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Illustrations: 45 Figures Description: For a number of reasons the archaeology of the Chhotanagpur plateau and its extension up to the edge of the Bhagirathi plain in West Bengal deserves more than a passing mention in Indian archaeology. First, its sheer geographical extent requires emphasis: more than a hundred thousand square kilometres spread diagonally between the hills overlooking the Ganges near Rajmahal to the hills in southwestern Singhbhum on the one hand and between the northwesternmost part of Palamau to the Sonamukhi and Garh Jaipur forests in the eastern section of Bankura on the other. Secondly, the entire region is full of archaeological sites from the lower palaeolithic stage onwards, and some of the major issues of cultural development in eastern India are centred around them. Thirdly, the plateau which is rich in metals, stones and timber is the most important resource-bearing area in east India, and the way in which it was integrated into an exchange network with the plains may be a major archaeological and historic theme of study. Fourthly, the region as a whole is a home of a large number of tribal communities on various levels of subsistence and with different linguistic affiliations. Early this century a government officer wrote that it was as near as one could get to 'primitive India' but does this 'primitiveness' mean that this was an 'area of isolation' cut off from the main flow of Indian history? Which areas of study admit of the possibilities of ethnographic continuum between the prehistoric past and in the preindustrial present in this region? Based on field-surveys undertaken between 1981 and 1987, this work studies the archaeology of this region as a whole. Archaeological research in this region goes back to the 1860s but it is perhaps for the first time that the region as a whole has been studied and various dimensions of its archaeology focussed. This is also one of the major attempts to view archaeology as long-term settlement history in the context of India.
This book looks at the ways in which archaeological methods have been used in debates concerning the early medieval and medieval periods in South Asia. Despite the incorporation and use of archaeological data to corroborate historical narratives, the theories and methods of archaeology are largely ignored in and excluded from the dominating, institutionalized, and hegemonic disciplinary discourses. The volume offers contesting insights, polemical narratives, and new data from archaeological contexts to initiate a debate on many foundational premises of archaeological and historical narratives. It focuses on the much-neglected region of the Eastern Ganga-Brahmaputra Basin as a spatial frame to do this and studies themes such as spatial and temporal scales of concepts and methods, multi-scaler factors and processes of continuity and changes, the settlement archaeology of the alluvial landscape, changing patterns of agrarian transformation, and material cultures, including coins, inscriptions, pottery, and sculptures, in their contexts in sub-regional, regional, and supra-regional intersections. Dedicated to historian Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya, this volume presents a crucial and unprecedented intervention in the study of the early medieval and the medieval periods. It will be useful for scholars and researchers of archaeology, ancient history, medieval history, water history, earth sciences, palaeoecology, historical ecology, epigraphy, art history, material culture studies, Indian history, and South Asian studies in general.
The book highlights the emperical work in diverse archaeological areas of Eastern india & deals with related problems of the region. Like new.
This book charts the flow of India's grass-roots archaeological history in all its continuities and diversities from its Palaeolithic beginnings to AD 300. The second edition includes a new afterword which discusses all new ideas and discoveries in Indian archaeology in the past one decade.
This volume is the result of an international conference organized by the South Asia Institute at the University of Texas. Patrick Olivelle has collected and edited the best papers to emerge from the conference. Part I of the book looks at what can be construed from archeological evidence. Part II concerns itself with the textual evidence for the period. Taken together, these essays offer an unprecedented look at Indian culture and society in this distant epoch.
This Book Discuses The Ancient Historical Geography Of The Lower And Middle Sections Of The Ganga Plain. Its Basis Is A Field-Study Of The Distribution Of Archaeological Sites In The Region. This Extremely Significant Work Of Scholarship Has Detailed Maps And A Large Plate Section.
Research work on coastal Bengal has mostly focused on maritime trading networks. In a clear departure from the existing scholarship, this volume questions the linearity of considering trade as the sole determinant of creation of settlement in the coastal regions. Focusing on settlement strategies, Chattopadhyay unravels how human societies, through successive generations, have adapted to the coastal environment and bioregime. First-hand data, procured through extensive fieldwork, forms the sound basis of this work. From structural remains, ceramic and bone implements, and stone tools, to terracotta figurines and inscriptions, a vast array of sources, including epigraphic and literary sources, is analysed. Significantly, the volume also highlights the interconnection between coastal geography and the hinterland. Chattopadhyay’s meticulously researched work offers a geographical and temporal frame which allows the research on coastal Bengal to be viewed as an integral part of the archaeological developments in not only the subcontinent but also the adjoining region of the Southeast Asian countries.
In the religious landscape of early medieval (c. AD 600-1200) Bihar and Bengal, poly-religiosity was generally the norm than an exception, which entailed the evolution of complex patterns of inter-religious equations. Buddhism, Brahmanism and Jainism not only coexisted but also competed for social patronage, forcing them to enter into complex interactions with social institutions and processes. Through an analysis of the published archaeological data, this work explores some aspects of the social history of Buddhist, Brahmanical and Jaina temples and shrines, and Buddhist stūpas and monasteries in early medieval Bihar and Bengal. This archaeological history of religions questions many ‘established’ textual reconstructions, and enriches our understanding of the complex issue of the decline of Buddhism in this area. Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
This volume presents proceedings from sessions A15a, A15b, A15c of the XVII UISPP World Congress (1–7 September 2014, Burgos, Spain). Collectively this volume presents perspectives of archaeological heritage management in various countries and continents.
This book is a collection of some of the published papers of the author, published mostly abroad, and unravels some significant yet hitherto neglected aspects of history, culture and religion of Bihar and Bengal: two areas that were connected through an intricate network of rivers. Themes looked into are: early historic urbanisation in the Mithilā plains of North Bihar; the social history of Brahmanical religious institutions (temples and Mathas) in early medieval Bihar and Bengal; the social history of Buddhist monasticism in early medieval Bihar and Bengal; the integration of a local goddess into the institutional fabric of Mahayana Buddhism; the survival of Buddhism in the thirteenth and fourteenth century AD; pilgrimage from Central India and Deccan to a Hindu pil grimage centre of Bihar in the medieval period; and the debate on the Islamisation of medieval eastern Bengal. Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.