The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c2.5

c2.5

These are merely two of many problems of which Dr. Subbarao and his colleagues are acutely aware. And not least, I look forward, as they do, to the time when the necessary initial vertical digging—the search for a cultural time-table—can be supplemented increasingly by horizontal digging—by the systematic revelation of the ancient towns and villages of India and a clear demonstration of the sort of life that was lived in them. Archaeology can only justify itself fully when it is digging up *humanity* in the broadest sense of the term. Potsherds and the like are merely the alphabet of the archaeologist. What ultimately matters is the story that is made from them. In these pages, Dr. Subbarao has written a provisional introduction to that story, and I am delighted to have here the opportunity of expressing my appreciation and my blessing, both to him and to those many other Indian archaeologists whom I am proud to regard as my friends.