Historical Dictionary of Ancient India

摘要

I am not sure which is the greater: the period of time or the geographical coverage of this remarkable book. From the Stone Age, almost two million years ago, to about CE 1000, the ancient history of a vast, rich, even in ancient times heavily populated continent balanced between the West and the Far East and constantly visited or invaded from both, is succinctly encapsulated in a single volume. It speaks much for Dr Roy's erudition that so much is so clearly yet seemingly comprehensively presented here.rnThis is, of course, a dictionary and not an encyclopedia: we are, therefore, given hundreds of articles on "rulers, bureaucrats, ancient societies, religion, gods and philosophical ideas".