Page:Political History of Ancient India, from the accession of Parikshit to the extinction of the Gupta dynasty.pdf/17



No Thucydides or Tacitus has left for posterity a genuine history of Ancient India. But the researches of a multitude of scholars have disclosed an unexpected wealth of materials for the reconstruction of the ancient history of our country.

The first attempt to sort and arrange the accumulated and ever-growing stores of knowledge was made by Dr. Vincent Smith. But the excellent histovian, failing to find sober history in bardic tales, ignored the period immediately succeeding “the famous war waged on the banks of the Jumna, between the sons of Kuru and the sons of Pāṇḍu,” and took as his starting point the middle of the seventh century B.C. My aim has been to sketch in outline the political history of Ancient India including the neglected period. I have taken as my starting point the accession of Parikshit, which according to Epic and Paurāṇic tradition took place shortly after the Bhārata War.

Valuable information regarding the Parikshita and the post-Parikshita periods has been supplied by eminent