The reign of Harsha (606-647 A.D.) is a comparatively well-documented period of ancient Indian history. But it is indeed surprising that no full-length study of culture of the period has been attempted since the publication of Professor V.S. Agrawala's classic work entitled Harshacharita : Eka Samskrtika Adhyayana from Patna in 1953. The present work, we hope, fills up this long felt need admirably. Its author Dr. Shankar Goyal has been working ceaselessly on the age of Harsha since the middle of the eighties of the last century. His D.Litt. thesis, Harsha: A Multidisciplinary Political Study (Jodhpur, 2006), has been widely acclaimed as 'the best work on the subject written so far' by the late Professor R.S. Sharma (University of Patna}, as 'a compulsory reading for those working on ancient Indian history' by Professor Romila Thapar (JNU), as 'refreshing in its critical method and unbiased conclusions' by Professor Irfan Habib (AMU), as 'a solid piece of work' by Professor David N. Lorenzen (El Colegio de Mexico) and as 'a remarkable achievement for Dr. Goyal in historical research and writing' by Professor Priti Kumar Mitra (University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh).

Now, Dr. Shankar Goyal has brought out the present study The 'Medieval' Factor and the Age of Harsha : A Cultural Study (Jodhpur, 2016). It is divided into nine chapters- Introduction : The Making of Early Medieval Indian Society (pp. 1-24), Religion and the Medieval Trends in the Religious Activities of Harsha (pp. 25-38), Social Organisation in the Age of Harsha and the Impact of Feudalism (pp. 39-62), Society and Social Life in the Age of Transition (pp. 63-81), Economy and the Feudal Tendencies in the Economic Life of the Age of Harsh a (pp. 82-103), Political Culture of the Age of Harsha and the Feudalization of Administrative Structure (pp. 104-129), The 'Medieval' Factor in Indian Art (pp. 130-143), Literary Activities under Harsha: (i) Bana and the Writing of Harshacharita (pp. 144-180), Literary Activities under Harsha : [ii) The Problem of the Authorship of the Three Plays: Ratnavali, Priyadarsika and Nagananda (pp. 181- 188), and an Appendix entitled Art and Architecture of the Age of Harsha as Known from the Literary Sources (pp. 189-196)-and contains an exhaustive bibliography. The present monograph is somewhat different from other existing works on the subject because it seeks to study the culture of the age of Harsh a not only as an aggregate of the data found in the works of Bana and other contemporary writers, but as the cultural situation which marked the end Continued on Flap 2 of the 'classicism' of the Gupta age and the beginning of the early 'Medievalism'. When looked with the help of these two peep-holes-the classical culture of the Gupta period and the medieval culture of the Rajput age-the works of Bana, Yuan Chwang and their contemporaries appear to yield new meaning and light.

The work of Dr. Goyal stands out for its in-depth research and use of original sources. It will be an irreplaceable addition to the existing literature on the subject, and opens new areas for further research and analysis. All scholars seeking to work on the subject will have to reckon with Dr. Goyal's work which they would find most useful.