India: Society Religion and Literature in Ancient and Medieval Periods

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This book contains relevant chapters from the famous volume of ‘The Gazetteer of India-History and culture.’ This book gives a brief account of social and religious movements in ancient and medieval periods and their impact on the educational, literary scientific and cultural transformation of the Indian society.

Sir William Hunter’s well-known book The Indian Empire was published in 1881. It was revised and published in four volumes in 1907-09 under the title The Imperial Gazetteer of India. These four volumes have now been revised and brought up—to—date. They are entitled The Gazetteer of India: Indian Union. The second volume — History and Culture — was published in 1973.

Some of the chapters of this volume, namely, Government and Economic life; Society, Religion and Literature; Arts and Architecture; Pre-Historic and Proto-Historic Periods; Early History of India up to AD 1206; and History of Medieval India (AD 1206- AD 1761) which have a wider public opinion, are being published separately in the form of booklets. The idea is to provide to the general public especially the university students, low-priced publications containing authentic and objective information on these subjects by well-known writers who are experts in their respective fields.

There were no chapters on Society, Religion and Literature in the Imperial Gazetteer. However, A. A. Macdonell contributed the chapter on Sanskrit Literature in Ancient Period while G. A. Grierson wrote a chapter on Vernacular Literature in Medieval India. In the revised Indian Gazetteer, there are a number of Contributors who wrote the chapter", on Society, Religion and Literature in Ancient India and Medieval India on which this booklet is based. These are Gaurinath Sastri, A. N. Bose, B. L. Atreya, J. N. Banerjea, Radha Kumud Mookerji, S. N. Ghosal, B. R. Saksena, T. V Mahalingam and Mela Ram for Ancient Period and Tara Chand, K. S. Lal, B. P Saksena, T. M. P Mahadevan, B. L. Atreya, K. A. Nizami, Nilakashi Sen Gupta, Nagendra, B. R. Saksena, T. V Mahalingam, M. Nizamuddin and A. Rahman for Medieval period. It is hoped that not only this booklet but the entire series will serve a useful purpose and meet the requirements of the general public.