Excerpt from India, Vol. 5 More than eighty-five thousand copies of twenty-two English editions of the Brief History were published during the author's life, and a twenty-third edition prepared by the Rev. W. H. Hutton bears the date 1903. Several translations of the little book have been made, including versions in some of the languages of India. It has been widely used as a text-book in India, and since 1886 has been required for entrance examination by the Calcutta University. Such evidences of the authoritative character and the popularity of the Brief History are surely a full warrant for the selection of it as one of the volumes of the history OF nations. Sir William Hunter may be allowed in the words of the preface to the first edition to tell the aims of his book: In this book I try to exhibit the growth of the Indian peoples, to show what part they have played in the world's progress, and what sufferings they have endured from other nations. Short Indian histories, as written by Englishmen, usually dismiss the first two thousand years of their narrative in a few pages, and start by disclosing India as a conquered country. This plan is not good, either for Europeans in India or for the Indians themselves; nor does it accord with the facts. As long as Indian history is presented to the Indian youth as nothing but a dreary record of disunion and subjection, our anglo-indian schools can scarcely become the nurseries of a self-respecting nation. I have there fore tried to put together, from original sources, a brief narrative of what I believe to be the true history of the peoples of India. These sources have been carefully examined in my larger works. This little book merely states, without discussing, the results arrived at by the labor of thirty years. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.