Historical Archaeology of India

The most neglected aspect of Indian archaeology is the archaeology of the historical period. Although some historical sites were excavated before 1947, they were neglected in the post-independence period as the attention was concentrated more on protohistoric settlements. When historical levels were encountered in excavations, they had to be removed because the main objective was to reach the protohistoric strata. The present study, however, brings into sharp focus the importance of historical archaeology. The literature on historical archaeology of India is almost non-existent save a couple of works which, however, deal more with urbanization. The present study is the only of its kind which covers all the aspects of historical archaeology from Ca. 1000 BC to 1800 AD. It is a complementary volume to the author’s Indian Protohistory (1997).