Material Life of Northern India

Contents: Foreword. 1. Introduction. 2. Physical features of Northern India. 3. Food and food production. 4. Architecture. 5. Iron objects. 6. Iron technology. 7. Copper objects. 8. Copper metallurgy. 9. Silver punch-marked coins. 10. Bone and ivory objects. 11. Stone objects. 12. Terracotta objects. 13. Pots and pans. 14. Conclusion. Appendix. Bibliography. Index. Plates.

The present monograph is a result of the comprehensive and scientific study of the Material Life of Northern India between C. 600 BC to 300 BC. For the better understanding of the contents, the author has presented a synthetic study of the twin sources viz. archaeological and literary sources within the limitations and scope of the given topic and available data. This period also marks the process of political fusion culminating in the first ever great empire of ancient India. Interestingly the material background of this period led to the origin of a number of sects and second urbanization. The book is also helpful to understand the state formation and social proliferation. The authors divides his data into deductions of food habits, construction of house, agricultural activities vis-a vis crops cultivated with the idea of seasonal variations and the irrigational resources exploited, the knowledge of varied technology applied in the making of objects of daily use in metals such as gold, silver and copper, objects of stone, bone, ivory and clay by the people of that remote past make the book worth reading. The book will be highly useful to the research students and scholars working on ancient Indian history, culture and archeology to get a more comparative and comprehensive understanding of the subject. (jacket)