Relocating the Past: Aspects of Indian History, Culture and Archaeology is a sincere endeavour in which meticulous effort has been made to trace out and relocate various aspects of Indian history, culture and archaeology. The papers compiled in this volume represent several facets of Indian historical tradition, covering a wide spectrum of subjects such as archaeology, urbanization, trade and commerce, maritime activities, art and architecture, cultural ethos, women issues and gender studies, historical geography, land and land grants, literary traditions, economic aspects, famines and droughts, power dynamics and political under-currents, history and historiography, cult of Jagannath, socio- religious reform movements, Gandhian studies, freedom movement, tribal studies, folk culture, etc. Though the essays are diverse in nature and content and cover an assorted range of topics that start from the Harappan Civilization till the independence of India and even depict the post-partition scenario, still they shed ample light on recent developments in the study of Indian history, culture and archaeology. The volume has tried to create the harmony among manifold historical theories and narratives in order to reach a common goal, i.e., the creation of a coherent system of understanding the human experience. The volume will be very helpful to the students, scholars, researchers and teachers who are pursuing research and are interested on various facets of Indian history, culture and archaeology.

Benudhar Patra (M.A., UGC-NET, M. Phil, Ph.D. and D.Litt.) is presently teaching in the P.G. Department of History, Post Graduate Government College, Sector-11, Chandigarh (UT). His field of specialization is Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology. He has been teaching history for the last 32 years. He has to his credit six reference books and more than 140 research papers which have been published in various journals of national and international repute and in some edited books. He is a member of more than a dozen Academic Societies and Professional Organizations. He has comp- leted two Research Projects sponsored by UGC. Five students have been awarded Ph. D. degrees under his supervision. His publi- cations include Studies in the Heritage, History and Archaeology of Orissa (Kolkata, 2008), Dalits in Historical Perspective in North-Western India (ed.) (Delhi, 2010), Maritime Trade and Overseas Activities of Early India: Odishan Perspective (New Delhi, 2013), New Horizons in History and Culture (ed.) (Delhi, 2015), Early Maritime Contacts of Odisha with Indonesia and Sri Lanka (Delhi, 2017) and Revisiting the Arthashastra of Kautilya: Text, Context and Contemporaneity (Chandigarh, 2023). His fields of research are maritime history, urban history, agrarian history, gender history, state formation, art and architecture, histori- ography and the Cult of Jagannath.

It gives me immense pleasure to learn that a compendium is being published to felicitate Professor (Dr.) Lakshmi Narayan Raut, a well-known historian from Odisha and a personal friend of mine, who has superannuated from the Department of History, Berhampur University, Odisha. With his major contribution in medieval Odishan history, Professor Raut taught history for more than three decades and supervised a generation of students in their research on various aspects of history.

The present work entitled, Relocating the Past: Aspects of Indian History, Culture is a sincere endeavour in the honour of Professor Lakshmi Narayan Raut, a distinguished scholar who Archaeology, made significant contributions in the field of history. In the work, meticulous efforts have been made to trace out and relocate various aspects of Indian history, culture and archaeology. The papers compiled in this volume represent several facets of Indian historical tradition, covering a wide spectrum of subjects such as archaeology, urbanisation, trade and commerce, maritime activities, art and architecture, cultural ethos, women issues and gender studies, historical geography, land and land grants, literary traditions, economic aspects, famines and droughts, power dynamics and political under-currents, history and historiography, cult of Jagannath, socio-religious reform movements, Gandhian studies, freedom movement, tribal studies, folk culture, etc. Though the essays are diverse in nature and content, and cover an assorted range of topics that start from the Harappan Civilization till the independence of India and even depict the post-partition scenario, still they shed ample light on recent developments in the study of Indian history, culture and archaeology. The volume has tried to create the harmony among manifold historical theories and narratives in order to reach a common goal, i.e., the creation of a coherent system of understanding the human experience. The present anthology is, indeed, a befitting tribute to Professor Lakshmi Narayan Raut, an erudite scholar par excellence on Indian history.