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 CHAPTER I SOURCES OF INFORMATION 1 Sec. i. THE EVIDENCE OF THE PURĀŅAS HISTORIANS of Ancient India generally classify the original authorities for the early history of India into four definite divisions: (1) tradition mainly based on literary records, (2) contemporary literature, (3) notes and accounts of foreigners who visited India, and (4) archeological evidence. Let us take up these sources one by one and categorically examine their value in reconstructing the Mauryan epoch of Indian History, especially its administrative side. Though the ancient Hindus did not possess the so-called historical sense in that they had not left accounts of the differ- ent members of a dynasty with dates of their accession together with their activities in chronological order, still they had an historical outlook and a geographi- cal outlook as well. Much is spoken to-day of the value of geographical studies and their import- ance to the historian. A similar study of geography coupled with history was attempted with success by the composers of the Puranic literature. Each of the eighteen Mahapurāṇas, (called such because there were numbers of other smaller Purāṇas in later days: even the Sthalamāhātmyas became included in this class), deals, though not systematically, with five main topics 1 See V. A. Smith, Early History of India, 4th Ed., p. 9 ff.