Ancient-India.pdf

How would you feel about a "scholar" and his/her book describing maths using only Roman numerals, or someone attempting to call his or her book a treatise on science and talking only about creationism and intelligent design?
Extend that analogy to India, and this book fits the bill. It is so bizarre in its conception of ancient India and timelines as to make you wonder whether deliberate effort went in to make the book so utterly, terribly wrong.

A book that titles itself "Ancient India" chooses to begin with Buddhism - a sect of Hinduism that grew 2500 years ago, yet somehow overlooks the two thousand years of history before that.

A book that in a moment of vivid imagination uses like "Vedic Hinduism" and "Brahminism" and conjures up a distinction between the two. The book is at its wits ends as to how to define the two, yet chooses to make a distinction between the two.

Given archaeological and literary evidence that the Vedas - considered the defining texts of the Hindus - were composed as early as 3000 BCE, it takes a feat of colossal ignorance for the author to date the "Vedic civilization" to 1700 BCE, and which, in her words, lasted "until 500 BCE." You have to read between the lines to understand that as per the author's understanding, Buddhism supplanted this "Vedic" civilization!