Author Description

This reader provides a multilayered analysis of different aspects of history, politics, economy and its interface with environment and ecology in early India. One of the first anthologies on the subject, it also examines the linkage between the environmental and agrarian histories of colonial times. Thematically organized, the volume has five sections. The first focuses on forests, deforestation, tribes, and states. The next discusses land grants, settlements, and rural landscape. The third examines water resources, irrigation, agricultural expansion and how it interacted with folk culture and religion and Brahmanical tradition. The fourth section explores pastoralism, ecology, and society. It also studies rise of states, agrarian production and economy. The final section explores ecology in literature and religion. A detailed introduction surveys the historiography and key debates in the environmental history of early India and highlights the areas for further research.