Early India and Pakistan to Ashoka c6.3

c6.3

But within that framework there is infinite scope for subtlety and differential change. The significance and the circumstance of man's major—not to say minor—triumphs are of the essence of the story, and these involve a close reading and re-reading of the evidence as it slowly accumulates. Today in India this accumulation is proceeding at a faster pace than in many other parts of the world, and precise interpretation of the new evidence in relation to the old is proportionately necessary. Without an exact timetable, the tremendous achievement which our evidence reflects cannot be brought into sharp and significant perspective; its phases cannot be interrelated, nor can its position and meaning in the wider context of human effort be established with assurance. Relative dates and sequences are useful, but only *actual* dates, in terms of years from the present, are of substantive value. Since therefore most of our subject-matter relates to prehistory, an introductory note on chronological method is inevitable.