History of India, in Nine Volumes

The waves of Hindu conquests rolled onwards, and the aborigines submitted themselves to a higher civilization and a nobler creed. Rivers were crossed, forests were cleared, lands were reclaimed, wide wastes were people, and new countries hitherto aboriginal witnessed the rise of Hindu power and of Hindu religion. Where a few scanty settlers had penetrated at first, powerful colonies grew; where religious teachers had retired in seclusion, quiet villages and towns arose. Where a handful of merchants has made their way by some unknown river, boats plied up and down with valuable cargoes for a civilized population.
from Chapter XVIII: Expansion of the Hindus

First published in 1906, this classic nine-volume history of the nation of India places it among the storied lands of antiquity, alongside Egypt, China, and Mesopotamia. Edited by American academic ABRAHAM VALENTINE WILLIAMS JACKSON (18621937), professor of Indo-Iranian languages at Columbia University, it offers a highly readable narrative of the Indian people and culture through to the time of its publication, when the nation was still part of the British Empire.

Volume I, From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century B.C., by Bengali historian ROMESH CHUNDER DUTT (18481909), features entertaining and enlightening treatments of:

ancient India and the Rig-Veda
the Indo-Aryans and their literature
food and art in the Vedic age
the Brahmanic period and literature
the Mahabharata
the Ramayana
law, astronomy, and learning
the religious doctrines of the Upanishads
caste in the age of laws and philosophy
Buddhist sacred literature
life of Gautama Buddha
and much more.

This beautiful replica of the 1906 first edition includes all the original illustrations.