Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c7: Preface
Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c7
- Language
- English
Preface
c7.1
This book renders an account of our knowledge of Indian prehistory from the earliest times to the settlement of the Aryans in the north-west in the second half of the second millennium B.C. It does not pretend to be more than a stock-taking of our incomplete evidence and interpretation, as a preliminary and incentive to further work in the field. Some form of working hypothesis is essential, however drastically they have to be revised, and I have therefore attempted to indicate what seem to me to be the nature and succession of the various human cultures making up the pattern of the earliest India.
c7.2
Much of the material presented in the book is either hitherto unpublished or is a synthesis made for the first time. It is therefore inevitable that a great deal of technical detail has to be included, and much of the argument addressed to the specialist in oriental archaeology. But despite this, it is hoped that a coherent story of the general course of events in prehistoric India has been presented to the non-specialist reader.
c7.3
The original work on which Chapters IV to VI are based was carried out in Indian museums (and to a very limited extent in the field) between 1942 and 1945 in the intervals of military intelligence duties. My gratitude is due to my friends on the Archaeological Survey of India who helped and encouraged me, notably the late Rao Bahadur Dikshit, formerly Director-General of the Survey, and Dr K. N. Puri. In 1944 Dr (now Professor) R. E. Mortimer Wheeler was appointed Director-General, and while we were both in India and since my return to Britain he has spared neither time nor trouble in giving me every assistance. It is a pleasant duty to record my gratitude here.
c7.4
In my own university, my colleagues Mr H. J. H. Drummond and Professor Myles Dillon (now of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Dublin) have been kind enough to read and criticize in draft Chapters II and VI respectively. In my discussion of the Aryan chariot I have been materially helped by Miss H. L. Lorimer, who most generously allowed me to read in typescript portions of her forthcoming book, *Homer and the Monuments*. I have been particularly fortunate in having had the opportunity of discussing the final drafts of Chapters III to VI with Dr Donald McCown of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Dr Claude Schaeffer’s great work on the comparative chronology of west Asiatic sites in the period 2500 to 1100 B.C. appeared after my book had been written, but I have been able to incorporate certain revised dates bearing on the Indian problems. On the whole our conclusions, independently reached, were in relatively close agreement. The illustrations include much material published for the first time and are mainly based on original drawings by the author. Figs. 1, 3, 13–23 and 25 are by Mr L. F. Venables, Figs. 4–10 and 12 by Miss E. M. Howard. The half-tone plates are from photographs supplied by the Archaeological Survey of India with the sanction of the Director-General.
c7.5
To the Editor of this series, Professor M. E. L. Mallowan, I owe a debt of gratitude for his help in the construction and detail of the book, as well as for the initial invitation to attempt the synthesis which is here presented.
c7.6
*University of Edinburgh* STUART PIGGOTT