Ancient and Classical India
A gap in the curriculum
Ancient and Classical India
ScopeBroad enough for its own sub-branch
AfterWho We Are and How We Got Here
Leads toThe Bhagavad Gita · The Anarchy
Lineage11 books back to the Big Bang
The subcontinent from the Indus Valley and the Vedic age through the Mauryas, the Guptas, and the classical Hindu-Buddhist world — the deep history behind the Bhagavad Gita and, later, Mughal India.
Claude’s take
The tree reaches Indian thought and Mughal-era India but skips the three thousand years of subcontinental history that produced them.
Candidate reading
- The Wonder That Was India — A. L. Basham
- India: A History — John Keay
- Early India — Romila Thapar