the general readers who are interested in knowing about the present Indian masters of historians craft.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Shankar Goyal
Dr. Shankar Goyal (b. 1959), the young and ebullient author of the present monograph, is emerging very rapidly as one of the recognized authorities on the historiography of ancient India. He has already produced three monographs dealing with some aspects of ancient Indian history writing viz. History and Historiography of the Age of Harsha (Jodhpur, 1992), Aspects of Ancient Indian History and Historiography (New Delhi, 1993) and History Writing of Early India (Jodhpur, 1996). He has co-edited a number of works with such eminent scholars as Professors G.C. Pande, B. Ch. Chhabra and Jagannath Agrawal which are directly or indirectly concerned with this discipline, including Political History in a Changing World (Jodhpur, 1992), Reappraising Gupta History (New Delhi, 1992) and S.R. Goyal: His Multidimensional Historiography (New Delhi, 1992). He has also-co-edited several other monographs with Shri M.C. Joshi and Dr. Sobhag Maghur which include King Chandra and the Meharauli Pillar (Meerut, 1989), Spectrum of Nehru’s Thought (New Delhi, 1994) and Rajasthan Bharati, in two volumes (Jodhpur, 1995) and authored more than seventy research articles. His research output in a period of less than six years has been stupendous, and its originality and quality superb, as is evident from the reviews of his works appearing in national and international journals. Dr. Shankar Goyal did his graduation from the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, post-graduation from the Deccan College, Pune, and Doctrate on Main Trends in Indian Historiography Since Independence from the University of Jodhpur, Jodhpur, where he is presently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of History.
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