THE EARLY HISTORY OF INDIA FROM 600 B.C. TO THE M.A. (DUBL.); M.R.A.S., F.R.N.S., LATE OF THE INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE; OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS PREFACE THE plan and limitations of this book have been explained so fully in the Introduction that little more need be said by way of preface. The room for difference of opinion on many of the subjects treated is so great that I cannot expect my views on controverted points to meet with universal acceptance; and the complexity of my undertaking forbids me to hope that positive errors, justly open to censure, have been avoided altogether; but I trust that critics will be prepared to concede the amount of indulgence which may be granted legitimately to the work of a pioneer. The devotion of a disproportionately large space to the memorable invasion of Alexander the Great is due to the exceptional interest of the subject, which, so far as I know, has not been treated adequately in any modern book. The extreme brevity of the fourteenth and fifteenth chapters, dealing with the mediaeval kingdoms of the north and the Deccan, which may be open to adverse criticism, is attributable to the limited interest of merely local histories. In the final chapter an attempt has been made to give an intelligible outline of the history of the South, so far as it has been ascertained. The story of the Dravidian nations seems to me deserving of more attention than it generally receives. The presentation of cumbrous and unfamiliar |