From the time it was first discussed in the 1960s, no other aspect of the iron age in India has attracted so much attention and generated such vibrant debate among historians and archaeologists as the relationship between iron technology and social change. This volume, the seventh in the debates in Indian history and society series, focuses on all major issues surrounding the debate and identifies and situates their proponents in the historiography of ancient India. The book is divided into three parts. The first two sections focus on the formulation of iron-surplus-complex society thesis, the new insights and alternative possibilities deriving from the continued debate. The last section provides novel perspectives from regions lying outside the Gangetic plains–Northern India, Central India, Kathiawar, and Tamil Nadu. Sahu discusses key arguments in his introduction and their complexities, in the process delineating changing perspectives, historiographical shifts, and emerging concerns. This volume includes essays by eminent historians and archaeologists like D.D. Kosambi, R.S. Sharma, Niharranjan Ray, Dilip K. Chakrabarti, D.P. Agarwal, Rajan Gurukkal, and Shereen Ratnagar. It will be a significant read for students, scholars, and teachers of ancient Indian history, Indian archaeology, anthropology and history of science.
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