This book is the companion volume to A People's History of India 6, which gave an account of the political and economic history of the post-Mauryan period from c. 200 B.C. to A.D. 300. The present volume deals with the important aspects of the society and culture of the same period. It traces the diffusion of the caste system and describes its detailed codification. The major changes in religion, notably the emergence of Mahayana Buddhism and Bhakti in Brahmanism, are surveyed in depth. The reader will also find much that is fresh and enlightening in the accounts of sculpture,...

The Vedic Age completes the first set of three monographs in the People's History of India series. It deals with the period c. 1500 to c. 700 bc, during which it sets the Rigveda and the subsequent Vedic corpus. It explores aspects of geography, migrations, technology, economy, society, religion, and philosophy. It draws on these texts to reconstruct the life of the ordinary people, with special attention paid to class as well as gender. In a separate chapter, the major regional cultures as revealed by archaeological evidence are carefully described. Much space is devoted to the...

Increasing interest has been shown in recent decades in matters relating to ecology, especially under the influence of the debate on climate change. The scope of ecology is, of course, much wider than that of climate alone, and involves in addition not only human relation with all species of animals and plants but also those conditions of human societies (material and intellectual) that influence our responses to the opportunities and challenges posed by nature. It is with this wider sense in mind that the history of ecology has been treated in this volume. Extensive extracts from sources...

Mauryan India, as part of the People's History of India series, covers the period from about 350 bc to about 185 bc, thereby encompassing the invasion of Alexander (327-325 bc) and the history of the Mauryan Empire (c.324-185 bc). There is a detailed account of the inscriptions of Ashoka and their significance. A picture of the economy, society and culture of the time follows, constructed out of the varied sources available, epigraphic, textual and archaeological. An effort is made throughout to keep the reader abreast of recent discoveries, and to share with him the reasons for all...

Post-Mauryan India, 200 BC - AD 300: A Political and Economic History, as part of the People's History of India series, deals with the five hundred years that, in the political sphere, are associated with the dominance of Indo-Greeks, Sakas, Kushans, and Satavahanas. The volume also offers a detailed survey of the economy of the period, which saw important changes, in craft production as well as overseas trade. (The changes in the caste system and cultural life during this long period will be treated in a separate volume.) A special feature of the present volume is that the information...

This book considers the first phase of Indian popular resistance to colonial rule, including the Revolt of 1857-58, its nature and legacy; the rise of national consciousness; the movement for social reform and political awakening among the middle classes, and, finally, Gandhiji's arrival and the agitations of 1917-18.

This volume explores the economic and social history of India from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century. It describes the agrarian order, urban economy, and trading world during the Delhi Sultanate, the subsequent period of political divisions, and conditions in the Vijayanagara Empire, which flourished during this period in south India.