Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c3.s2.3

c3.s2.3

WE HAVE DESIGNATED the period with which we were concerned in the preceding chapter as the "ancient period," in order just to retain its obscure and uncertain character. It has not moreover been possible to give anything like a historical narrative, of that period. The only chronological strata that can be discerned are those of ancient traditional kings, mentioned only in the *gāthās*, and of those others who are treated in detail in prose portions. The time limit, ranging from 2000 B. C. to 1400 B. C., given to that period, cannot be anything but arbitrary or at the most approximate. It must be remembered, however, that this approximation rests on the assumption, that some of the names of kings discussed here are to be found in the Vedic Literature, which, according to the majority of Vedic scholars,¹ corresponds to the earlier period of Indo-Aryan expansion—second millenium B. C.