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The present volume is the first of a series of epochs of Indian history. To write a history of India on the scale of a Freeman, or even of a Macaulay, would, from the multiplicity and diversity of detail, be a task of superhuman magnitude. The story of India during the past four thousand years is the story not of one country but of many countries, not of one nation but of many nations, told not in one language but in many languages, and influenced in turn by the greatest religions of the world. There is a universal want of balance; the author insensibly, but inevitably, brings to the front the epoch he has studied in detail, or the district where his experience has been gained. The present Series will endeavour to correct this tendency by assigning each epoch to an author who has made it a subject of special research; while it will be the task of the editor to endeavour to preserve continuity on the one hand and to prevent overlapping on the other.