The Archaeology of the Deccan Routes : The Ancient Routes from the Ganga Plain to the Deccan

Contents: Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. The geographical and archaeological evidence: from Rajagriha and Pataliputra to Varanasi, and from Varanasi to the Deccan across the son and the Sarguja-Chhattisgarh Plains. 3. The geographical and archaeological evidence: from Mirzapur, Allahabad, Kausambi, Kanpur, Etawah and Agra to the Deccan through Malwa and across the Tapti. 4. Medieval and later documents. 5. Summary and conclusions. References. Index.

"Based on extensive field-studies in 1999-2002, this book sets out to trace the routes which linked the Ganga-Yamuna plain between Rajagriha and Mathura with Andhra (Eastern Deccan) and Maharashtra (Western Deccan) in the ancient period. What has emerged is the essential framework of a complex network of routes still traceable on the ground. This network has also been compared with the corresponding evidence in the mediaeval and later historic records, and it has been argued that, although the routes of these later periods had partly changed their alignments with the rise of new economic and political centres of power, the ancient alignments did not die out but continued to function at the grassroots level. This may be said to be the first field-study of its kind in the context of ancient Indian routes." (jacket)