Preface

It has been almost four decades since the first version of this book was
written and in that time there have been substantial changes in the readings
of Indian history. These have come about as a result of some new data,
together with many fresh interpretations of the known data. My attempt
here has been to incorporate the essentials of the new data and interpretations while retaining some of the older arguments where they are still
relevant.
A major amendment to this book lies in its chronological span. It now
closes at c. AD I 300 instead of AD 1526 as in the earlier version. After many
years, I have finally persuaded Penguin that the history of India should be
covered in three volumes and not be restricted to two. The earlier division
of two volumes did not do justice to the important period from c. AD 1300
to 1800 and this is now being corrected. The final volume will bring the
narrative up to contemporary times. This change also provides more space
for each volume. An introduction already exists to the pre-history and
proto-history of India in the volume by F. R. and B. Allchin, The Birth of
Indian Civilisation, revised in 1993, also published by Penguin, as well as
The Origins of a Civilization by the same authors and published by Viking
in 1997 (Penguin, 1998). I have therefore given only a brief overview of
prehistory and protohistory.
In the course of writing this book I have drawn on many friends for
comments on various chapters of an earlier draft. Among them I would like
to thank R. Champakalakshmi, Madhav Gadgil, Dennis Hudson, Xinru
Liu, Michael Meister, Vivek Nanda and K. N. Panikkar. My special thanks
go to Susan Reynolds, not only for observations on specific chapters but
also for many conversations about the book. I was delighted when Ravi
Dayal suggested that he might like to read the penultimate draft and
ploughed his way through it, with helpful remarks on what he had read.
Naina's postings of 'not clear' have hopefully made the narrative more
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