Indian Ancient Origins

Indian Ancient Origins offers a beautiful edition with a new introduction to the history of the land and the people, highlighting the origins of myth and folklore.

The story of Ancient India, a vast land that stretches from the Himalayas in the North to the oceans far south, can be traced back to the 8th millennium BCE. In the mid-3000s, the first cities of the great Indus or Harappan Civilization rose around the basin of the Indus river system, slightly earlier than the Ancient Egyptians around their Nile, or the Sumerians between the Tigris and the Euphrates.

Tales of gods and peoples from this period were written for the first time, derived from older oral traditions, in the Sanskrit of Vedas around the mid-1500s. This era saw Babylon at its height, and the culture of the Mycenaean Greeks was blossoming and nearing collapse.

In the 1st millennium BCE, Indian civilization shifted south to the Ganges, where the great literature of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana recorded the glory and power of the gods. They depict the worship of a people whose vibrant culture reflects its lands and the migrations of its ancestors.

AUTHOR: Jake Jackson has written, edited and contributed to over 20 books on mythology and folklore. His related works include studies of Babylonian creation myths, the philosophy of time, and William Blake's use of mythology in his visionary literature.

This is a hardback, deluxe edition, foiled and embossed, with gilded edges.