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The horizontal spread of the state society accompanying the institution of land grants leading to the formation of a monarchical state polity is frequently witnessed during c. 300–600 CE. Among the many new and small kingdoms which surfaced during the time of the Guptas was the kingdom of Valkhā in Central India located on the banks of the Narmada. The kingdom, as it appears from their land grants, was situated on both sides of the Narmada river, at the southern periphery of the important Gupta strongholds in central India (Airikiṇa, Eran) and beyond the northern frontier of the Vākāṭakas kingdom to the south. In case of the Valkhā kingdom, it appears that in the process of transition from a pre-state to a state, it can be placed in a category where, with the formation of the kingdom around the mid-fourth century CE, Valkhā has just transcended the pre-state stage and could be placed in the genre of an early state. We seek to understand the early character of the Valkhā state through the lens of twenty-seven copper plates found together in a hoard and five others published in a scattered manner. It goes to the credit of K.V. Ramesh and S.P. Tewari who edited the plates in 1990 and revealed the names of the rulers of Valkhā. Through a reading of these charters we seek to understand the emergence and growth of the Valkhā state. Due to the donations, the donee assumes a significant position and so the nature of patronage of the Valkhā rulers becomes central to our study. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article offers information on the Yavana women and girls in ancient India and their roles, such as royal guards, courtesans and slave-women. Topics discussed include the account of Yavana women, as provided by scholar Megasthenes; the depiction these women in the works of scholar Kālidāsa; and the Śūdras, depicted in the epic "Mahābhārata."

The article offers information on the mention of Alexandria in ancient Indian literature and the history of Greek ruler Alexander in India. Topics discussed include the mention of the Indo-Greek Alexandria in the text "Milindapañha;" the mention of Alexandria in the Pāli literature; and the Buddhist monks from the city of Alexandria.

The article offers information on the mythological figures in the ancient Indian literature and the portrayal of Yavanas in it. Topics discussed include a Purāṇic legend, focusing on the coalition between Haihayas and Tālajaṅghas; the mythological accounts in the epic "Mahābhārata;" and the portrayal of Yavanas as the enemies of deity Kṛṣṇa.

The article talks about the Yavana language and script in ancient India, which, based on the periodical's hypothesis, is Greek language and Greek script. Topics discussed include the mention of Yavana or Yona language in Buddhist sources; the Damiḷa (Tamil), Kirāta and Yavana, mentioned as barbarian languages in Pāli literature; and the use of Greek writing in coins by Śakas, Kṣatrapas and Kuṣāṇas.

The article offers information on the Yavanas or Greeks and their accounts as scholars in ancient Indian literature. Topics discussed include the origins of astronomy in Mesopotamia and the Mesopotamian influence on India; the traditional Indian nakṣatra astrology; and the Greek origin of Indian astrology. Also mentioned is the use of several Greek language words in Sanskrit language.

The Jains are not readily identifiable as a prominent component of society during the Gupta Empire, with the archaeological record of their activities being relatively meagre. This has led to the hypothesis that this community may have migrated from the Gupta realms to the west and south of the subcontinent as a result of antipathy towards the non-orthodox articulated in brahmanical/Vaiṣṇava texts such as theViṣṇupurāṇa. This paper identifies in the Śvetāmbara text, theTitthogālī, a possible apocalyptic interpretation of this period in which the Jains are described as being subjected to oppression by King Caturmukha and a goddess in the form of a stone cow. TheTitthogālīalso records the disastrous impact of the flooding of the city of Pāṭaliputra. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the vicinity of the small village of Pawāyā in Madhya Pradesh lie the ruins of Padmāvatī, an important city in ancient times. To date, only one large mound has been excavated at the site, revealing a monumental pyramidal brick structure built in two stages with the earliest phase of construction dating either to the late Nāga or early Gupta period. A temple dedicated to Viṣṇu once crowned the terraces, and although this temple is lost, many interesting and unusual stone and terracotta sculptural fragments survive, most notably an extraordinary lintel once belonging to a gateway of the temple. The aim of this paper is to build up a picture of the architectural form of the terraces and the iconographic themes of the temple. Moreover, insofar as is possible at present, the monument will be situated within its historical context. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The time of the imperial Guptas (c.fourth to sixth centuries CE) represents a pivotal moment in the development of ‘mature Hinduism’. This was characterised by many changes, but most conspicuously by the establishment of institutional worship in temples. Clear archaeological signatures were inscribed across the cultural and physical landscapes of India in the fourth and fifth centuries: away from zones of urbanisation, numerous settlement areas retain sculptural and architectural vestiges in stone, most of them religious in nature. These vestiges, anchored and distributed in space, and with site-specific contexts, reveal much about the production and reproduction of sacred and socio-economic space, which were inextricably tied to water and the environment. For the purpose of this special issue, this article focuses on the archaeological landscapes of Baḍoh-Paṭhāri (Vidiśā District, Madhya Pradesh), an historical site which developed as an important population centre from at least early historic times onwards, if not before, and was connected to the political, trade, and defensive networks of the upper Betwā Basin. Some important remains from Gupta and later Gupta times are found in the immediate surroundings of this place. Their study provides an interesting basis upon which to explore issues relating to the conception and spatiality of new devotional, institutional, and socio-economic domains; and the integration, articulation, and transformation of natural features and local geography in the making of gods’ territory during this crucial period. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As the emblem of Pāśupata identity, representations of the deified teacher called Lakulīśa (the ‘Lord with a Club’) became a prominent feature of the expanding Śaiva religious landscape in early medieval northwest India. This study works to recover some of Lakulīśa’s historical contingency by reading his appearance in both text and image as a reflection of or response to particular concerns of the developing Śaiva religious community. The significance of Lakulīśa’s literary debut in the Nepalese recension of the earlySkandapurāṇais examined first. I then explore the visual representations of this figure by considering patterns in Lakulīśa’s iconography and the place of his images within sanctified spaces. Since temples were vitallociof interaction across a wide spectrum of social groups and religious communities, even ostensibly Śaiva centres would have accommodated a range of deities, religious practitioners, and devotional repertoires. Given the multivocality of these sanctified spaces, I propose that Lakulīśa images would have been subject to multiple ‘readings’ or interpretations. With his attributes signifying power, fertility, and protection, I suggest that Lakulīśa functioned not only as a potent sign of Pāśupata identity, but as a multivalent persona, facets of which would have resonated with a broader religious community. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines a bronze sculpture of the Buddha in the British Museum and offers a revised reading of its dedicatory inscription. A close examination of the paleography, combined with a study of the sculpture’s style, shows that the image belongs in the early years of the sixth century. This provides a date for the ruler Harirāja named in the record and allows us to disassociate him from the Harigupta known from early Gupta coins. In addition, the re-dating of Harirāja provides new material for understanding the historical and cultural complexities of the late Gupta kingdom. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents archaeological evidence from the neighbouring villages of Nagardhan and Hamlapuri in the Nagpur District of Maharashtra, approximately 6 km south of the ancient Vākāṭaka religious centre of Rāmṭek. Both sites have previously been identified as the location of Nandivardhana, one of the Eastern Vākāṭaka ‘capitals’ or royal ‘residences’. The data presented here was recorded during an archaeological survey of Rāmṭek that aimed to contextualise the site in its landscape, and to explore the rural settlement history of the area. The archaeological evidence recorded primarily consisted of ceramic remains, alongside finds of brick, tile, and sculptural pieces. Study of the ceramic remains in particular works towards both increasing our understanding of settlement sites contemporary to the Vākāṭaka developments at Rāmṭek and enabling further insight into the representative cultural assemblage of the Early Historic period in this region. This information will contribute to our overall understanding of the third to sixth centuries CE, which was a period of significant socio-political and economic development across India and of supposed Eastern Vākāṭaka expansion into newly developing areas. The evidence presented here lends further weight to the identification of Nagardhan as Nandivardhana, and supports the hypothesis that this area represents a noteworthy centre of Early Historic settlement activity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A pair of copper plates found in Jamkhed and written in cursive box-headed characters document a donation of land by an anonymous prince or king who says he is the son of Devarāja and grandson of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa king Bhavanmāna. This paper identifies Bhavanmāna as the king known as Mānāṅka in two previously published inscriptions: the Pāṇḍaraṅgapallī plates of Avidheya and the Uṇḍikavāṭikā plates of Abhimanyu. Altogether four generations of this royal house, sometimes referred to as the Rāṣṭrakūtas of Mānapura, are known to have ruled successively. The new discovery furnishes no date or previously unknown dynastic information, but confirms that these rulers did indeed call themselves Rāṣṭrakūṭa, and hints that their domain may have extended to the area around Jamkhed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Presenting new evidence from lately discovered inscriptions and a critical investigation of the earlier available epigraphic and literary material, this article conclusively disproves the Gūjar identification of the Imperial Pratihāras. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While substantial work has been done on Harappan crafts from the point of view of technological processes, spatial contexts and organisation, there is hardly anything that is known about aspects of technology and production in the early historic period. For the latter, the focus has largely been on stray artefacts rather than documenting other kinds of evidence such as debitage or waste, although more contextual information on craft production in the early historic period is beginning to emerge from sites excavated more recently. This, however, is still fragmentary in nature, in contrast to the archaeological evidence on ceramic and terracotta production that we have been able to retrieve from the site of Indor Khera in the upper Ganga plains between the period 200 BCE and 500 CE. This is in the form of tools, such as anvils, socket stones, pottery stamps, bone engravers, stone polishers; firing facilities; lumps, rolls and pellets of clay and terracotta that represent raw material used for various processes and objects; deposits of sand used perhaps for tempering; unbaked artefacts; wasters or over-vitrified material; rejects or misshapen objects; as well as the variety of ceramic and terracotta artefacts that were being produced. More important, this range of evidence has been recovered concentrated within four adjacent houses at the north-western edge of the ancient town of Indor Khera. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Patronage by the royal court of religious institutions and foundations is one of the hallmarks of the development of India under the rule of the Gupta and Vākāṭaka kings (4th-5th centuries). This patronage was extended also to religious movements other than the king's own persuasion. The evolving culture of religious tolerance and enthusiasm is apparent in the temple monuments of the time. In this article we focus on four archeological sites where these developments become best visible: Udayagiri, Māṇḍhaḷ, Rāmagiri (Ramtek), and Mansar. The close relationship of the Gupta and Vākāṭaka realms is investigated in its local settings. Renewed attention is given to the 'Mandhal Inscription, Year 5' of the Vākāṭaka king Rudrasena II and the deity on whose authority the charter was issued: Muṇḍasvāmin. It is argued that the name Muṇ ḍ a refers to no one else than the Gupta queen of Rudrasena II, Prabhāvatī Guptā. During the last decade, excavations in Mansar (5 km west of Ramtek) have brought to light the state sanctuary of the youngest son of Prabhāvaī, Pravarasena II. The findings there are placed within the tradition that can be traced back, through Rāmagiri and Māṇḍḥaḷ, to the religious foundations in Udayagiri. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the features of the Gupta-Vākāṭaka age is the growth of Śaivism. In this article some of the epigraphical evidence for this process is assembled and discussed. While the direct evidence for the adoption of Śiva worship among the Guptas is limited to ministers of the Gupta court, it is clear that the Vākā ṭaka kings were predominantly Māheśvaras. New fragmentary wall inscriptions uncovered from Mansar, the site of Pravarasena II's palace, hint at a possible connection with the teachings of the Śvetā śvatara-Upaniṣad. Two post-Gupta inscriptions from the area around Mandasor are discussed in the light of a tendency towards religious hierarchisation, an attitude which came to be increasingly characteristic of early medieval Śaivism. In the second part attention is drawn to the variety of Pā śsupata and Māheśvara worship in the Gupta-Vākāṭaka age, as well as to the trifold organisation of the Pā śupata movement. The article ends with a note on the interaction with non-Śaiva traditions, in particular Buddhism, and its possible impact upon the formation of the Pā śupata movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article attempts to re-read the narratives of political and administrative achievements of women and their contribution in early medieval India through inscriptional sources (AD 600–1200). It looks into the aspects like what contributions females made towards socio-economic and political developments when they were given a chance to hold the administration. Various rules of succession have also been commented upon. Their roles as independent rulers or as regents has been studied in several dimensions. This article has also tried to find through inscriptions the administrative efficiency of females working at various levels of administration, from a ruler to a governor or from a feudatory to holding the responsibility of a village head (wo)man. Important conclusions tend to justify as well as negate certain preconceived notions regarding this age (Dark Age) as well as regarding those female rulers who got lesser or no chance to get mentioned in the pages of history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article concentrates on the production of copper plate donative charters by the chancellery of the later Western Calukyas in what is now northern Karnataka. In analysing this small corpus of eight documents, I try to capture how this form of public document can be context-ualised in multiple ways, in order to restore something of the pragmatic world of the emergence and use of this particular set of epigraphic materials. Over the period studied here, several changes can be observed in the relationship between the officials authorising the plates' issue and the Brahman scribes who actually drew up the documents, while the documents themselves remain totally standardised in their orthography and general physique. The article also includes a brief cultural-historical digression on the empirical as well as subjective worlds of a literate professional in this world, suggesting a general type of disillusioned, highly mobile literatus within the professional cadres of the medieval peninsula. Scribe and script afford us evidence of separate and internally heterogeneous historical processes, which unfolded according to altogether different temporal rhythms. The complex social and cultural dynamics evident from these materials suggest new ways in which historians of medieval India can approach questions of temporality and of causal heterogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the study which examined the founder of the Indo-Greek Era of 186/5 B.C.E. It narrates the history of the Kingdom of Bactria which inhabited the fertile valleys of Northern Afghanistan but crossed the Hindu Kush led by Demetrius I in the conquest of Punjab and the Indian Coast. It accounts no exact datings until a buddhist reliquary from 201 of the Yonana era was found with inscriptions for the year 73 during the time of Saka King Azes from 57 B.C.

The article discusses how beliefs of time, history, space, boundaries and identities have evolved in the traditions of ancient texts in the country of India, which intrudes on how historical regions were in the continual process of sense-making. The sources that historians use to reconstruct ancient historical regions, states, and territories and its theoretical foundations regarding the ideas of time and history are explored. The conflict of perceiving and documenting history between the early textual traditions and specific data from inscriptions is discussed.

There has been considerable research work on early South India, particularly early Tamilakam, using archaeological, epigraphical and literary sources. Earlier, studies on early Tamilakam was almost exclusively based on the early Tamil texts, called as heroic or bardic poetry. However, a wealth of material has been generated by archaeological exploration, that have unearthed a mass of material from paleolithic, mesolthic, neolithic and the iron age megalthic, bordering on the early historic ages. A number of Tamil Brahmi label inscriptions have also been discovered. However, the largest number of archeaological finds have been megalthic burial sites and habitation sites are only in the process of being discovered. There are also difficulties in corroborating archaelogical and epigraphic material with the enormous corpus of early Tamil texts. As a result, there is a tendency to dismiss the early Tamil texts as not conducive to historical analysis. The present article argues that we will still be able to use the material of the early Tamil texts using the tools provided by human geography, and suggests a methodology for making use of the literary material for further explorations in the early history of Tamilakam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the Greek bhikkhus and the Buddhist missionary activity in ancient India, focusing on the Indo-Greek country. Topics discussed include several commentaries in the Pāli literature; the relation of the Indo-Greeks to Buddhism; and the evidence provided in the text "Milindapañha."

The article focuses on the root of Vikram Samvant, the calendar used by Hindus. It states that the Vikram Samvant's origin as mentioned in the book "A Textbook on Ancient History of Indian Agriculture," by R. C. Saxena, S. L. Choudhary, and Y. L. Nene is debatable. It says that there is no evidence proving that King Vikramaditya of Ujjain established the calendar. In the book "Ancient Malwa and the Vikramaditya Tradition," author Dinesh Chandra Sircar notes that there was no king named Vikramaditya in the period that began in 58 B.C. It relates that a new era spread from around 58 B.C. which was called the Vikrama Samvant.

The article offers information on the ethnonym yavana, which was used to signify Greek or Hellenized peoples in ancient India. Topics discussed include the Graeco-Bactrians and Indo-Greeks; the mention of Greeks in ancient Indian literature; and the increasing power of Arabs and their religion in the 7th century, which changed in the dynamics of ancient India.

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article "Chronology of ancient Insdian history," by Dhanush Mishra.