Material Life of Northern India (c. 600 BCE -300 BCE) An Archaeo-Literary Evidences

The present monograph is a result of the comprehensive and scientific study of the Material Life of Northern India between C. 600 BC to 300 BC. For the better understanding of the contents, the author has presented a synthetic study of the twin sources viz. archaeological and literary sources within the limitations and scope of the given topic and available data. This period also marks the process of political fusion culminating in the first ever great empire of ancient India. Interestingly the material background of this period led to the origin of a number of sects and second urbanization.

Dr. Mohammad Nazrul Bari did his PhD from the Center of Advanced Studies, Department of History, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. On leave vacancy, he stared his teaching career in the same department. After working for some time in the P.G department of History, Kashmir University, Srinagar (J&K), Dr. Bari joined Poona College, Pune in Maharashtra. Currently Dr. Bari is the Assistant Professor & Coordinator, Department of History, School of Social and Behavioral Science, Central University of Karnataka, Gulbarga.

Revisiting the history of one of the most eventful periods in the middle of first millennium BCE in North India offers fresh insights into the life ways, subsistence and technological knowhow of the people of the region. It is now well accepted that potential of iron technology and wet-rice cultivation facilitated the increase in carrying capacity of the land and helped in sustaining urban centres, though the crop pattern remains unchanged. In this context the author of this book rightly concludes that the inhabited settlement area rose from the Black and Red Ware to Painted Grey Ware and from the Painted Grey Ware to the period that is examined by Nazrul Bari in his book "Material Life in Northern India". It is my pleasure to see that the readers will find the book refreshing and resourceful with new interpretations, which are thought provoking.

**Contents and Sample Pages**