Includes bibliographical references (pages 251-286) and index.

Imprints of the Past explores the archaeological wealth of northeast India from Quaternary Period. It brings to focus the beginnings of agriculture and domestication, trade and technology as well as Great Buddhist Monastic complexes of eastern India and their function in the cultural synthesis of Ganga-Brahmaputra Valley. The study comprehensively incorporates Maurya, Gupta and Post Gupta sites as well as rock cut cave temples, public architecture, water management, stone and bronze images, inscriptions, coins, paintings and manuscripts supplemented with considerable tables and maps. The cultural interaction with Nepal, Tibet, Myanmar, China and southeast Asia is interesting. On a wider canvas the book discusses approaches of colonial anthropology and agenda of their contemporary propagandists who attempt to culturally bifurcate northeast India as a separate geo-cultural entity. Extensive archaeological evidence contend that northeast India can no longer be perceived as an isolated zone detached from Greater India.