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A comprehensive and analytical assessment of the history of the Indian subcontinent until 1750 CE, History of Precolonial India situates Indian history in the wider context of its Asiatic background in an effort to accommodate the ongoing cultural transactions, intersections, and overlaps. This, it is hoped, will allow the reader to go beyond the usual brief flirtations with Asian history and appreciate the historical significance of the cultural and political interactions across the shifting and permeable regional borders.

Divided into three parts, the book begins with an exploration of ancient and medieval South Asian history. The second part focuses on the major debates in precolonial Indian history such as periodization, the Indo-Aryan problem, state formation, and the Indian Ocean trade. The final section comprises a thematically arranged and exhaustive bibliography.

In bringing out the changing historiographical contours through time, this volume focuses on facets of connected histories that went into the shaping of the cultural fabric of South Asia.

Contents: Part One: Historical Representations. 1. Introduction. 2. Early India. 3. The Early Historical Period. 4. The Early Medieval Times. 5. Late Medieval India: The Delhi Sultanate. 6. The Early Modern Period: India during the Mughal Rule. Part Two: Trends in Research. 7. Periodization. 8. Historiography. 9. The Indo-Aryans. 10. State and State Formation. 11. Cities and Urbanization. 12. Histories of Women. 13. India and Indian Ocean Studies. Part Three: Bibliography. Sources and Literature. Index.