Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East (Vol. I: Champa; Vol. II: Suvarnadvipa) v2.c22.89

v2.c22.89

Ancient Indian History has suffered from sectional attention. Archaeologists, epigraphists and numismatists have conspired with specialists in particular subjects or epochs, to exercise the spirit of historical development and organic unity from a study of Ancient India. It has also suffered from the bias of foreign origins and the reactionary prejudice of an all too national source of all-important culture traits. But the besetting sin of Ancient Indian historians has been their willingness to draw overwhelming conclusions from insufficient materials. What has been needed urgently is a historian with a “historic” sense, drawing guarded conclusions from materials which he has studied first-hand. In India, we will have to wait for a Mommsen. But in the meanwhile, Dr. Majumdar’s Outline will do duty. The special merit of the book is the array of information, accurately gathered and judiciously distributed through the pages. For authoritative pronouncement on nearly all the important topics in a short compass, it will be hard to beat this book. Under-graduate students will act wisely to depend on this book, and the post-graduate students will receive valuable help from the bibliographical and critical notes in Appendix I.