[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924) › c7.1 # The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c7.1 The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c7.1 - **Language:** English ### [c7.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c7.1) The illustrious Elphinstone, writing in 1839, observed that in Indian history ‘no \*date\* of a public event can be fixed before the invasion of Alexander; and no \*connected relation\* of the national transactions can be attempted until after the Mahometan conquest’. Professor Cowell, when commenting upon this dictum, twenty-seven years later, begged his readers to bear it in mind during the whole of the Hindu period; assigning as his reason for this caution the fact that ‘it is only at those points where other nations came into contact with the Hindus, that we are able to settle any details accurately.’¹ - [Previous: c6.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c6.3) - [Next: c7.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c7.2) - [Up: c7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c7) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c7.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c7.1) · Pramāṇa