Aspects of Indian History and Culture

About the Book This book is a collection of twenty articles on various aspects of Indian history and culture contributed by mostly young teachers of different colleges and universities of West Bengal. These are the results of their scholarly researches in the field of their respective fields from the early period to the present day. The volume does not purport to present a comprehensive picture of Indian history; its primary objective is to bring together some notso-frequently discussed aspects of the subject.

These articles, with notes, references and bibliography are well illustrated and are thematically grouped into four sections, viz. Section-1: Epigraphy, Art, Architecture and Aesthetics, Section-II: Society, Economy and Culture, Section III: Buddhist Sites, and Section-IV: Archaeological Sites and Heritage Issues.

About the Authors Sudipa Ray Bandyopadhyay is presently Associate Professor in the Department of Ancient Indian History and Culture, University of Calcutta. She served as Head of the Department from 2006-2008. She carried out her Ph.D. as a Junior Research Fellow of Indian Council for Historical Research. She has contributed several articles to reputed national and international journals and other edited volumes. She is presently engaged in a project on Sculptural Art of Karnataka' under UPE Scheme. Her book Architectural Motifs in Early Mediaeval Art of Eastern India (Pala Sena Period) was published from Kolkata in 2002. She edited the Journal of Ancient Indian History, Volumes XXIV and XXV published by the University of Calcutta.

Rita Chaudhuri graduated with Honours in History from Loreto College, Kolkata and mastered in Ancient Indian History and Culture in 1981. Before obtaining her Ph.D. degree in 1992, she was awarded the Mrinalini Gold Medal by the University for her research work State, Political Life and Thinking in Ancient India'. At present she is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Ancient Indian History and Culture, University of Calcutta. Her book Economic History of the Gangetic Plains as Gleaned from Land Grants (8"-12" centuries A.D.) was published in 2004 from Kolkata.

Mahua Chakrabarti is Reader in the Department of Museology at the University of Calcutta. She carried out her Ph.D. as a UGC Research Fellow in the Museology Department of the University of Calcutta. Dr Chakrabarti has published several articles on Museology and Art History and has authored two books: Minor Antiquities in the Museums of Eastern India in 2007 and Museums of India: A Journey through Ages published from Germany in 2010.

Preface The volume brings together some hitherto unpublished articles on various aspects of Indian history by teachers teaching in various colleges and universities of West Bengal. The articles embody the result scholarly researches in the field of history from the early period to the modern.

Among the twenty articles in the volume, three were presented at various state level, national-level and international-level seminars and symposia. Some articles are reappraisals of well-known historical facts, some are reinterpretation of important issues in Indian history in the light of new thought, and some deal with conceptual issues. The volume does not purport to present a comprehensive picture of Indian history; its primary objective is to bring together some not-so-frequently discussed aspects of the subject. The papers contain some new ideas and approaches that, we hope, will provide food for thought for the scholar and informed layman alike. Most of the essays in the volume deal with early Indian history and culture. We believe that the volume will benefit scholars, researchers, and students and enrich their understanding of early Indian history.

The essays in the volume cover aspects of early Indian history as diverse as epigraphy, art and architecture, archaeological sites, urbanization, ecology, religious and social history and other areas of early Indian history and culture. The articles provide fresh insights into some old issues and make a reassessment of certain earlier perspectives.

The article "Aturgaon Memorial Stone Inscription of a Kura Prince" by Susmita Basu Majumdar provides fresh insights into the stone inscription found at Aturgaon. The Kuras are known from numismatic sources and we know about four Kura rulers who preceded the Satavahanas. The Kura coins have been found in Kolhapur region of southern Maharashtra and the earliest known ruler is Maharathi Kura. The Aturgaon Memorial Stone Inscription adds another inscribed memorial stone to the list of such inscriptions from the region. The inscribed memorial stone is important not only because it bears an archaic evidence of raising memorial stones in the region, bearing the name of a prince of the Kura family whose epigraphs are rare but also shows that the tradition of raising memorial pillars and stones was practised by the Kuras too.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages