Reprint of the original, first published in 1869.

1. Survey of the Sources of History 2. Indian Pre-Historic Age : Palaeolithic Culture 3. A Survey of Prehistoric India : Mesolithic, Neolithic and Chalcolithic Culture 4. Indus Valley Civilization 5. Indus Valley Civilization (Harappan Civilization) : Origin, Extent & Decline 6. Vedic Civilization : Society, Polity, Economy Religion, Culture and Philosophy 7. India in the Sixth Century : Sixteen Mahajanapadas 8. Religious System in the Sixth Century : Jainism and Buddhism 9. The Mauryan Empire : Chandragupta Maurya, Maurya Administration, Ashoka and Ashoka’s Dhamma 10. Post Mauryan Period : Shungas, Kshatrapas, Satavahanas and Kushanas 11. Sangam Age : Literature, Society, Culture and Foreign Trade 12. Gupta Empire : Sources, Administration, Art, Architecture, Religion and Development of Science and Technology 13. Sangam Age in South Indian History : Cheras, Pandays and Cholas

Its frivolous subject may have been the reason why Malavika and Agni mitra is sometimes considered to be the least significant of the three dramas of Kali dasa, the poet laureate of Indian antiquity who probably lived in the fifth century CE. Yet the play’s lively and playful plot more than makes up for its lack of deities, heroic prowess and pathos. The machinations of King Agni mitra’s jester to help him add a dancing girl to his harem in spite of the subtle intrigues of the two jealous queens carry the gallant hero through hope and despair to the happy ending.

The present work is an analytical account of classical Sanskrit literature in its historical perspective. It is divided into six books, containing several chapters, each dealing with a particular branch of Sanskrit learning. The work is full of references; the footnotes refer to a variety of sources, legendary, inscriptional, numismatic, architectural and literary. The writer has exploited all the relevant material of the journals, catalogues, annals, reports and other documents in discussing the vexed problems of the date, place, genealogy of the authors and the literary tendencies of their compositions. His methodology of literary criticism is rationalistic and bears the stamp of the modern scientific age. The elaborate index, the critical introduction, the exhaustive bibliography, the list of abbreviations, the table of transliteration and a supplement are the most useful additions to this interesting and instructive work of literary history.

List of members in each volume.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1877.