Note 4 — INTRODUCTION.

The following brief résumé of the principal events in the ancient history of India has no pretensions to being a complete or exhaustive view of the subject. It is intended only as such a popular sketch as shall enable the general reader to grasp the main features of the story to such an extent as may enable him to understand what follows. In order to make it readable, all references and all proofs of disputed facts have been postponed. They will be found in the body of the work, where they are more appropriate, and the data on which the principal disputed dates are fixed will be found in an Appendix especially devoted to their discussion. Unfortunately no book exists to which the reader could with advantage be referred; and without some such introductory notice of the political history and ethnography the artistic history would be nearly, if not wholly, unintelligible.