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The peninsular edge of the central plains has revealed early neolithic strata representing rice-
producing communities. IL ktade full responsibility for any annoyance this may cause. On the basis
of the Malla Sarul copperplate inscription, he analyses the archaeology of early medieval rural
settlements in western Bengal. Please do not send details or photos of the person sleeping rough as
we cannot create an alert based off information provided to this email address. The activities of the
Trust show how the initiatives of two dedicated people—the founder, Veena Sachdev, and her
colleague, Anshu Dogra, who is now the executive director of Manana—can make a difference. As
one provides east and south the type becomes progressively rarer. But there is no reason to believe
that the rate of change in India in earlier times was any slower than that of other parts of the world.
There are essays on individual and institutional initiatives in the production of archaeological
knowledge; surface surveys as a means of reconstructing the archaeological history of micro-regions;
subsistence practices and palaeoenvironments of macro-regions; and the use of material remains to
recreate variegated religious landscapes. Together, the twin discourses of nationalist critique and
Marxist approach became important contributory factors for a heightened interest in the economic
aspects of India's historical past. Parallel with this expansion in the ambit of economic thinking, one
can see an expansion of the domain of economic history in recent times. This was taken during
Professor Chattopadhyaya's stint as head of the department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and
Archaeology at visva bharati, Santiniketan (1978-80). By editorial design, a trait common to all the
essays in this volume is that they try to address new and developing areas of study in the discipline
of history. The Mother Goddess, after centuries of neglect, l became an important object of worship
again. He brings in Chattopadhyaya's formulation of 'autonomous spaces' to argue from his sources
that village communities, corporate institutions and guilds were not alternative but parallel centres of
authority. The Urdu language, little used hitherto as a medium of literary expression, become the
vehicle of great poetry at the decadent courts of Delhi and Lucknow; while in the Himalayan foot-
hills,at the end of the century at the petty courts of local maharajas, by some unexplainable miracle,
there worked the nineteenth century the subcontinent was exposed to the full force of h western
influence, and innovations are too numerous to list. He was an editor of Sanskrit texts and of
inscriptions. You can select express shipping while checking out on the website. The sikh religion was
born just as this period began, as a small devotional sect, and at about the time when the period
concluded it was reborn as a martial brotherhood,, to play an important part in the confused political
life of the following century. However, as there is continuing demand for this volume, covers the
period 1935 to 1985, I have decided to say a few words about recent research by way of an
Introduction to the present volume. The present series organized by the ICHR provides a forum, but
the opinions expressed by the authors are their own. Other social scientists seem to see little reason
to look beyond the paradigm they are developing in the present times. First I must thank Dr.
Ragahavan Iyer, for collecting the first drafts of several chapters before he relinquished his
editorship. As a result, orders may take an extra 10-14 days for fulfilment. More recently the India
state of Mysore has become Karnataka and several small hill-states have been detached from the
former Assam. The discovery of such portable images from places situated along the Silk Road
trading routes confirms that these images were carried by the merchants, travelers, lay followers and
probably by the monks too, thus playing a great role in the dissemination of Buddhism form
Gandhara to central Asia and China. By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of
service and privacy policy. Wild and cultivated varieties of rice have been identified at rock shelter
sites and at sites situated in the Ganga alluvium, along with a broad spectrum of wild vegetal food.
Composed of deep silt carried down by the rivers Indus (Sind, Sindhu) and Ganga (Ganges) these
plains are naturally very fertile, but for centuries they have supported a dense population, whose
peasants used the most easily available form of manure, cow-dung, as fuel. Who else, apart from
Professor Thapar, could write so well about the erudite contributions of the great scholar we honour
today. Though we never sat in his class, we were enriched each time we engaged with him on various
issues of historical concern or even otherwise.
You can select express shipping while checking out on the website. The former region also developed
a five school of miniature painting. As a result, orders may take an extra 10-14 days for fulfilment.
That critique of colonialism was, by and large, limited to the nationalist public spokesmen, and it
filtered down to the groves of academe only much later. As a result, orders may take an extra 10-14
days for fulfilment. Its Contributors included some of the ablest specialists of the time and several of
its fifteen chapters are as valid today as they were at the time of writing. The activities of the Trust
show how the initiatives of two dedicated people—the founder, Veena Sachdev, and her colleague,
Anshu Dogra, who is now the executive director of Manana—can make a difference. These are,
moving from east to west, China, the Indian subcontinent, the 'Fertile Crescent', and the
Mediterranean, especially Greece and Italy. One, a series of volumes on historiography, consisting of
articles in different areas of historical study, written by specialists commissioned by the ICHR; and
the second, comprising courses of lectures 'Workshops on Research Methodology' conducted across
India, wholly funded by the ICHR and occasionally hosted by the local university, with a large
component of historiographic lectures by recognized leaders in the field of their specialization. The
present series organized by the ICHR provides a forum, but the opinions expressed by the authors
are their own. As a result, orders may take an extra 10-14 days for fulfilment. THE recording of
ancient legends and traditions in the Puranas began. However, before they were co-opted by the
Archaeological Survey, both these scholars were active members of the Varendra Research Society,
established at Rajshahi in 1910 by Kumar Sarat Kumar Ray of the Dighapatiya royal family. The
presence of Stone Age sites on the hillsides of Delhi first came to be recognized in the 1970s, and
since then their pervasive presence has been underlined through surface collection and excavation.
Such similarity does not exist in reference to any other text. (Vedic Age)This is followed by the
“Brahamanas” or theological prose testimonials; the “Aranyakas,” containing the meditations of the
woodland hermits and the “Upanishads” the secret doctrines. (Navone, 1956). These are the first
tentative Indian philosophy which has been the foundation for later development of the values and
the beliefs of Hinduism through ages. When the original Legacy was published the whole of the
region of South Asia, with the exception of Nepal, the foreign affairs of which like India was part of
the British Empire, was clearly and unequivocally India. For instance, the trajectory of cultural
development in eastern Uttar Pradesh clearly differs from the manner in which village cultures in
Bihar evolved. It has been recognized as the sound platform on which the pillars of Hinduism has
evolved. Courtly literature began developing out of vanished prototypes: drama, ranging from the
heroic to he sentimental, and verse, wonderful in its polish and ingenuity yet often filled with deep
and sincere e feeling. Except along the coast and in a few other specially favored areas, there is little
or no rain in other seasons, and thus the life of almost the whole subcontinent depends on the
monsoon. In doing so, historians also examined the nature of religious identities and their role in
shaping the contours of societal developments in our past. Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Social
Science Research (ICSSR) stole a march over the ICHR in this regard and I myself contributed to it.
The format also differs depending on whether it was issued by an overlord or a samanta. They
posited that Indian cultural past was essentially composite in nature and different communities lived
side by side in a spirit of syncretism. As the author of the essay on that theme points out, as an
academic specialization, Dalit studies is only in its incipiency. He was also the first Indian president
of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (in 1885), and the first cataloguer of the entire range of objects in
the possession of the Society. Trivedi has also made the first discovery of petroglyphs in the Aravalli
belt of Delhi, and while they are difficult to date, their spatial contiguity to microlithic scatters
suggests that they may have been contemporaneous with microlith-using communities. Each author in
this collection has enjoyed full freedom to express his or her views, including judgements about
historians, dead and living. In accordance with Chattopadhyaya's critique of the urban decay
phenomenon Ryosuke Furui's essay 'Agrarian Expansion and Rural Commercialization in Early
Medieval North Bengal' contests the model of urban decay andmakes a case for the
commercialization of rural society accompanying the expansion of sedentary agriculture and agrarian
settlements all of which saw another phase of progress from the ninth century onwards in north
Bengal. He has also been Visiting Professor and Member of the Doctoral School VI of the Paris IV-
Sorbonne University.
Together, the twin discourses of nationalist critique and Marxist approach became important
contributory factors for a heightened interest in the economic aspects of India's historical past. There
was heightened interest in the issue of economic under-development-which led to a search for the
historical roots of economic backwardness. Military history is by no means a new area of research,
but the quantitative output in that field has made it one of the emerging specializations. Phyllis
Granoffdelves into the world of Buddhist story literature and explores the way of thinking of
traditional Buddhists a propos this genre in her essay 'Birds, Babes, and Bodhisattvas: Truth and
Fiction in the Life of the Buddha'. This was taken during Professor Chattopadhyaya's stint as head
of the department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology at visva bharati, Santiniketan
(1978-80). Wild and cultivated varieties of rice have been identified at rock shelter sites and at sites
situated in the Ganga alluvium, along with a broad spectrum of wild vegetal food. He has published
11 books, edited 6 others, and published 150 articles in reputed international journals. For reasons not
very clear to me, in the intervening years no further effort was made in this direction. In social life
and material culture the same period saw the crystallization of the four classes ( varnas ) of Hindu
society, the production of iron from western Asia, the domestication of the elephant, and the
development of kingdoms out of tribal chieftainships. Knowledge of Historiography is, so to speak,
taken for granted our scholars plunge into research. Hererodox teachers, chief f whom was the
Buddha, spread new doctrines which by passed the gods, the Vedas, and the Brahmans, and the area
of civilization steadily expanded into the remote parts of the subcontinent. To enable them to draw
upon what has gone before, therefore, Historiography has been an important component in the
historians' tools and methodology. By now, this collection and its companion volumes have all gone
out of print, but it seems there is still a demand for them. For Later 100% 100% found this
document useful, Mark this document as useful 0% 0% found this document not useful, Mark this
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Search inside document. But it is completed at last, and the result is offered to the reader, not
without some misgiving, in the hope that he will accept it as a sincere attempt on the part of the
contributors and the editor to explain India's heritage from the past, and the world's heritage from
India. The history of pre-modern technology and the maritime history of ancient India are two such
areas surveyed in this volume. From the Vedic Aryans came many of the gods, the Vedic hymns,
some of the most important personal rituals of Hinduism, the partiarchal and patrilineal family
system, and the horse. Composed of deep silt carried down by the rivers Indus (Sind, Sindhu) and
Ganga (Ganges) these plains are naturally very fertile, but for centuries they have supported a dense
population, whose peasants used the most easily available form of manure, cow-dung, as fuel.
Courtly literature began developing out of vanished prototypes: drama, ranging from the heroic to
the sentimental, and verse, wonderful in its polish and ingenuity yet often filled with deep and
sincere feeling. They posited that Indian cultural past was essentially composite in nature and
different communities lived side by side in a spirit of syncretism. Sahu demonstrates how the content
and context of the text provided us with insights into contemporary socio-cultural patterns and
practices of the Odia society. This change was reflected in the new emphasis on the 'quality of life'
which is now commonly used as an index of development, side by side with conventional growth
indices like the GDP. The annual sessions of the Indian History Congress are invariably attended by
senior historians, who provide guidance to young researchers in their endeavours. Such similarity
does not exist in reference to any other text. (Vedic Age)This is followed by the “Brahamanas” or
theological prose testimonials; the “Aranyakas,” containing the meditations of the woodland hermits
and the “Upanishads” the secret doctrines. (Navone, 1956). These are the first tentative Indian
philosophy which has been the foundation for later development of the values and the beliefs of
Hinduism through ages. The very fact that contributions have been received from four of the five
continents, (and one contributor now works in the fifth, Africa) is surely evidence in itself of the
importance of India in the world today. Nevertheless it took us four long years to give the book final
shape for some reasons which were at times beyond our control. Temples became larger and grander,
with spring towers. From the Mauryas also come the earliest surviving stone sculpture of India, the
oldest artificial caves, and the most ancient Buddhist stupas. His study is, in fact, an exposition of
what has emerged from essentially a one-man survey of the roughly 1,500 acres of the Aravalli hills
enclosed within the campus of Jawaharlal Nehru University. The late Professor H. G. Rawlinson's
sympathetic chapter on India's cultural influence on the western world remains, but it is now divided
into two and is brought up to date by a German scholar who has a special study of the subject of the
subject.
Phyllis Granoffdelves into the world of Buddhist story literature and explores the way of thinking of
traditional Buddhists a propos this genre in her essay 'Birds, Babes, and Bodhisattvas: Truth and
Fiction in the Life of the Buddha'. It has been recognized as the sound platform on which the pillars
of Hinduism has evolved. Historians on the other hand, tend to depend on the cumulative process of
the development of their craft and the fund of accumulated knowledge. It was a democratic system
where the King ruled with the consent and the approval. The first volume in the series, Approaches
to History: Essays in Indian Historiography brings to the readers the first fruits of that endeavour.
The history of pre-modern technology and the maritime history of ancient India are two such areas
surveyed in this volume. The religious life of India, for all her 'ancient wisdom', has changed greatly
over the centuries. The contribution of Martin Briggs on Indian Islamic Architecture is also kept,
purged of several pages of discussion of matters which were once controversial, but are new no
longer so. Professor Romila Thapar and Dr Gouriswar Bhattacharya have beholden us by responding
immediately to our request. It was no longer a 'Legacy', and so, not too immodestly I hope, it was
decided to call the book A Cultural History of India. Mitra was the author of many works, including
two major studies on the art and antiquities of Orissa and Bodh Gaya, and many antiquities he
collected from these areas were donated by him to the Indian Museum, Calcutta. The rainy season
brings problems of another kind—almost constant heavy rain, floods destroying thousands of lives,
rivers changing their courses, epidemics, and stinging insects, some of which carry the germs of such
diseases as malaria and elephantiasis. The first section of the book is devoted to a personal
reminiscence, write ups on his contributions and a list of books and papers published by him. Perhaps
this is the first publication where a threefold geological division of the Delhi region and its
ramifications for understanding the site formation and the weathering of prehistoric artefacts has
been undertaken. While the author is entitled to his opinion, the point remains debatable. To this end,
it brings out an edited volume containing selection of the research articles presented at various
sessions. All returned items must be in new and unused condition, with all original tags and labels
attached. In its multi-pronged activities, the Congress is perhaps one of the few organizations in
India to provide a research and publication forum. More recently the India state of Mysore has
become Karnataka and several small hill-states have been detached from the former Assam. Please
do not send details or photos of the person sleeping rough as we cannot create an alert based off
information provided to this email address. You can select express shipping while checking out on
the website. While the essays encompass areas of research presently at the frontiers of new research,
scholars will also find the bibliographies accompanying the essays of significant appeal. An
altogether new interest an economic history was generated when, after 1947, researchers began to
address themselves to the issues raised by Naoroji or Dutt or M.G. Ranade. you may also recall a
global trend that emerged in the process of decolonization in the 1950s and 1960s in Asia and Africa.
The 'wisdom of the East', unchanging over the millennia, it was thought, preserved eternal verities
which Western civilization had almost forgotten. THE recording of ancient legends and traditions in
the Puranas began. Bose’s essay clearly underlines that no one culture or one society can claim to be
the harbinger or pioneer in the creation of a strong agricultural base in this area. Meanwhile, since the
mid-1950s the Marxist approach too gathered acceptance in the academic world of historians as an
important factor in the explication of Historical development. When, in 1935, Sir Shafa'at Ahmad, in
his Presidential Address at the founding session of the Indian History Congress said that 'economic
history is almost a virgin field; he was referring to an area of research that has begun to attract many
young researchers. Thus villagers fiave learnt to co-operate independently of their rulers, by forming
their own village government, under a committee of locally respected leaders, the panchayat, to care
for matters of common concern such as irrigation, and to settle disputes as far as possible outside the
royal courts. As a result, orders may take an extra 10-14 days for fulfilment.
This period (c. 320-185 BC) produced the Machiavellian system of statecraft associated with the
name of the minister Kautilya, the reputed author famous Arthashastra. Yet, while this is
acknowledged in the practice of research. The reasons why some of these stone tools bear a red stain
while others are marked by a yellow-brown patination are discussed, as is the cause for differential
abrasion on their surface. For Later 100% (1) 100% found this document useful (1 vote) 1K views 2
pages Research Paper Format For Scientific Research Journal of India Uploaded by bhaskar5377 AI-
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Jour. Only nineteenth-century scholarship resurrected them from oblivion, and if they are now
national heroes, remembered by every schoolchild in their respective lands, this is not thanks either
to the historical genius or to the retentive folk memory of the countries concerned. This demand
necessitated circulation of imported cowries-shells as a medium facilitating vigorous exchanges. In
fact, it is the meticulous selection of essays and rigorous editing of the volumes that has given cause
for the University Grants Commission to recognize these Proceedings to the level of a referred
journal for the purposes of granting Promotion to college and university teachers under the Career
Advancement scheme. The region, less naturally fertile than the great plains, has been for at least
2,000 years the home of tough martial peasants who, whenever energetic leadership appeared to
consolidate their clans, would take advantage of the political weakness of their neighbours to raid
the wealthier lands to the north, south-east, and south. Alongside, this volume carries a very
comprehensive study of Sikhism and the Sikh community. You can select express shipping while
checking out on the website. In the agenda of economic historians, the problems uppermost have
been the policies of the colonial state, the impact of metropolitan capitalism on colonial trade and
industry, and in particular the evolution of land revenue systems in various regions. What makes this
survey distinctive is the way in which one individual (Trivedi) has successfully extracted unknown
dimensions of the prehistory of this landscape through a careful and meticulous surface exploration.
The rainy season brings problems of another kind—almost constant heavy rain, floods destroying
thousands of lives, rivers changing their courses, epidemics, and stinging insects, some of which
carry the germs of such diseases as malaria and elephantiasis. The annual sessions of the Indian
History Congress are invariably attended by senior historians, who provide guidance to young
researchers in their endeavours. That is not to say that these factors were not important in earlier
literature but new research in recent years was much more focused on these aspects. Their respect
and love for Professor Chattopadhyaya is reflected here. The diversity of cereal varieties—rice,
wheat, barley, millet, pulses—is interesting in itself, as is the presence of several other plant species.
Persian and Arab married Indian women, and the descendants have become indistinguishable front
he rest of the population. Alongside, this volume carries a very comprehensive study of Sikhism and
the Sikh community. Heterodox teachers, chief of whom was the Buddha, spread new doctrines
which bypassed the gods, the Vedas, and the brahmans, and the area of civilization steadily
expanded into the remoter parts of the subcontinent. The civilization of the Guptas was different
from that of the Mauryas, and that of medieval times was different again. For instance, Ganesa and
Hanuman, are not attested until well after the time of Christ. Contact with South East Asia became
closer with the spread of trade, and that region began to adopt many features of the religion and
culture of India. The discovery of such portable images from places situated along the Silk Road
trading routes confirms that these images were carried by the merchants, travelers, lay followers and
probably by the monks too, thus playing a great role in the dissemination of Buddhism form
Gandhara to central Asia and China. Military history is by no means a new area of research, but the
quantitative output in that field has made it one of the emerging specializations. For Later 100%
100% found this document useful, Mark this document as useful 0% 0% found this document not
useful, Mark this document as not useful Embed Share Print Download now Jump to Page You are
on page 1 of 2 Search inside document. Who else, apart from Professor Thapar, could write so well
about the erudite contributions of the great scholar we honour today. They also explore the complex
interrelationship between ideas, norms, and sociopolitical practice. His study is, in fact, an exposition
of what has emerged from essentially a one-man survey of the roughly 1,500 acres of the Aravalli
hills enclosed within the campus of Jawaharlal Nehru University. In the attempt to fill these and to
produce an even more comprehensive survey, it became increasingly clear that what was emerging
could not be contained under the original title.
Hence the fertility of the plains declined, until by the end of the last century many areas had reached
a rock bottom of productivity, from which they have begun to emerge only recently, with the
introduction of artificial fertilizers and the spread of knowledge of better agricultural methods.
Military history is by no means a new area of research, but the quantitative output in that field has
made it one of the emerging specializations. The annual sessions of the Indian History Congress are
invariably attended by senior historians, who provide guidance to young researchers in their
endeavours. That brings me to the point that needs to be made before I conclude. Perhaps this can be
one of a series of publications which showcase the ideas and research of a younger generation of
scholars working on different aspects of the history of ancient and early medieval India. An
altogether new interest an economic history was generated when, after 1947, researchers began to
address themselves to the issues raised by Naoroji or Dutt or M.G. Ranade. you may also recall a
global trend that emerged in the process of decolonization in the 1950s and 1960s in Asia and
Africa. Along the west coast of India and Ceylon an a appreciable quantity of Portuguese blood
circulates in the veins of the general population, while elsewhere in India the so-called Anglo-Indian
community is the result of many marriages and liaisons between European (not only British) soldiers
and traders and Indian woman. He argues for the need to look at the issue of land rights in terms of
the hierarchy of rights rather than one group, individual or authority having exclusive or absolute
right over land. All returned items must be in new and unused condition, with all original tags and
labels attached. As a result, orders may take an extra 10-14 days for fulfilment. Temples became
larger and grander, with spring towers. To this end, it brings out an edited volume containing
selection of the research articles presented at various sessions. The greatest exponent of Vedanta was
Shankracharya, he referred to a definite system and defined doctrines differentiating from the other
similar systems. The most radical divergence of Vedanta was its teaching that the world originated
from a single principle. (Navone, 1956). Similarly, deep-seated social and political factors in South
Asia have imparted a new significance to the history of the tribal communities which had been
marginal to mainstream history earlier. In its multi-pronged activities, the Congress is perhaps one of
the few organizations in India to provide a research and publication forum. Readers who are
interested may consult that review of literature. This was a common feature of ledvya literature and
must be seen as kthiya's important intervention in the discourse of artha and rajadharma. Early Indian
History and Beyond is a tribute to Professor B.D. Chattopadhyaya's profound scholarship by a
community of well-known scholars, his former colleagues, and students sharing his enthusiasm in the
field of Early Indian history. However, before they were co-opted by the Archaeological Survey,
both these scholars were active members of the Varendra Research Society, established at Rajshahi in
1910 by Kumar Sarat Kumar Ray of the Dighapatiya royal family. Keeping in view their usefulness
and steady demand among scholars as well as students, the Executive Committee of the 71st Session
of the Indian History Congress, at University of Gour Banga, Malda, West Bengal, decided to
reprint the three volumes, possibly with a new introduction by their respective editors. Knowledge of
Historiography is, so to speak, taken for granted our scholars plunge into research. The Muslims
altered conditions considerably, and the high flowering of Indian Muslim civilization under the four
great Mughals brought yet more changes. IN fact every generation in India, for over 4,000 years, has
bequeathed some-thing, if only a very little, to posterity. Professor Romila Thapar and Dr Gouriswar
Bhattacharya have beholden us by responding immediately to our request. New schools of miniature
painting, both Muslim and Hindu, emerged. The 'wisdom of the East', unchanging over the millennia,
it was thought, preserved eternal verities which Western civilization had almost forgotten. He has
published 11 books, edited 6 others, and published 150 articles in reputed international journals. The
reasons why some of these stone tools bear a red stain while others are marked by a yellow-brown
patination are discussed, as is the cause for differential abrasion on their surface. The author of the
survey of research in military history in this volume mourns the general lack of interest in India in
military history, which he attributes to the attitude of 'Left-liberal academicians'. Logically reasoned
philosophical schools emerged, as distinct from the older religious teachers, most of whose
arguments were analogical.
The discovery of such portable images from places situated along the Silk Road trading routes
confirms that these images were carried by the merchants, travelers, lay followers and probably by
the monks too, thus playing a great role in the dissemination of Buddhism form Gandhara to central
Asia and China. Most importantly, the interleaving of the Delhi quartzite rocks with sediments that
represent deposits of aeolian sands from the Thar is discussed at length, as are the implications of
this for the artefacts that are scattered across this surface. However, a few points might be added to
the agenda statement I have already made in respect of this new series. Readers who are interested
may consult that review of literature. Our authors have shown immense patience all these years
waiting for this publication to see the light of the day. There was heightened interest in the issue of
economic under-development-which led to a search for the historical roots of economic
backwardness. As is almost inevitably the case with large collaborative works, composed by
contributors scattered across the world, the task took longer and proved more arduous than I had
expected. A part of the Oxford India illustrated Collection that brings together writings of enduring
value, this book combines the rich content of the original volume with complementary visuals to
capture the interest of younger readers who may associate history with 'boring details about the past'.
We begin this section with P.K. Basant's 'Seeing the State: A Study of the Visuals and Inscriptions at
Sanchi'. From the Vedic Aryans came many of the gods, the Vedic hymns, some of the most
important personal rituals of Hinduism, the partiarchal and patrilineal family system, and the horse.
Here Basant juxtaposes visuals and epigraphy of Sanchi to view the State. Together, the twin
discourses of nationalist critique and Marxist approach became important contributory factors for a
heightened interest in the economic aspects of India's historical past. Other social scientists seem to
see little reason to look beyond the paradigm they are developing in the present times. Perhaps this
can be one of a series of publications which showcase the ideas and research of a younger generation
of scholars working on different aspects of the history of ancient and early medieval India. The
diversification of the agricultural tradition seems to have continued into the neolithic—chalcolithic
phase. As a result, orders may take an extra 10-14 days for fulfilment. Romila Thapar, his colleague
and friend, evokes her souvenirs from the time young Chattopadhyaya joined the then newly found
Centre for Historical Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in 1971. All that needs to be stated
here is that all the issues which are represented in this collection continue to be of relevance to
serious historical studies. In 1968 the Clarendon Press asked me to assume responsibility for bringing
the work to a conclusion, on the basis of the material collected by Dr. Iyer. I agreed to do so, and was
given authority to commission authors and recast the plan of the volume in whatever way I might
think fit. The history of pre-modern technology and the maritime history of ancient India are two
such areas surveyed in this volume. Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Social Science Research
(ICSSR) stole a march over the ICHR in this regard and I myself contributed to it. The author of the
survey of research in military history in this volume mourns the general lack of interest in India in
military history, which he attributes to the attitude of 'Left-liberal academicians'. For reasons not very
clear to me, in the intervening years no further effort was made in this direction. To this end, it brings
out an edited volume containing selection of the research articles presented at various sessions.
Ideally, this new edition should have been updated by including new essays published in the
Proceedings of the Congress in the last twenty-five years, and by locating them within the global
trend of economic history writing during this period. However, as there is continuing demand for this
volume, covers the period 1935 to 1985, I have decided to say a few words about recent research by
way of an Introduction to the present volume. The change of the familiar name Ceylon to Sri Lanka
came later, and I have not attempted to alter the text of this book accordingly. In accordance with
Chattopadhyaya's critique of the urban decay phenomenon Ryosuke Furui's essay 'Agrarian
Expansion and Rural Commercialization in Early Medieval North Bengal' contests the model of
urban decay andmakes a case for the commercialization of rural society accompanying the expansion
of sedentary agriculture and agrarian settlements all of which saw another phase of progress from the
ninth century onwards in north Bengal. The first volume in the series, Approaches to History: Essays
in Indian Historiography brings to the readers the first fruits of that endeavour. In these instances,
needless to say, for the important role historiography plays in the very construction of the subject and
in the process of constituting agencyhood-these areas demand critical attention.