The history of India from the inception of the Gupta empire to the age of Harsha, has attracted the attention of modern scholars from the beginning of Indological studies. It is generally regarded as the Classical Age or Golden Age of Indian history. But the attitudes of modern historians to this period have differed greatly. Specially in recent years Marxist historians have painted the image of this period with quite a different brush – suggesting entirely different contours and using altogether different colours. This monograph by Dr. Shankar Goyal, who is fast emerging as one of the recognised authorities on ancient Indian historiography, makes an indepth study of the changing image of Classical or Golden Age of Indian history. No other work dealing so exhaustively with the changing attitudes and approaches of scholars on the history of this period has so far been produced. It is, therefore, bound to become an indispensable work for researchers, teachers and students alike.
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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