Ancient India in Its Wider World

Drawn from a variety of academic disciplines and perspectives, this volume approaches ancient India both historically and geographically. The primary temporal focus lies in India's "Early Historic" period, from the mid-first millennium BCE through the mid-first millennium CE. The geographic focus is shifted landward rather than seaward and is centered on South Asia rather than the Mediterranean. Contributors examine power and material culture; Mediterranean image making, which looks at Greek and Roman understandings of India; and language and otherness, which explores Indian knowledge and understandings of outsiders. The volume as a whole directs us to the complex webs and networks that throughout Indian history have linked South Asians to each other and to the world beyond the subcontinent. A very wide world indeed.