The major questions considered in this book are these: Are the Indo-Aryans outsiders or insiders? Did they migrate into India from Central Asia, and if not, where did they originate? Even more crucially, what is at stake in these accounts of ancient history? What issues of South Asian identity are involved? Can those of Indo-Aryan descent claim indigenous status? To what extent are the accounts of colonial historians valid? What is the role and authority of Indian scholarship in the post-colonial period? The scope and purpose of this volume is not to resolve this debate, but to survey the...

First published in 1848, What I Saw in California has long been recognized as the foremost trail guide for the Forty-niners. Almost overnight, Edwin Bryant became their authority on how to survive the grueling passage from Independence, Missouri, to San Francisco, and how to prosper in the Promised Land. He also served as a literary model for the diarists among them. His popular book was based on journals describing fully his "tour" west in 1846. For the Kentucky newspaperman, it had been an undertaking with an uncertain outcome, since the overland trail was still faint and the fabled, remote...

Edwin Bryant (1805-1869) gives his account of his overland journey from Independence, Missouri to San Francisco and his further explorations of the West in 1846-47. He traveled through the Rocky Mountains, across the desert, and throughout California. He often helped the people in the wagon trains with medical needs. This book provided valuable travel tips with extremely detailed descriptions of everything he saw for the 49ers traveling by way of the California Trail.

The district of country known geographically as Upper California is bounded on the north by Oregon, the forty-second degree of north latitude being the boundary line between the two territories; on the east by the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra de los Mimbres, a continuation of the same range; on the south by Sonora and Old or Lower California, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. Its extent from north to south is about 700 miles, and from east to west from 600 to 800 miles, with an area of about 400,000 square miles. A small portion only of this extensive territory is fertile or inhabitable...