India: from Indus Valley Civilisation to Mauryas (Concepts in Communication Informatics And Librarianship-81‪)‬

The book unveils the Dark age of Ancient Indian History which stretched from 4000 B.C. to the period beginning with the birth of christ. Unveiled what we find is wonder, curiosity and a need for reflection. The author as different from expository style has adopted an interrogative approach. He asks questions, gives the evidence so far available however scanty it may be and then proceeds to give answers. He gives answers which are supported by evidence, archaeological or otherwise. Where there is no evidence to support, he leaves the question either unanswered or produces possible answers, in both cases making his readers reflect, thus sharing with readers not only his knowledge but his doubts as well. This method has an advantage in that when questions come before the answer, it discourages dogmatism and easy certainty. Proceeding in this logical way the whole new vista is opened and new things, new landmarks in the varied history of the ancient India appear and some puzzles are solved. The book brings out that the presiding deity of Indus Valley Civilisation was not Shiv but Rishabh, the first Tirthankar of the Jains and an incarnation of Vishnu as per the Hindus. It also brings out the contrary to the belief that the Indus Valley Civilisation had no contact with the contemporary and ancient civilisation of Sumer in ancient Mesopotamia, but it had very intimate relations. The author looks into the language of Sumer and found in them a large number of word of Hindi. If as he surmises the symbols of such words are also the same in both Sumerian and Indus scripts may be deciphered. Helpfully a list of some common words is appended at the end of the volume. The book also throws light on the vexed puzzle of the origin of the Mauryas and also conjectures on the law of succession among them which brought Bindusar and Ashok on the throne though not necessarily they being the eldest sons. The History is a matter of knowledge but of reflection and the great merit of the book is that the author not only gives information and his reflections but makes the readers to reflect.