3 Review(s)

Reconstructing Ancient Indian History; The Indian subcontinent: landscapes and environments; Sources and methods of historical reconstruction; Changing historical interpretations; Early Indian traditions of history; Prehistoric Hunter Gatherers; Palaeolithic cultures; Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherer Societies; Palaeolithic cultures: sequence and distribution; stone industries and other Technological Developments; Mesolithic cultures: regional and chronological distribution; new developments in technology and Economy; The prehistoric mind: funerary practices and Art; The Advent of Food Production; Food Production; Emergence of Food Production and its Consequences; New discoveries; the regional and chronological distribution of the neolithic and chalcolithic cultures; subsistence; patterns of interaction and Exchange; The Harappan Civilization; Indus/Harappan Civilization; Social Dress of the Harappan People; Origins; settlement patterns and town planning; Agrarian Base; Craft production and Trade; Social and Political Organization; Religious beliefs and practices; Art: The problem of urban decline and the late/post-Harappan Traditions; Cultures in Transition up to c. 600 BCE; The Aryan question; The Vedic Aryans; Vedic Society; Settlement patterns; technological and economic developments; Social stratification; Political Relations; Religion and Philosophy; Megaliths; North India; Central India and the Deccan; South India; Introducing the Early Historical; The City; Writing; The State and the Forest; Changing Political Formations; (c. 600 BCE to c. 300 CE); The mahajanapadas; monarchies and Ganas/sanghas; The Mauryan empire: political structure; Ashoka and his Dhamma; Ashoka the Great; Post-Mauryan polities with special reference to the Kushanas and the Satavahanas; Tamilakam; Economy and Society (c. 600 BCE to c. 300 CE); Expansion of agrarian economy and production relations; Urban growth: north India, central India, the Deccan and south India; craft production; trade interactions across India, Asia and beyond; Social stratification: class; varna; jati; untouchability; gender; marriage and property relations; Towards Early Medieval India; (c. 4th century to 750 CE); Introducing the early medieval: changing perspectives; The nature of polities: the Gupta empire and its contemporaries; post-Gupta polities -Pallavas, Chalukyas and Vardhanas; Agrarian expansion; land grants; changing production relations; graded land rights and peasantry; Urban patterns; trade and currency; Varna; The proliferation of jatis; changing norms of marriage and inheritance; Religion, Philosophy and Society (c. 600 BCE – 750 CE); Shramanic traditions with special reference to Buddhism and Jainism; Consolidation of the Brahmanical tradition; Puranic Hinduism; Cultural Developments (c. 600 BCE – 750 CE); A brief survey of creative literature; scientific and Technical Treatises; Art and architecture; forms of patronage.