The object of this volume is to provide within a moderate compass a compendious account of the history, institutions, and culture of ancient India from the dim ages of antiquity to the establishment of Moslem rule. It has not been planned to meet the needs of any particular class of readers. Its primary purpose is to serve alike students, scholars, and all others, interested in the study of ancient Indian history, as a book of ready use and reference. The pages which follow every attempt has been made to avoid presenting a mass of the dry bones of historical fact or over-burdening the account with intricate discussions on knotty problems of history, on the one hand, and giving a mere general and readable survey of India's long and fascinating past, on the other. I have endeavoured to tap and utilise properly the available sources of information, literary, epigraphic, and numismatic, and also to embody and set borth in a consistent manner the results of up-to-date researches on different topics and epochs. All the materials have been patiently sifted and critically examined with the sole desire to arrive at historical truth and scientific accuracy; and the unfortunate tendency, manifest in some modern publications, to extol or decry without warrant any of the manifold as pects of India's panoramic story, has been scrupulously eschewed
This book gives an authoritative, up-to-date, and compendious account of the history, institutions and culture of India from the earliest times to the advent of the Moslem period. It is based on all available materials - literary, epigraphic, and numismatic - and is written in a most elegant, sober, and lucid style. The author brings to bear upon his task not only profound scholarship and critical acumen but also a scrupulous regard for historical truth, accuracy of facts and impartiality of judgement. The merit of the book has been enhanced by an exhaustive Bibliography and a comprehensive Index. Students, scholars and the general reader alike will find the book highly interesting, useful and valuable for study and references.
"The book constitutes a very important achievement because it gives a panoramic survey of events, which is both scholarly and readable."-The Sunday Statesman
"In the eighteen chapters of the present work he has given us a comprehensive and well-proportioned account, based upon wide reading... . On numerous disputed questions his judgements are marked by sobriety and good sense."- The Modern Review
"Dr. R.S. Tripathi is well-known to students of Indian History as the author of History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest, which shows his critical spirit and sound judgement... . The book under review is carefully prepared...and useful to the general student of Hindu history and culture." - The Indian Historical Quarterly
"The book is, on the whole, a first-rate publication, and Dr. R.S. Tripathi deserves the congratulations of all interested in the history and culture of Ancient India for producing this excellent work, which will richly supply a long felt want. His style is most elegant, lucid and condensed, and his treatment of the subject is throughout dispassionate, balanced and subjective. He displays a rare critical acumen in grasping the essentials and separating the grain of fact from the husks of legend." - The Leader