The Penguin History of Early India
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/276113.The_Penguin_History_of_Early_India
Boken börjar andas lite liv när man kommit till den vediska tiden och indoeuropeiska hövdingar. Men boken lider i övrigt av en närmast outhärdlig allmän hållning. Detta känner man igen från en del dåliga svenska skolböcker i historia.
"Research on regional sources is increasing, some of which has modified the earlier perspective of subcontinental history. It also helps in analysing historical problems at greater depth."
"Methods of irrigating fields were not uniform, being dependent on natural conditions and the control of irrigation works. "
"Evidence for hunter-gatherers of the palaeolithic comes from various parts of the subcontinent."
Intresseklubben antecknar.
Exempel från när texten börjar tappa generaliseringssjukan och bli någorlunda läslig:
"The language of the Avesta and Indo-Aryan were cognates, descended from the same ancestral language. The date of the Avesta – the text of Zoroastrianism – has been controversial, but a mid-second millennium date is now being accepted. The linguistic relationship between the two includes not just words but also concepts. The interchangeability between ‘h’ and ‘s’ is one of the differences, but there is a consistency in this change such as haoma, daha, hepta hindu, Ahura in Avestan, and soma, dasa, sapta sindhu, asura in Rig-Vedic Sanskrit. In terms of religious concepts the attributes of gods are often reversed. Thus Indra is demonic in the Avesta, as are the daevas (devas or gods in Sanskrit) and Ahura/asura emerges as the highest deity. "
Jag kommer troligen att snart överge boken och leta efter något bättre.