Romila Thapar

Professor Romila Thapar is Professor Emerita of History at Jawaharial Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi.. She specialised in the social and cultural history of early India and on its historiography and has authored book length monographs on Indian history from 1000 BC to AD 1000. Her research is into early Indian history has been part of the shift from treating ancient history as Indology to establishing it as a Social Science. The two themes on which she has worked are: the social and cultural history of early India which involved asking new questions of textual data and integrating some archaeological sources as well, in attempting to understand the corelation of society, economy, and religion; the second theme has been historiography, both the modern perspective of writing the history of early India, as well as the manner in which history was recorded in the early past. She is a significant participant in the debate on contemporary politics and interpretations of the ancient Indian past. Some of her publications include: "The Past before Us: Historical Traditions of Early North India," "Somanatha: the Many Voices of a History," "Early India," "Cultural Pasts, Essays in Early Indian History," "Śakuntalā: Texts, Readings, Histories," and "Ancient Indian Social History: Some Interpretations".