Studies in the Society and Administration of Ancient and Medieval India Vol-1 (An Old and Rare Book)

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A few years ago, I published a volume entitled Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India incorporating in it most of my papers on historical geography previously appearing in various periodicals. In spite of its many defects, the publication was favourably received by the students of the subject, and I was requested to publish similar volumes of my studies in the other aspects of Indian history and culture. This encouragement induced me to collect my papers on numismatics in another volume under the title Studies in Indian Coins which is just coming out of the press. The third in this series is the present volume in which I was originally inclined to include most of my papers on the social life and administration in ancient and medieval India. The grouping of the two subjects was suggested by the fact that a few articles could be placed under both Society and Administration. Unfortunately, owing to certain unpleasant experiences, the earlier intention had to be given up, and the collection of some of my papers on social life only is now placed in the hands of the students of the early history of our country. The papers included in the volume appeared, during the past three decades or so, in different periodicals to whose authorities my sincere thanks are due.

The plan of the present work is the same as that followed in the other two volumes referred to above. Sometimes two or more papers have been clubbed together for the facility of presentation. Thus the material gathered from about thirty papers has been put up here in the form of thirteen Chapters. There have of course been some omissions, the most notable amongst them being the problems of the origin of the Rajputs, the Guhila claim of solar origin and the Brahma-Kşatriya and Brahma-Vaisya which have been incorporated in my work entitled The Guhilas of Kiskindha, Calcutta, 1965.