The Ancient South Asian World

Learn about the history and civilizations from ancient South Asia through the study of a variety of archaeological discoveries.

Few regions have shaped the world's history as deeply as South Asia. The birthplace of three of the world's major religions-Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism-the Indian subcontinent has made indelible contributions to the world, from foods such as curry and granulated sugar to the performance of meditation and yoga, from the architectural magnificence of the Taj Mahal to the binary system of numbers. In this accessible book, Marc Jason Gilbert takes us on a journey through South Asia's fascinating history, starting with the blossoming of the Harappan civilization in the fertile Indus valley more than four thousand years ago. Following the routes of the cotton, tea, and opium trade that connected the West and the East throughout history, Gilbert describes South Asia's classical Hindu and Buddhist empires, the coming of Islam to South Asia, the local impact of the Mongol invasions, the splendors of the Mughal Empire, the expansion of British colonial dominion, and the development of South Asian modern nations-Nepal, Pakistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, and Myanmar-in the twentieth century. The book concludes with a timely reflection on the contradictory face of contemporary South Asia. Although the region has produced some of the world's most iconic leaders of non-violent protest-Mahatma Gandhi, Arundhati Roy, Mother Teresa, and Aung San Suu Kyi-severe social divisions and injustice persist in most South Asian countries. Simultaneously, extraordinary economic growth is deeply transforming South Asian societies and may enable them to rival the United States and China as the world's largest economies. Gilbert's transnational perspective illuminates how world historical processes-from changes in the environment and the economy to the movement of peoples and ideas-have shaped and continue to shape the history of South Asia and its place in the wider world.

Ancient Southeast Asia provides readers with a much needed synthesis of the latest discoveries and research in the archaeology of the region, presenting the evolution of complex societies in Southeast Asia from the protohistoric period, beginning around 500BC, to the arrival of British and Dutch colonists in 1600. Well-illustrated throughout, this comprehensive account explores the factors which established Southeast Asia as an area of unique cultural fusion. Miksic and Goh explore how the local population exploited the abundant resources available, developing maritime transport routes which resulted in economic and cultural wealth, including some of the most elaborate art styles and monumental complexes ever constructed. The book’s broad geographical and temporal coverage, including a chapter on the natural environment, provides readers with the context needed to understand this staggeringly diverse region. It utilizes French, Dutch, Chinese, Malay-Indonesian and Burmese sources and synthesizes interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives and data from archaeology, history and art history. Offering key opportunities for comparative research with other centres of early socio-economic complexity, Ancient Southeast Asia establishes the area’s importance in world history.

This book sketches an outline of Southeast Asian history from earliest times to the present, showing how the diverse political, economic, social, and cultural patterns developed over several thousand years and the role played by the region in the larger world. Approximately one third will be devoted to the centuries before 1500 CE, when civilizations and kingdoms emerged and some Southeast Asians became active in Asian and Pacific maritime trade networks. It discusses the connections to India and China, the great kingdoms such as Angkor, the maritime trade, and the emergence of diverse cultural traditions, including the Theravada Buddhist, Islamic, and Vietnamese realms. Another third covers the period of Western expansion and colonization between 1500 and 1941, when various Western nations began to gradually influence and then reshape the region and Southeast Asians became more deeply involved with world trade. This includes an extensive discussion of the impact of colonialism on Southeast Asian societies, cultures, economies and politics. The final third examines the rise of nationalism and independence movements, decolonization, the wars in Indochina, and the links between past, present, and future.

The Teaching Guide to The Ancient South Asian World is a complete, all-in-one resource that provides teachers with the support they need to help their students access the content of the book from the Medieval & Early Modern World series. It contains a collection of important instructional tools for the teacher, and a separate section on reading and literacy with practical strategies for teaching content to students with a wide range of abilities and learning styles. Special multimedia, cross-curricular projects, one for each chapter, designed for mixed-group use gives students of all backgrounds and learning styles a chance to access and interact with the content. Chapter-by-chapter three-page lesson plans that are filled with activities to help teachers get the most out of every chapter in the book, including two chapter activities in blackline master form, graphic organizer reproducibles, project outlines, rubrics and a chapter assessment.

The Student Study Guides are important and unique components that are available for each of the books in The World in Ancient Times series. Each of the Student Study Guides is designed to be used with the main text at school or sent home for homework assignments. The activities in the Student Study guide will help students get the most out of their history books. Each student study guide includes a chapter-by-chapter two-page lesson that uses a variety of interesting activities to help a student master history and develop important reading and study skills.

This book provides a comprehensive research on Ancient Indian glass. The contributors include experienced archaeologists of South Asian glass and archaeological chemists with expertise in the chemical analysis of glass, besides, established ethnohistorians and ethnoarchaeologists. It is comprised of five sections, and each section discusses different aspects of glass study: the origin of glass and its evolution, its scientific study and its care, ancient glass in literature and glass ethnography, glass in South Asia and the diffusion of glass in different parts of the world. The topic covered by the different chapters ranges from the development of faience, to the techniques developed for the manufacture of glass beads, glass bangles or glass mirrors at different times in south Asia, a major glass producing region and the regional distribution of key artefacts both within India and outside the region, in Africa, Europe or Southeast Asia. Some chapters also include extended examples of the archaeometry of ancient glasses. It makes an important contribution to archaeological, anthropological and analytical aspects of glass in South Asia. As such, it represents an invaluable resource for students through academic and industry researchers working in archaeological sciences, ancient knowledge system, pyrotechnology, historical archaeology, social archaeology and student of anthropology and history with an interest in glass and the archaeology of South Asia.

The macro-region of South Asia – including Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka – today supports one of the world’s greatest concentrations of cities, but as James Heitzman argues in the first comprehensive treatment of urban South Asia, this has been the case for at least 5,000 years. With a strong emphasis on the production of space and periodic excursions into literature, art and architecture, religion and public culture, this interdisciplinary study is a valuable text for students and scholars interested in comparative history, urban studies, and the social sciences.