Foreword Professor R. S. Sharma of the University of Patna was invited to deliver the first course of six lectures and to preside over the first series of two seminars, both organised by the U.G.C. Centre of Advanced Study in Ancient Indian History and Culture in December 1964. We are very glad to place Prof. Sharma's lectures in the hands of students interested in the early history of lndia. The proceedings of the corresponding series of seminars (on Feudalism and Land System of Ancient India ) are being published as a separate volume.

It is a pleasure for us to see the lectures printed in such a short time. For this achievement, we are indebted to Prof. Sharma and to the Pooran Press.

Preface The present book is based on a course of six lectures I delivered at the University of Calcutta in 1964 under the auspices of the Centre of Advanced Study in Ancient Indian History and Culture at the invitation of its Director, Professor Niharranjan Ray. I am grateful to him and the persent Director, Professor D. C, Sircar, who kindly organised these lectures and the discussions that followed them, and expedited the publication of this work. I wish to acknowledge my debt to Professor A. L. Basham, who has gone through the manuscript and pointed out errors, especially in regard to Indian shipping treated in Chapter VI; also to Dr. B. P. Mazumdar, who has read the whole stuff and suggested some references. My thanks are due to Dr. (Mrs.) Suvira Jaiswal and Dr. Dwijendra Narayan Jha for preparing the index and to Dr. Sita Ram Roy and Mr. Jagannath Mishra for correcting the proofs. Finally, I thank the Pooran Press for their unfailing co-operation.

As far as possible all long Sanskrit words or those joined by the rules of Samdhi have been separated by single hyphens, since double hyphens, desirable in many cases, were not available with the printers. Diacritical marks have not been always used in well-known proper names or in words of modern Indian languages. Appendix I repeats some matter dealt with in the main body of the book, but has been included here to bring out the peculiarities of the land system in a semi-aboriginal tract.

I am conscious of the difficulties besetting the study of feudalism in the Indian context. But it is a challenge which has to be taken up and a beginning made.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages