“Politically, according to Muslim observers, India comprised many kingdoms, each with a formidable army that included elephants and cavalry as well as… — John Keay Copy Share Image
“In contemporary Indian sources these first marauding disciples of Islam are occasionally identified as Yavanas (Greeks),Turuskas (Turks) or Tajikas (Tajiks or Persians),… — John Keay Copy Share Image
“Unlike Alexander’s Greeks, Muslim invaders were well aware of India’s immensity, and mightily excited by its resources. As well as exotic produce… — John Keay Copy Share Image
“As al-Biruni (Alberuni), the great Islamic scholar of the eleventh century, would put it, ‘the Hindus believe that there is no country… — John Keay Copy Share Image
“This northerly route of east–west transit and trade, extending from the Panjab and the upper Indus to Bihar and the lower Ganga, now became… — John Keay Copy Share Image
“A particularly elaborate version of such an aswamedha is commemorated in the heart of Varanasi (Benares), otherwise the City of Lord Shiva and the… — John Keay Copy Share Image
“Politically, according to Muslim observers, India comprised many kingdoms, each with a formidable army that included elephants and cavalry as well as infantry. According… — John Keay Copy Share Image
“In bidding for popular support and competing with other cults as a parallel religion, the sangha had been losing ground throughout India since the… — John Keay Copy Share Image
“The Tarim Mummies’ (Tarim being the name of the river that once drained the now waterless Tarim basin of eastern Xinjiang) are mostly not… — John Keay Copy Share Image
“Both the Mahabharata and the Ramayana survive in several versions, the earliest of which are at least five hundred years later than the Vedas.… — John Keay Copy Share Image
“Poetry, like remonstration, could be a form of protest; and since poets were products of the Confucian education system, extravagant military adventures often came… — John Keay Copy Share Image
“Initially those at the western end in the Panjab and the Doab tended to look down on those on the eastern frontier in Bihar… — John Keay Copy Share Image
“In fact Sind’s governors had already had a foretaste of what lay ahead. Muhammad ibn Qasim may have pushed east towards Kanauj, Junaid certainly… — John Keay Copy Share Image
“Like metals, myths too get recycled. Reworked and so richly embellished as to be almost unrecognisable, stories which may once have reflected genuine historical… — John Keay Copy Share Image
“In Vedic society the bard was originally the chief’s charioteer. His function was not necessarily hereditary nor exclusively reserved to a particular social group.” — John Keay Copy Share Image
“some of the Vedic jana, like the Yadavas, are thought to have been of dasa origin. Hence too the clearly -dasa names of Su-dasa,… — John Keay Copy Share Image
