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Dr. Shankar Goyal (b. 1959), the young and ebullient author of the present monograph, is emerging very rapidly as one of the recognized authorities on the historiography of ancient India. He has already produced three monographs dealing with some aspects of ancient Indian history writing viz. History and Historiography of the Age of Harsha (Jodhpur, 1992), Aspects of Ancient Indian History and Historiography (New Delhi, 1993) and History Writing of Early India (Jodhpur, 1996). He has co-edited a number of works with such eminent scholars as Professors G.C. Pande, B. Ch. Chhabra and Jagannath Agrawal which are directly or indirectly concerned with this discipline, including Political History in a Changing World (Jodhpur, 1992), Reappraising Gupta History (New Delhi, 1992) and S.R. Goyal: His Multidimensional Historiography (New Delhi, 1992). He has also-co-edited several other monographs with Shri M.C. Joshi and Dr. Sobhag Maghur which include King Chandra and the Meharauli Pillar (Meerut, 1989), Spectrum of Nehru’s Thought (New Delhi, 1994) and Rajasthan Bharati, in two volumes (Jodhpur, 1995) and authored more than seventy research articles. His research output in a period of less than six years has been stupendous, and its originality and quality superb, as is evident from the reviews of his works appearing in national and international journals. Dr. Shankar Goyal did his graduation from the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, post-graduation from the Deccan College, Pune, and Doctrate on Main Trends in Indian Historiography Since Independence from the University of Jodhpur, Jodhpur, where he is presently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of History.

G.C. Pande, thinker, scholar, historian, regarded internationally as an authority on Buddhism and ancient Indian culture, joined the University of Allahabad, his alma mater, as Lecturer in History after receiving his D.Phil in 1947. Later he became Professor and Head of the Department of History at three universities – Gorakhpur, Rajasthan and Allahabad. At present, he is Chairman, Allahabad Museum Society, Allahabad; Chairman, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla and Chairman, Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarnath. Recipient of many honorary degrees (Vidya Varidhi, Sahitya Vacaspati, Vakpati, Mahamahopadhyaya) and awards (Sankara Sammana, Manisha Sammana, etc.), he has also been honoured with D.Litt from the Banaras Hindu University in 2000, and is recipient of the first Darshan Vigyan Sammana, (2001) and Naresh Mehta Sammana, (2001). He has authored and edited several books and contributed over seventy articles to encyclopedias, anthologies and journals. His Studies in the Origins of Buddhism, Life and Thought of Sankaracarya, Studies in Mahayana, Foundations of Indian Culture, Bharatiya Parampara ke Mool Swara, Vaidika Sanskriti and other books brought him encomiums from scholars such as Gopinath Kaviraj, Vidhushekhara Bhattacharya, Suniti Kumar Chatterji, Kshetresh Chandra Chattopadhyaya, I.B. Horner, H. Nakamura, Louis Renou, Bhikku Pasadika and others.

Dr. S.K. Gupta (b. 1945) passed M.Sc. (Physics) 1967, M.Ed. in 1971 and obtained Ph.D. Degree in Education in 1974 – all from the University of Kurukshetra. A senior University teacher having nearly two decades of professional standing, he is on the Panel of Experts for Reviewing books for the reputed Journals. A prolific writer, he has five well acclaimed scholarly books to his credit including Guidance an Counselling in Indian Education (1985), Exploring Mental Abilities for Science Talent (1990). Currently Dr. gupta is a Reader in Education at the North Eastern Hill University, Nagaland Campus, Kohima.