Progress ot human civilisation is closely linked up with the development of material culture which enriches the life of the people. There are, no doubt, works invistigating into the material culture of the people of a particular period or a particular region based on literature, sculpture or archaeological data independently. There, however, hardly exists any work aiming at tracing the development of material culture of India as a whole with the help of all these three sources taken together. The present work has attempted to meet this need to a certain extent. The work goes back to the period when iron came to be used first on a large scale for manufacturing implements, tools, weapons and other objects of daily use and is stretched upto A.D. 300 which is considered as the beginning of the golden age of Indian history. The vast data available in various excavation reports has been arranged chronologically and analysed under different catagories like architecture, house-hold objects, dress and ornaments, games and amusements, tools and weapons, food and drinks, conveyance and trade routes with a view to trace their antiquity and development during this period. This material is amply corroborated by the- contemporary literary and sculptural evidence.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Malati Mahajan
Dr. Malati Mahajan who retired as lecturer from the Post Graduate Teaching Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology of Nagpur University, Nagpur is the student of the same department. She passed her M.A. examination in first division and was awarded Motilal Nehru centenary prize for standing first in order of merit. She was the recipient of the U.G.C. fellowship while working for her Ph.D. thesis under the guidance of Dr. S.B. Deo. After Ph.D. she worked as research assistant with Dr. S.B. Deo and completed the work of translation of the "Topographical List of Inscriptions found in Maharashtra and Goa". Again I the same capacity she worked with Dr. Ajay Mitra Shastri and completed the Project "Dictionary of Place names from Inscriptions found in Maharashtra and Goa". She has participated in some all India conferences of Place Name Society of India and presented good number of research papers on different aspects of Cultural and Historical Geography of ancient Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh which have been widely appreciated. She was elected as General President of the Thirteenth All India Annual Conference of Place Name Society held at Udupi (Karnataka) in April, 1992. She is the author of books, Development of Material Culture in India (Based on Archaeological evidence corroborated and supplemented with evidence from other sources); Cultural history of Maharashtra and Goa from Place Names in Inscriptions found in Maharashtra and Goa; Madhya Pradesh-Cultural and Historical Geography from Place Names in Inscription and Chhattisgarh- A Geography from Place Names in Inscriptions.
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