An individual chapter touches on questions of the ethnogeny of Northern and Southern India. A particularly detailed treatment is given to what is known as the “Aryan problem” — a set of questions connected with the origin of the peoples which now speak the Indo-Aryan languages, with the time and routes of their migration to India and their relations with its non-Aryan population.
The development of the Ganges Valley, which began in the second millennium B.C., led to the emergence of a new focus of civilization, which held the lead throughout the ancient period since it had come into existence. Of great scientific importance is the fact that the study of the history of this period relies on data of Vedic literature. This imparts greater confidence to judgements about social relations (slavery, varna system), forms of statehood, culture and religion. In accordance with a long-established scholarly tradition, the authors refer to the period in the history of the Gangetic civilization which lasted until the mid-1st millennium B.C. as Vedic.
The second part of the book is devoted to the history of formation of the Mauryan Empire, the specific features of the social relations and culture of the Magadha-Mauryan era, those of the rise and development of Buddhism and Jainism and traces the basic processes of social and spiritual life in Southern India.
The third part, which covers the Kushan-Gupta era, analyzes disputable problems of Kushan chronology and history with due account of relevant recent works by Soviet and foreign scholars. The authors cite data pertaining to the class-caste structure of Indian society and the beginnings of feudalism in India, describe Hinduism, Mahayana, as well as the most important philosophical systems. The concluding chapter is connected with the country’s historical and cultural contacts.
As a whole, the present monograph constitutes a fundamental inquiry reinterpreting many cardinal problems of the history and culture of Ancient India.
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