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Rating: 
Summary: Comprehensive, but dry
Review: I have to concur with the later reviews. The problem with the book isn't (as those RSS propoganda-inspired reviews below like to whine) that Thapar is a Marxist. The problem rather is that her writing style is just dry. And it's not an issue of dumbing down the text to suit a mass audience, it's simply a matter of good writing. Academic giants like Thapar should be able to do that (she's been writing books alone for 40 odd years or more, right?). When you're trying to find a solid introductory history to India both our of fascination with its culture and a firm belief that, along with China, it's destined in the century ahead to become a major world power, this is can make you wanna pull your hair out! Why is it that finding something scholarly, but readable is so hard? I wish this were the book to do it, sadly it's not. And to the communalists who wrote reviews below, you should go read Ashutosh Varshney's "Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life," Chetan Bhatt's "Hindu Nationalism," Christophe Jaffrelot's "The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India," or especially for the person from Agra, Paul R. Brass's "The Production of Hindu-Muslim Violence in Contemporary India" for the truth about the Hindutva movement. The RSS is a terrorist organization and terrorism isn't hinduism, any more than it's Islam or Christianity, so find another way to express your anger at the world.
Rating: 
Summary: not a good book
Review: Im afraid, Romilas out of date, marxist views of India are not in line with current scholarly thinking, in light of many recent archaeological findings. Tharpar is nothing more than the product of the British education system, that continues to perpetuates much of the coloniast attitudes on the roots of Civilisation in India. Books from Subhash Kak, David Frawley, Francois Gautier, Stephen Knapp really get to the heart of soul of India's history. India's history is much older than anyone dares to think.
Rating: 
Summary: Intellectual pygmies do not taint her scholarship
Review: It is really tedious to encounter propoganda and lies again and again in the guise of critical analysis. I wonder if the best the reviewers can come up with is to attack Prof. Thapar's political credentials. I should think the political affiliations of Prof. Thapar should be immaterial as long as her work reflects sharp intellectual acumen, erudition and scholarship. Prof. Thapar has consistently demonstrated all of the above in her work, as well as the many well-respected scholars who are in agreement with the theses she offers in her books. The same unfortunately cannot be said for those who invoke the spectre of Marxist history again and again in an effort to discredit. In fact, the two hypercritical reviews of Prof. Thapar's book seem to be written by persons who have not bothered to read the volume at all, but used this forum to repeat cliched arguments that any self-respecting historian would be amused by. Read the book by all means, there is no better account than one written by arguably one of the most eminent Indian historians of our times.
Rating: 
Summary: Didn't Like It
Review: It's an excellent work despite the detractors who would view Thapar's works judgmentally, considering she has made no efforts to hide her Marxian credentials. As someone said, it's not a revision but a totally rewritten work. While I agree with this, it would bear pointing out that there is a basic unity of purpose in the two works viz., her stress on the study of the evolution and growth of polities by means of analysis of larger socio economic trends, supported by study of material and other evidence. To this end, there is a long first chapter on historiography incl sources. Her approach is a contrast to the royal chronicle style of writing Indian history, a legacy of the British colonial times still in evidence in the new nationalist histories. It's a riveting narration of facts and interpretation. The book is of uniform quality although there are one or two aspects where it could do with improved treatment. I have the chapter titled "The Peninsula: Emerging Regional Kingdoms" in mind. The current work still carries the treatment of the Tamil bhakti movement over from the original Penguin edition. This is in effect a retrofitting of the character of medieval north Indian bhakti onto Tamilnadu of almost a millennium before. Inadequate knowledge of the Tamil bhakti texts on the part of Thapar as well as her informants such as R Champakalakshmi, refered to in the author's preface, might be to blame here. Some insight into religious traditions and practice might have helped here to place the bhakti movement in appropriate socio economic context and thus evaluate its contribution to the emerging polity. Barring a few blemishes, it is a magisterial presentation and is unlikely to be bettered for quite a while.
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