Testing Ancient Indian Traditions (On The Touchstone of Archaeology) - Hardcover

B.B. Lal

9788173055881: Testing Ancient Indian Traditions (On The Touchstone of Archaeology)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 8173055882 ISBN 13: 9788173055881

Publisher: ARYAN BOOKS INTERNATIONAL, 2017

Language: English
Pages: 108 (Throughout B/W Illustrations)
About the Book

It has become almost a ritual on the part of self-proclaimed intellectuals to dub ancient Indian traditional history as figment of imagination. They do not hesitate to put the two Indian epics, .namely the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, in this category.

By marshalling the evidence of archaeology, this book establishes that the Mahabharata is based on historical reality, even though it got inflated from an original 8,800 verses to present-day 100,000 verses. Similarly, the archaeological evidence shows that Manu's Flood is not a myth. The same applies to other topics dealt with in this book.

About the Author

A world-renowned archaeologist, Prof. B.B. Lal was the Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India from 1968 to 1972. In the latter year he took voluntary retirement to pursue his research programmes independently. First he joined Jiwaji University, Gwalior, as a Professor and later the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, of which he was also the Director.

Professor Lal's excavations cover a very wide range - from palaeolithic times to early historical. At Kalibangan, Rajasthan, he unearthed a prosperous city of the Harappan Civilization. The excavations at Hastinapura, Indraprastha, etc. have established that there was a kernel of truth in the Mahabharata, even though the epic is full of interpolations. Likewise, his excavations at Ayodhya, Sringaverapura, etc. have indicated that the Riimiiya1J.a too has a basis in history. In 1961, he conducted excavations in Egypt also, which threw welcome light on Egyptian prehistory.

His publications include over 150 seminal research papers, published in scientific journals, both in India and abroad: USA, UK, France

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