The Historian and Her Craft Set - Collected Essays and Lectures

This is a set of four volumes aimed at bringing together the best research by Romila Thapar to showcase her academic contributions to the understanding of history and historiography in India. The four volumes will focus on bringing together all the lectures and papers on an area of her work-historiography, Mauryas and Mauryan India, Social and Cultural Transaction, and Religion and Society. Each volume also includes a detailed interview with the author and a reflection on her work by an expert in the field, who will introduce the essays in that volume.
The introduction to the set by Romila Thapar will explore her academic life and approaches to early Indian history and history writing. It will incorporate a detailed analysis of all the trends and transformations in historical thinking and history writing that have shaped the last six decades of Indian history.
The set of volumes would conserve and reflect on the life and work of an eminent historian of India.

List of contents

• Volume I - Ideology, Theory, and History
  


• Introduction to the Set - Romila Thapar


• Introduction to the Volume - Neeladri Bhattacharya
  


• Decolonising History


• 1. Ideology and the Interpretation of Early Indian History


• 2. Early India: An Overview


• 3. The Decolonization of History: Early India
  


• Marxism, Sociology and the writing of History


• 4. Durkheim and Weber on Theories of Society and Race Relating to Pre-colonial India


• 5. The Contribution of D.D. Kosambi to Indology
  


• Writing the Region


• 6. Regional History: The Punjab


• 7. Regional History with Reference to the Konkan
  


• Secularism and the Writing of History


• 8. Imagined Religious Communities? Ancient History and the Modern Search for a Hindu Identity


• 9. Secularism and History


• 10. The Historiography of the Concept of 'Aryan'


• 11. The Tyranny of Labels
  


• The Question of Historical Consciousness


• 12. Society and Historical Consciousness: The Itihasa-purana Tradition


• 13. Was There Historical Writing in Early India?
  


• Narrative - An History


• 14. A Historical Perspective on the Story of Rama


• 15. Sakuntala: Histories of a Narrative


• 16. Somanatha: Narratives of a History
  


• Romila Thapar in conversation with Neeladri Bhattacharya


• Index
  


• Volume II - Pre-Mauryan and Mauryan India


• Introduction to the Volume - Kumkum Roy
  


• Starting Up


• 1. A Possible Identifi cation of Meluhha, Dilmun and Makan


• 2. Society in Ancient India: The Formative Period
  


• Archaelogy and Texts


• 3. The Rigveda: Encapsulating Social Change


• 4. The Archaeological Background to the Agnicayana Ritual


• 5. Archaeological Artifacts and Literary Data: An Attempt at Co-relation
  


• State and Empire


• 6. The Evolution of the State in the Ganga Valley in the Mid-first Millennium BC


• 7. The Early History of Mathura: Up to and Including the Mauryan Period


• 8. Towards the Definition of an Empire: The Mauryan State


• 9. State Weaving-Shops of the Mauryan Period
  


• Inscriptions


• 10. Asoka and Buddhism as Reflected in the Asokan Edicts


• 11. Raya Asoko from Kanaganahalli: Some Thoughts


• 12. Literacy and Communication: Some Thoughts on the Inscriptions of Asoka
  


• Beyond the Empire


• 13. Epigraphic Evidence and S

  About the author

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Romila Thapar is Emerita Professor, Centre for Historical Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
  
  

  Summary

  This is a set of four volumes aimed at bringing together the best research by Romila Thapar to showcase her academic contributions to the understanding of history and historiography in India. The four volumes will focus on bringing together all the lectures and papers on an area of her work-historiography, Mauryas and Mauryan India, Social and Cultural Transaction, and Religion and Society. Each volume also includes a detailed interview with the author and a reflection on her work by an expert in the field, who will introduce the essays in that volume.
  The introduction to the set by Romila Thapar will explore her academic life and approaches to early Indian history and history writing. It will incorporate a detailed analysis of all the trends and transformations in historical thinking and history writing that have shaped the last six decades of Indian history.
  The set of volumes would conserve and reflect on the life and work of an eminent historian of India.

Product details

• Authors: Professor Romila (Emerita Professor Thapar, Romila Thapar
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 28.02.2018
• EAN: 9780199467150
• ISBN: 978-0-19-946715-0
• No. of pages: 1580
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous