India - Early History

Sir William Hunter's well-known book The Indian Empire was published in 1881. It was revised and published in four volumes in 1907-09 under the title The Imperial Gazetteer of India. These four volumes have now been revised and brought up-to-date. They are entitled The Gazetteer of India: Indian Union. The second volume- History and Culture-was published in 1973.

Some of the chapters of this volume, namely, Government and Economic Life; Society, Religion and Literature; Arts and Architecture; Pre-Historic and Proto-Historic Periods; Early History of India up to A.D. 1206; and History of Medieval India (A.D. 1206--A.D. 1761) which have a wider public opinion, are being published separately in the form of booklets. The idea is to provide to the general public especially the university students, low-priced publications containing authentic and objective information on these subjects by well-known writers who are experts in their respective fields.

Vincent A. Smith contributed the chapter on the Early History of Northern India from 600 B.C. to 50 to the Imperial Gazetteer of India. There are six contributors to the revised chapter entitled "Historical Period-Early History of India upto A.D. 1206" on which the booklet is based. They are R.C. Majumdar, A.D. Pusalkar, A.K. Majumdar, D.C. Ganguly, B. Ch. Chhabra and B.N. Puri. It is hoped that not only this booklet but the entire series will have a useful purpose and meet the requirements of the general public.