Contents: Preface. I. Human remains: Introduction. 1. Prehistoric skeletal record of man in South Asia/Kenneth A.R. Kennedy. II. Prehistoric roots of religious beliefs: Introduction. 1. An upper Palaeolithic shrine in India/J.M. Kenoyer, J.D. Clark, J.N. Pal and G.R. Sharma. 2. Neolithic hunting scene on a stone slab from Burzahom, Kashmir/B.M. Pande. 3. A prehistoric deity of Western India/M.K. Dhavalikar. III. First steps in historical archaeology: sculpture, architecture, coins, and inscriptions: Introduction. 1. An account of the sculptures and inscriptions at Mahamalaipur/Benjamin Guy Babington. 2. An account of some sculptures in the cave temples of Ellora/Robert Melville Grindlay. 3. Remarks on certain sculptures in the cave temples of Ellora/Lieut Colonel James Tod. 4. On the three-faced busts of Siva in the cave temples of elephanta, near Bombay; and Ellora, near Dowalatabad/H.W. Sykes. 5. Notice of a visit to the cavern temples of adjunta in the East-Indies/James Edw. Alexander. 6. Description of the ruins of Buddha Gaya/Francis Buchanan Hamilton. 7. Further information on the topes of Manikyala/Mons. A. Court. 8. An account of Greek, Parthian and Hindu Medals, found in India/Major James Tod. 9. On the reputed descendants of Alexander the great, in the Valley of the Oxus/Alexander Burnes. 10. On the "Topes" and Grecian remains in the Panjab/Alexander Burnes. 11. Note on Lieutenant Burnes’ collection of ancient coins/James Prinsep. 12. On the coins and relics/James Prinsep. 13. Continuation of observations on the coins and relics as discovered by general Ventura, in the tope of Manikyala/James Prinsep. 14. On the connection of various ancient Hindu coins with Grecian or Indo-scythic series/James Prinsep. 15. Notice of ancient Hindu coins/James Prinsep. 16. Note on inscription no. I of the Allahabad column/James Prinsep. 17. Remarks upon the second inscription of the Allahabad Pillar/A. Troyer. 18. Notice of some ancient inscriptions in the characters of the Allahabad column/B.H. Hodgson. 19. Note on the Mattiah Lath inscription/James Prinsep. 20. Second note on the Bhilsa inscription/James Prinsep. 21. Restoration and translation of some inscriptions at the caves of Carli/J. Stevenson. 22. Note on the facsimiles of inscriptions from Sanchi near Bhilsa, taken for the society by Ed. Smith, engineers, and on the drawings of the Buddhist monuments presented by Captain W. Murray/James Prinsep. 23. Interpretation of the most ancient of the inscriptions on the pillars called the Lat of Feroz Shah near Delhi, and of the Allahabad, Radhia and Mattiah Pillar, or Lat/James Prinsep. 24. Further elucidation of the Lat or Silastambha inscriptions from various sources/James Prinsep. 25. Note on the facsimiles of the various inscriptions on the ancient column at Allahabad, retaken by Captain Edward Smith/James Prinsep. 26. Memoir on the topes and antiquities of Afghanistan/J.G. Gerard.
"This volume, the third and final part of A Source-Book of Indian Archaeology, takes one to the tentative beginnings of Indian sculptural, architectural, numismatic and inscriptional studies and tries to give an idea of what has been generally achieved in the fields of human skeletal discoveries, rock-art and religion.
The articles chosen for the first section will give a feel of how it all began: how were some of the classical sculptural and architectural sites of the subcontinent approached and described and what was Prinsep’s chain of reasoning when he was studying the early Indian coins or grappling with the decipherment of Asokan inscriptions? Our intention was only to draw attention to the basic foundations of these sub-disciplines. A consideration of their later developments was not within our focus. For the rest of the topics, we decided to remain content with a limited number of essays which played a role in shaping these themes. Taken together, the three volumes of A Source-Book of Indian Archaeology offer a definitive historical perspective of Indian archaeology through a selection of astonishingly wide-ranging but integrated body of sources up to the 1980s." (jacket)
