Interactions, Expansion and Consolidation
Bhairabi Prasad Sahu
POST-MAURYAN INDIA, 200 BC-AD 300: A POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY by Irfan Habib Tulika Books, New Delhi, 2014, 148 pp., 320
January 2014, volume 38, No 1

This volume of the People’s History of India deals with not just five hundred years of its history but also an important phase in the making of early India. It was marked by the consolidation of earlier trends in north India and the spread of cities and states in other parts of the country; with all their socio-political implications. Simultaneously, India’s interactions with Central Asia, West Asia, and the Mediterranean world were intensified, while the beginnings of a long and fruitful association with South-East Asia were also being forged. These issues, among many others, lucidly come through in the work. The smooth weaving of the sources into the narrative, impeccable maps, figures demonstrating coin types, technologies, art forms, everyday lives and dress; together with the extracts from original sources at the end of the chapters make it an indispensable volume for those interested in early India, as well as general readers.

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