The first volume of this acclaimed and now classic introduction to the history of India. Here Romila Thapar traces the evolution of India before contact with the Europe was established in the sixteenth century. Her account of the developement of India's social and economic structure is arranged within a framework of the principal political and dynastic events. This absorbing narrative covers some 2,500 eventful years of history, from the establishment of Aryan culture in about 1000 B.C. to the coming of the Mughals in A.D. 1526 and the first arrival of European trading companies. In particular Professor Thapar deals interestingly with the many manifestations of Indian culture, as seen in religion, art, and literature, in ideas and institutions.
