History · A guide to the archive
Begin with archaeological evidence, then compare hymns, inscriptions, coins and the changing settlements of the northwest.
Different evidence becomes available at different points in this sequence. Begin with material remains, then move to texts and inscribed objects. Read each entry’s geographical scope before comparing it with the next: a connected region is not necessarily part of either modern Punjab, and an ancient name does not supply a fixed modern boundary.
An intentional selection
How tools, fossils, sediments and their relationships let archaeologists investigate the region before readable contemporary texts.
Harappa was part of a much wider Indus world. Its excavated sequence and surrounding settlements reveal urban life, craft and changing landscapes without turning ancient archaeology into a modern nationality.
Read hymns, oral transmission and surviving manuscripts as different kinds of evidence for the northwestern subcontinent.
Read the evidence for Persian imperial connections while distinguishing royal lists from modern reconstructions of provincial administration.
Locate Punjab’s northwestern connections through inscriptions and distinguish royal policy from later literary accounts.
Connect Taxila with a wider Kushan world through settlement evidence, royal coinage and the distinction between language and script.
Study towns, religious institutions and donated objects together, without reducing Buddhist movement to a single commercial cause.
How we use sources, explain uncertainty and correct mistakes.
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