Political History and Administration: C.200 BC- AD 750 (History of Ancient India, Vol-4)

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The present volume, fourth in the series, picks up the thread between the end of the Mauryan dominance and the growth of major regional powers around AD 750. This includes, on the one hand, the phase of the Kushanas who represent in a way the significance of the Oxus-Indus orbit in the course of Indian history and the resurgence of the Gangetic region under the Guptas on the other. We discuss also the development of Sangam literature and the ruling dynasties like Cholas, Cheras and Pandyas. Within this frame there were other political developments, each important in their own domain.

Dilip K. Chakrabarti is Emeritus Professor of South Asian Archaeology at Cambridge University and Dean, Centre for Historical and Civilizational Studies, VIF. He has a large number of research books and articles to his credit.
Makkhan Lal, taught at Banaras Hindu University and Aligarh Muslim University. He was a Visiting Fellow in Clare Hall, Cambridge University. He was elected member of the Executive Committee of World Archaeological Congress representing South Asia (1986-94) and also Academic Programme Co-ordinator and Treasurer of World Archaeological Congress-3 (1990-94). He is founding Professor-Director of Delhi Institute of Heritage Research and Management (established by the Government of Delhi) and a Senior Fellow at Vivekananda International Foundation. He has a large number of books and research articles to his credit.

Most authentic historical sources identify Indians as among the first to learn writing. The UNESCO has recognised Vedas as the 'first literary documents in the history of humankind," transcending beyond their identity as scriptures. It seemingly looks inexplicable that the people who had such an old and unbroken tradition of writing have relatively limited records available on the rise and fall of empires, chronicles of kings and kingdoms, military conquests and defeats etc. If history has to be seen and interpreted through the prism of physical and material events, the contention that there is an absence of historiography in India may have some justification. However, if history has to be understood as an elucidator of human societies as they existed in the past, their civilisational growth, intellectual attainments, development of institutions that governed and held them etc. then the argument of 'absence of historiography" would appear frivolous. It needs to be underlined that in the Indian intellectual tradition, all knowledge was a quest for truth and the truth was seen as something that was time and space consistent. Though relevant for their time and age, physical events were seen as transient and thus only peripheral to real knowledge. The writings thus centred around more sophisticated dimensions of human endeavour encompassing among other things the purpose of life, the rules that governed and influenced life, relationship of humans with nature, social dynamics etc.