Early Harappans and Indus Sarasvati Civilization (2 Vols-Set)

Contents: Vol. I: Preface. I. Introduction: 1. Harappan civilization/D.P. Sharma. 2. South Asian Archaeology: some issues/D.P. Agrawal. II. Early harappans: 3. New discoveries point to a Southern origin: Gulf of Cambay/David Frawley and Navratna Rajaram. 4. World\'s oldest lost civilization found in South Asia/Raj Chengapa. 5. Early Neolithic settlement in Bannu, Pakistan/J.R. Knox, Farid Khan and K.D. Thomas. 6. Sheri Khan Tarakai: excavation in Bannu District, N.W.F.P/J.R. Knox, Farid Khan and K.D. Thomas. 7. Origin of the Harappan civilization/D.P. Sharma. 8. Origin of Harappan civilization and Mehrgarh excavations/Jean Francois Jarrige. 9. Earliest agriculture in the Kachi Plain (Mehrgarh)/Lorenzo Costantini. 10. Early Harappan remains, pottery and artifacts at Nausharo/Anaick Samzun. 11. Early Harappan ceramics/D.P. Sharma. 12. Petrographic analysis of early Harappan ceramics of South Asia (ca. 3500-2700 B.C.)/Graham M. Chandler. 13. Padri : the early Harappan site in Gujarat/Vasant Shinde. 14. Early Harappans in Gujarat/Abhijit Majumdar. 15. Ochre coloured ceramics and the early and mature Harappans/R.C. Gaur. 16. 5-4 millennium dating Rigveda culture/Shivaji Singh. 17. Indo-European homeland: an Indian perspective/D.N. Tripathi. 18. Dhalewan early-mature Harappan excavated site in Punjab (India)/Madhubala and Vishnu Kant. 19. Transformation of the Harappan civilization/G.L. Possehl.

Vol. II: III. Indus-Sarasvati controversies: 20. Indus and Sarasvati in History, geology and archaeology/S.P. Gupta. 21. Archaeology of Sarasvati/B.B. Lal. 22. Origins of the Indus-Sarasvati civilization/S.P. Gupta. 23. Harappans and Rigveda/R.S. Bisht. 24. Harappan : Vedic civilization/Suman Pandya. 25. The Harappans, Sarasvati and Rigveda/T.P. Verma. 26. Rigvedic and Harappan connections/Shivaji Singh. 27. The Mahabharat for Harappan civilization/S.P. Gupta. 28. Sarasvati and Harappan archaeology/Vedagya Arya. 29. Vedic Harappans/N.S. Rajaram. 30. Archaeology cannot \'Prove\' the Vedas/Nayanjot Lahiri and Upender Singh. 31. Rational approach to the Rigveda and Indus civilization/Malati J Shende. 32. Indus seals and Atharvaveda/P.V. Pathak. 33. Notes on flora and fauna in the Rigveda/B.B. Lal. 34. Technology transfer in 4 millennium B.C. in Bannu Basin/K.D. Thomas, J.R. Knox and Farid Khan. 35. Third millennium painted Grey Wares in Pakistan and Iran/Rita P. Wright. 36. Sarasvati : river and civilization/N.S. Rajaram. 37. Harappan language and script/N.S. Rajaram. 38. Vedic Harappans and the horse symbolism/N.S. Rajaram and N. Jha. 39. Harappan occupation at Nausharo/Jean-Francois Jarrige. 40. Collapse of the Sarasvata Sabhyata : an elegy in Mahabharata/Arun Kumar.

"According to a scholar the Harappan civilization is the gift of two rivers - the Indus and Sarasvati whose tributaries had played a dominant and decisive role in the origin of this bronze civilization. As of now around 2668 Harappan and its associated sites have been reported, of which 1068 sites are located in the dried up bank of the Sarasvati river. The Sarasvati was a mighty river between ca. 5000 and 1800 B.C. around ca. 1800 B.C., due to neo-tectonic movements in the Himalayas, the river started drying up. It flowed down from the Himalayas to Adi Badri towards Desalpur in Gujarat.

This work is a collection of forty research papers contributed by the noted scholars and historians from India and abroad. Volume one contains nineteen papers which includes introduction, the origin of Harappan, and early Harappan village Chalcolithic cultures. Volume two covers on Indus Sarasvati civilization and includes twenty one papers on the mature Indus Sarasvati civilization which contain controversial and clashing views. Available archaeological evidences suggest the Atharvavedic and mature Harappan were contemporary and they had contacts with each other. The Atharvavedic people were the authors of the copper hoard culture. The nomenclature, either of Harappan, Indus or Indus Sarasvati civilization hardly matters as the meaning of these are the same. This has been confirmed on the basis of the available archaeological evidence.

Bound in two volumes, the papers with notes, references and bibliography are well illustrated and grouped in three parts, i.e., introduction; early harappans; and Indus-Sarasvati controversies." (jacket)