The area which is now known as the State of Bihar did not bear that name till the close of the twelfth century A.D. Bihar.. identical with the modern town of Bihar Sharif, is mentioned by Minhaj, the author of the Tabaqat-i-Nasiri. He refers to the destruction of its walls by the Turkish invader Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji. Later on, the province came to be known as Bihar in medieval period. But most of the area covering modern Bihar had been habitable by the seventh-eighth centuries B.C.
There has been no serious attempt to delineate the socio-cultural history of Bihar during the period of our survey (A.D. 200-A.D. 600). Many old historians laid greater emphasis on political history and this led to the neglect of socio-cultural history of India in general and of Bihar in particular.
A brief review of the following monographs on early his-tory of Bihar is attempted here. The History of Bihar by R.K. Chaudhary was published by Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi 1958. It was a pioneering attempt to sketch the history of Bihar. The text mainly stresses political history and rarely highlights the socio-cultural developments of the period under review. One finds a long list of articles and books (pp. 376-417) relating to the political history of Bihar. The Bihar Through the Ages ed. by R.R. Diwakar was published by Orient Longmans, Calcutta, 1959. It is not useful for the present work, because, it is sketchy and based on undependable sources, apart from having numerous printing mistakes. The Socio-Religious, Economic and Literary Condition of Bihar by B.S. Verma was published in 1962 by Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1962. It was submitted for the degree of the Doctor of Philosophy of Patna University. The author attempts to reconstruct the Socio-Religious and Economic Condition of Bihar from A.D. 319-A.D. 1000. He deserves congratulations for his mono-graph. But while giving a mass of information, he seldom interprets the fact. He has not paid much attention to the puranic and smrti materials which are useful for Bihar. The Political and Socio-Religious Condition of Bihar by H.K. Prasad was published by Chowkhamba Publication, Varanasi, 1970. It was submitted for the degree of the Doctor of Philosphy, Patna University, under the able guidance of the late A.S. Altekar. The book is not much helpful for us simply because Prasad puts much stress on political events (pp.1-108) and limits his survey till A.D. 319. Apart from this, the book suffers from various demerits. For instance, Prasad does not utilize Yājñavalkya's work (Tajñavalkya Smrti) who perhaps flourished in Mithila region. On the one hand he utilizes the Vişnu Purana and on the other he leaves the Visnu Smrti, a contemporary Vaisnavite work. The dates of the original literary sources have not been properly discussed. However, the chapters on religious condition contain some useful infor-mation. The Comprehensive History of Bihar ed. by B.P. Sinha (vol. I, pts. I and II) was published by K.P. Jayaswal Research Institute, Patna in 1970-74. It was a collective attempt by some eminent historians such as R.S. Sharma, B.P. Mazumdar, B P. Sinha and late N.C. Sastri. The text has been of great help for us. Even though the chapters on socio-cultural history are brief, one can get sufficient hint for enlarging many points referred to by the contributors, particularly R.S. Sharma, B.P. Mazumdar and N.C. Sastri.
The present book is an attempt to reconstruct the socio-economic and religious development of Bihar from the Kusana times down to the later Guptas (A.D. 200-600). The study of the period under survey is essential for an understanding of the process of historical evolution in India. This can be seen from the fact that for several centuries before the beginning of the Christian ora, the history of Bihar in a sense was the history of India. It was here that two great religions (Jainism and Buddhism) of the world were propagated and it was here again that the foundation of the first Indian Empire was laid. Also, much that we notice in the later history of India originated in this region.
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