Between the Empires Society in India 300 BCE to 400 CE

includes index and biblioraphy

Part one Digging the past: Archaeology and history 1. Relating history to the land: Urban centres, geographical units, and trade routes in the Gangetic and central india of circa 200 BCE ....5 2. New perspectives on the mauryan and kushana periods .....33 3. Early indian art reconsidered .....51 4. Numismatics and history: The maurya-gupta Interlude in the gangetic plain ......67 5. Inscribed pots, emerging identities: The social milieu of trade ....113 6. The tidal waves of indian history: Between the empires and beyond .....145 Part Two Reading the past: Texts and history 7. Explorations in the early history of dharmasastra .....169 8. Women between the empires and between the lines .....191 9. Changing perspectives in the sanskrit grammatical tradition and the changing political configurations in ancient india ......215 10. The narayaniya and the early reading communities of the mahanharata ....227 11. Negotiating the shape of scripture : New perspectives on the development growth of the mahabharata between the empire ....257 12. Systematic philosophy between the empires: Some determining features .....287 13. A well-sanitized shroud: Asceticism and institutional values in the middle period of buddjist monasticism ......315 14. Recent discoveries of early buddhist manuscripts and their implications for the history of buddhist texts and canons ...349 15. A non-imperial religion? Jainism in its dark age .....383 16. Naming and social exclusion: the outcast and the outsider .....415 17. Brahmanical reactions to foreign influences and to social and religious change ....457