The four essays in this volume provide fresh insights into the beginnings of Indian history, once a straight forward story, now replete with complex and controversial arguments. Setting out the parameters of the problems involved, the essays look at four different aspects that have gone into the understanding of what is now called the Aryan and Aryan culture. Unpacking a range of new evidence–archaeological, linguistics, anthropological and historical–the book also argues for a comparative study of various societies that co-existed during the period and their mutual interactions. A major contribution to historiography, the book with essays by Romila Thapar, Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, Madhav M. Deshpande and Shereen Ratnagar, familiarises the reader with a broad spectrum of current scholarly discussions on the issue.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Romila Thapar
Romila Thapar was born in India in 1931 and comes from a Punjabi family, spending her early years in various parts of India. She took her first degree from Punjab University and her doctorate from London University. She was appointed to a Readership at Delhi University and subsequently to the Chair in Ancient Indian History at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, where she is now Emeritus Professor in History. Romila Thapar is also an Honorary Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford and has been Visiting Professor at Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania as well as the College de France in Paris. In 1983 she was elected General President of the Indian History Congress and in 1999 a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. Among her publications are Ashoka and the Decline of the Mauryas, Ancient Indian Social History: Some Interpretations, From Lineage to State, History and Beyond, Sakuntala: Texts, Readings, Histories and Cultural Pasts: Essays on Indian History as well the children's book Indian Tales.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Shereen Ratnagar
Trained in Indian and Western Asiatic archaeology, Shereen Ratnagar is the author of several books and academic papers on the Indus civilization, and on pastoralism and urbanism. She has also been investigating the sources of certain assumptions behind current archaeological interpretations, and has made interventions concerning the political abuse of archaeology. She taught for many years at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
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