The Archaeology of Indian Trade Routes Up to C. 200 BC


Book Description

This text offers a detailed archaeological study of early Indian trade routes during the proto-historic and the the first phase of the early historic periods up to around 200 BC.




The Archaeology of Indian Trade Routes Up to C. 200 BC


Book Description

This study explores the utilization of certain specific raw materials by archaeological cultures in different periods. Lahiri delineates the probable areas which could have supplied the raw materials to these cultures, and, on this basis, the essential direction of routes in and across distinct zones. The earliest proto-historic lines of movement--primarily confined to the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent--that developed in the period antecedent to the Harappan civilization are examined. So is the articulation of commerce and movement under the overarching socio-political authority of the Harappan urban phenomenon. The study also analyzes the opening out of the main and secondary arteries in inner India, i.e. across the Aravalli-Cambay divide, by examining the pattern of resource-use and resource-access of the less spectacular neolithic-chalcolithic cultural pockets, spread over large parts of the subcontinent from Kashmir to Tamil Nadu. In the context of the early historical period, an analysis of the literary image of the grand routes of Uttarapatha and Dakshinapatha, and their material correlates in the form of archaeological data scattered along these routes, are also presented.




Handbook of Ancient Afro-Eurasian Economies


Book Description

The notion of the “Silk Road” that the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen invented in the 19th century has lost attraction to scholars in light of large amounts of new evidence and new approaches. The handbook suggests new conceptual and methodological tools for researching ancient economic exchange in a global perspective with a strong focus on recent debates on the nature of pre-modern empires. The interdisciplinary team of Chinese, Indian and Graeco-Roman historians, archaeologists and anthropologists that has written this handbook compares different forms of economic development in agrarian and steppe regions in a period of accelerated empire formation during 300 BCE and 300 CE. It investigates inter-imperial zones and networks of exchange which were crucial for ancient Eurasian connections. Volume I provides a comparative history of the most important empires forming in Northern Africa, Europe and Asia between 300 BCE and 300 CE. It surveys a wide range of evidence that can be brought to bear on economic development in the these empires, and takes stock of the ways academic traditions have shaped different understandings of economic and imperial development as well as Silk-Road exchange in Russia, China, India and Western Graeco-Roman history.




The Archaeology of South Asia


Book Description

This book synthesises the archaeology of South Asia from the Neolithic period (c.6500 BCE) to the third century BCE.




Berenike 1999/2000


Book Description

Excavations at Berenike, a Greco-Roman harbor on the Egyptian Red Sea coast, have provided extensive evidence for trade with India, South-Arabia and sub-Saharan Africa. The results of the 1999 and 2000 excavations by the joint mission of the University of Delaware, Leiden University, and UCLA, have been published in a comprehensive report, with specialists' analyses of different object groups and an overview of evidence for the trade route from the Indian perspective. The book is lavishly illustrated with photographs, drawings, plans, and a large foldout map of Berenike and Sikait.




Historical Dictionary of India


Book Description

The Republic of India is the second most populous, the seventh largest by geographical area, and has the fourth largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity in the world. While it has always been an important country, it has often been neglected. Of late, however, there has been much talk of the 'new' India, one with greater economic dynamism, a more active foreign policy, and the emergence of a huge middle class. With over a hundred new cross-referenced dictionary entries-the majority of which pertain to the last decade-and updating others, the second edition of the Historical Dictionary of India illustrates the rapidly evolving situation without neglecting the country's ancient past. The chronology has been brought up to date, the introduction expanded, and the bibliography includes numerous new titles.




Historical Dictionary of Ancient India


Book Description

India's history and culture is ancient and dynamic, spanning back to the beginning of human civilization. Beginning with a mysterious culture along the Indus River and in farming communities in the southern lands of India, the history of India is punctuated by constant integration with migrating peoples and with the diverse cultures that surround the country. Placed in the center of Asia, history in India is a crossroads of cultures from China to Europe, as well as the most significant Asian connection with the cultures of Africa. The Historical Dictionary of Ancient India provides information ranging from the earliest Paleolithic cultures in the Indian subcontinent to 1000 CE. The ancient history of this country is related in this book through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on rulers, bureaucrats, ancient societies, religion, gods, and philosophical ideas.




The Economic History of India


Book Description

The economic history of early India is a rich and diverse area of study, covering agricultural developments, trade, markets, occupation and professional groups, urbanization and the institutions that govern the economy. Recent research has expanded our understanding of the processes of transformation of the economy in different temporal contexts within the Indian sub-continent. They have particularly led us to explore connected histories given the trans-continental trading networks and movements of people from very early times. This volume seeks to draw attention to this vast and unexplored terrain in the economic history of early India, by bringing together essays on a new and rich historiography. Essays in the volume cover neglected regions, economic processes and structures. Scholars have looked at questions of settlements, crops that were cultivated and market orientation. Essays cover material culture and provide insights into how early Indians lived, what kinds of activities they were engaged in, and how they organised their production activities within and outside domestic spaces. Further the volume bring new insights on hierarchy of settlement types, nature of exchange, and the significance of a nodal site in exchange networks. Maritime history as well as the understanding of trade in its varied forms and manifestations are covered in several essays.




Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks


Book Description

This book examines catalysts for Buddhist formation in ancient South Asia and expansion throughout and beyond the northwestern Indian subcontinent to Central Asia by investigating symbiotic relationships between networks of religious mobility and trade.




Archaeology and the Public Purpose


Book Description

This book interleaves the history of post-Independence archaeology in India with the life and times of Madhukar Narhar Deshpande (1920-2008), a leading Indian archaeologist who went on to become the director-general of the Archaeological Survey of India. Spanning nearly a century, this is a tale told through a main character—Deshpande himself—some of whose writings have been included in the volume. We explore the circumstances which brought men like Deshpande to this career path; what it was like to grow up in a family devoted to India's freedom; the watershed moment that created a large cohort that was trained by Mortimer Wheeler, the doyen of British archaeology; the unknown conservation stories around the Gol Gumbad in Bijapur and the Qutb Minar in Delhi; the forgotten story of how the fabric of a historic Hindu shrine, the Badrinath temple, was saved; the chemistry shared by the prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and the archaeologist, Deshpande, at the Ajanta and Ellora cave shrines, and; the political and administrative challenges faced by director generals of archaeology. The book is a must read for anyone interested in India's past in general and the history of Indian archaeology in particular.