The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c20.6

c20.6

The materials for the study of the administrative practices of these two centuries fall into three classes. In the first place, there are Muslim accounts, chiefly that of Alberûnî, the first and foremost of all Muslim students of Sanskrit, who lived for a while in India and wrote about 1030 A.D. In the second place, the contemporary Sanskrit literature, both Brahmanic and Jaina, can be made to yield something. In the third place, the inscriptions supply numerous administrative details.