ARCHAEOLOGY OF EARLY HISTORICAL INDIA: From 7th Century BC to 7th Century AD

Summary
Principal Teacher: Dr. Kurush Dalal
Medium: English

Description

The Early Historic period in India marks the phase of the Second Urbanization with new settlements coming up in the Central Ganga plains. These were mostly based on agricultural surplus and saw the rise of Janapadas and Mahajanapadas. We see not just political developments but progress in other spheres as well.

In these 10 days you will gain a deeper understanding of life in India in the Early Historic.

Syllabus
Here is the tentative schedule:
1. Introduction and Calendrical System
2. Background and Tools of Study, Prelude to Urbanisation and incipient Urbanisation
3. Brahmanism, Jainism, Buddhism and the Ajivakas
4. The First Empires (Magadha)
5. The First Great Empire (the Mauryans)
6. The South
7. The Graeco Romans and the Indo Romans
8. The Aftermath of the Mauryans, the coming of the Kushanas (Kshatrapas and Satavahanas) and the subsequent rise of the Guptas
9. The Guptas, Vakatakas and their aftermath
10. Conclusion

About Our Speakers
Kurush F Dalal has a BA in Ancient Indian History and History from the University of Mumbai, an MA in Archaeology as well as a PhD on the Early Iron Age in Rajasthan, both from Deccan College, Pune University. Subsequently he shifted focus to the Early Medieval Period predominantly on the West Coast of India and excavated the sites of Sanjan, Chandore and Mandad. These excavations and the data recovered have had a had a strong impact on scholarship in the region. The recent Mandad excavations have revealed a brand new hitherto unknown Indo-Roman Port site with antecedents going back even further. Dr. Dalal also actively works on Memorial Stones and Ass-curse Stones in India and dabbles in Numismatics, Defence Archaeology, Architecture, Ethnoarchaeology and allied disciplines.
He is the Co-Director of the Salsette Explorations Project, a massive Urban Archaeology Project documenting the Archaeology of Mumbai since 2015, thus extending his interest from the Medieval into the Colonial Period. He has published over 35 papers and has read many more at National and International Seminars. He is a visiting lecturer at various Universities, Colleges, Schools and Government Institutions. He taught archaeology and allied subjects at the University of Mumbai for 10 years. Since October 2019 he is Consulting Editor with Live History India and continues to research Archaeology and Culinary Anthropology. He has recently blended his passion for food and archaeology into a research in Culinary Anthropology and Food Archaeology. He runs a very successful course called The Studying Food Workshop teaching food beyond the usual topics. He has made the most of the lockdown teaching via Instagram Lives and by teaching at various online platforms like Mythopia and INSTUCEN.