About the author
Romila Thapar is Emeritus Professor in History at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She is also an Honorary Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and has been a Visiting Professor at Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania as well as the College de France in Paris. In 1983, she was elected general president of the Indian History Congress and in 1999 a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy.
Among her publications are Ashoka and the Decline of the Mauryas, Ancient Indian Social History,From Lineage to State, History and Beyond, Sakuntala and Cultural Pasts, as well as a children's book, Indian Tales."
