History of Ancient India (From the Earliest Times to 1206 AD)

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This study by J.L. Mehta & Sarita Mehta presents a concise account of the political history and culture of ancient India from the earliest times to the beginning of the thirteenth century A.D. It gives a descriptive, critical and analytical survey of ancient India or the 'Hindu Period of James Mill's classification. The narrative portrays a compact picture of the evolution, growth and development of the Indian culture and polity in chronological sequence. It shatters the contention of the earlier European writers and the medievalist chroniclers that ancient India had 'no history properly so- called'. The 'Indo Aryans', the pioneers of Vedic civilization and culture, were made out as foreign invaders, and the pre Muslim India was summarily disposed off as 'the dark age' of Indian history, characterized by numerous dynastic and tribal states, absolute monarchies, feudalism and political anarchy. Modern researches have exploded most of these myths and fallacies to set the record straight. It is now generally accepted that the Rigvedic Aryans comprised an indigenous cultural group and not a racial stock, they were the proud inheritors of the indigenous Harappan culture, and roots of the Rigvedic society and culture lay deep into the Neolithic and Chalcolithic ages, which flourished in the fertile valleys of the great river systems of Sindhu, Saraswati and Ganga of the northern plains. The authors have made a judicious use of the extensive researches done by all those savants the historians as well as archaeologists, whose works have been cited in the body of the book and included in the bibliography. While claiming no 'originality' in the treatment of the subject, they have made a modest attempt to reorganize and reinterpret the historical data through clear and illuminating expositions, refreshing characterization of historic personalities, and objective assessment of events and movements so as to make the narrative readable but authentic. The subject matter is being presented in the form of a textbook for the benefit of young scholars and students of colleges and universities.

Our publication, entitled, History of Ancient India, was brought out (HB edition) by the Lotus Press Publishers & Distributors of 4263/3. Ansari Road, Darya Ganj, New Delhi, very recently, but on account of enthusiastic entrepreneurship and strenuous efforts of its Proprietor, A.J. Sehgal, and his illustrious son Saurabh Sehgal, it has reached every nook and corner of the country and made its presence felt among the scholars and lovers of the subject in such a short span of time. To meet the ever-increasing demand of the postgraduate students and the general reader, the Publishers have sought our permission to bring out its low-priced paperback edition to our great delight. We wish them Godspeed in this enterprise.

As repeatedly emphasized by us in our writings. Indian historiography is essentially an Islamic heritage. The ancient Indian scholars and sages cared more for the religious, moral, spiritual and philosophical aspects of human development and took little interest in historiography or secular studies. The Muslim ulama and the writers, on the other hand, had a keen sense of history; being the men of this world, they valued their material possessions and strove hard to multiply their worldly gains. Accordingly, as in the 'rest of the world', their chroniclers took great pride in recording the exploits of their religious-cum-political leaders in their wars of aggression against the The Hindu and Buddhist infidels and idolators of India' for military conquests and 'the glory of Islam'. To them, the pre-Muslim India belonged to the dark age of Indian history, about which they were least interested to know anything.

'India that is Bharat' is the proud inheritor to one of the oldest and most influential civilizations of the world. In the remote past, it was called Bharat or Bharatwarsha 'the land of the descendants of Bharata' after the name of an ancient Indian tribe of the Vedic period or lengendary emperor of the Epic age. The term 'India' itself is a legacy of her past contacts with Persia (Iran) and Europe. It is derived from the Sanskrit word 'Sindhu'. The Persians, because of their phonetic problem, pronounced the letter 'sa' of the Sanskrit alphabet as 'ha', and called the river Sindhu as Hindu. In the course of time, the word Hindu began to be used for the inhabitants of the country, and the latter received the nomenclature as 'Hind' from the Arabs and Hindustan from the Turkish invaders during the medieval period. From Persia, the word Hindu passed to Greece. Interestingly, the Greek soldiers and camp followers of Alexander the Great, during his invasion of India (326-323 B.C.), had found difficulty in pronouncing either of the words - Sindhu or Hindu, and, instead, coined the word Indos for the river Sindhu and also for the country through which it traversed, and its inhabitants were referred to as Indoi, the people who inhabited the land of the river Indos. The English equivalent to the Greek word Indos (Latin Indus) was India. Similarly, the Greek adjective to indicate something pertaining to the region was Indikos (Latin Intic), which was equivalent to the English adjective 'Indian'. Accordingly, it were the European merchants and missionaries of bygone days, particularly the Englishmen, who gave the word 'India' for this country. After the discovery of sea route to India in 1498 A.D., the Portugese and other European merchants usually referred to the Indian Peninsula as a part of the East Indies while the term India was reserved for the mainland of the Peninsula.

**Contents and Sample Pages**