This article focuses on the history the pre-Ghaznavid Punjab. The 'early medieval' period in India (or seventh to eleventh centuries) is an age which has fallen out of favour with the historians, leaving aside a few exceptions. In Indian Universities 'Ancient history' deals with the period from the Mauryas, or perhaps earlier, up to the Guptas … with the Harsha's Buddhist Empire of the early seventh century usually pulling the final curtain. Then the lights go out, as it were, and we have to sit through the 'dark period' of early medieval India. — André Wink, Al Hind
