Contents: Preface and acknowledgements. 1. Lower Doab and Oudh: from Pratapgarh to Sitapur. 2. Oudh, Rohilkhand and Tarai: the distribution of sites between Kannauj and Kashipur. 3. Kampil, Sankisa and Chakranagar: sites in Farrukhabad, Etah, Budaun, Mainpuri, and Etawah. 4. Bateswar, Mathura, and Ahar: Sites in Agra, Mathura, Aligarh and Bulandshahr. 5. The Harappan and other issues in Meerat, Moradabad and Bijnor. 6. Further thoughts on the Harappan issues in Western Uttar Pradesh: sites in the Saharanpur-Muzaffarnagar-Haridwar Area. 7. Summary and conclusions. References. Index.

"Based on archaeological field-work for six seasons (1999--2001, 2002--5), this book examines the problems of ancient political units, urban centres, and routes of the Upper Ganga Plain between Pratapgarh in the south and the foothills of Uttaranchal (Uttarakhand) in the north. This also examines how the links were maintained between this Himalayan belt and the plains, and what could be the general period by which the Himalayan Pilgrim-spots of this sector came into focus. This book and the earlier one on the archaeological geography of the lower and the Middle Ganga Plain sum up the author's observations on the historico-geographical survey of the Ganga Plain which he conducted for fourteen field seasons beginning in 1991. In many ways these books demonstrate how it is possible to gain insights into the ancient historical reality of a region by going over the modern ground with a feel for the land, historical understanding, and the scholarship to back it. This is a path-breaking effort in Indian Archaeology." (jacket)