History Of Pancala: To C. Ad 550, Vol. I (A Study)

Pancala, the land of great Upanisadic thinkers such as Pravahana Jaivali, Gargyayana and Uddalaka and the cradle of Vedic culture; the land haloed by various Jain tirthamkaras including Parsvanatha; the land of the Buddha's descent from the Trayas trimsa heaven is the subject of a multi-faceted enquiry in this two volume work. Its an attempt to deviate from the stereotype of the drum and trumpet dynastic regional histories. It is not only a microscopic study of the region but also projects a macroscopic view by placing the contributions the and and its people in the overall context of the history of northern India down to c. 'AD 550. With the help of an integrated study of the literary, archaeological, epigraphic and numismatic sources, the work delineates various facets of the life of the Pancalas against their material background and has attempted to show the interaction of economic, social, political, religious and cultural developments. The archaeological perspective of the region has provided clues not only for an understanding of its own legendary beginnings, but for a better appreciation of the problems of north Indian archaeology as well. The work, for the first time, presents a systematic and a multi-dimensional study of nearly 3000 coins. These have also been catalogued in all their minutae in the Corpus, which is the second and a companion volume to the present work. Hundreds of terracottas, including the gigantic Ganga-Yamuna and beautiful Siva-Parvati representations, tiny animal figurines studied here for the first time, massive fortifications, colossal so-called Siva temple, magnificent Buddhist monasteries, residential complexes, stone sculptures, numerous varieties of beads, metal objects and decorated pottery from Ahicchatra bring out the distinctive cultural personality of Pancala.