Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/31

Rh extending from 600 to 1000  To use the words of Elphinstone, no "connected relation of the national transactions" of Southern India in early times can be written, and an early history of India must, perforce, be concerned mainly with the north.

The time dealt with is that extending from the beginning of the historical period in 600 to the Mohammedan conquest, which may be dated in round numbers as having occurred in 1200  in the north, and a century later in the south. The earliest political event in India to which an approximately correct date can be assigned is the establishment of the Saisunaga dynasty of Magadha about 600

The sources of, or original authorities for, the early history of India may be arranged in four classes. The first of these is tradition, chiefly as recorded in native literature; the second consists of those writings of foreign travellers and historians which contain observations on Indian subjects; the third is the evidence of archæology, which may be subdivided into the monumental, the epigraphic, and the numismatic; and the fourth comprises the few works of native contemporary literature which deal expressly with historical subjects.

For the period anterior to Alexander the Great, extending from 600 to 326, dependence must be placed almost wholly upon literary tradition, communicated through works composed in many different ages, and frequently recorded in scattered, incidental notices. The purely Indian traditions are supplemented by the