Gondwanaland is the name given by geologists to a super-continent as they consider it to have existed hundreds of millions, even billions, of years ago. And the very oldest part of that continent that has remained above water came to be called, after human beings appeared who could give names to things, Ráŕh. (Or more precisely, western Ráŕh.) When Gondwanaland broke up and gradually metamorphosed into a number of our modern land masses, that ancient land of Ráŕh was to be found within the Indian sub-continent, occupying an area that is now mostly coextensive with the western part of West Bengal. (Geologists do not necessarily speak of Gondwanaland in the past tense, but sometimes speak of all the dispersed parts of Gondwanaland, as Gondwanaland even today.) Then came the geological birth of eastern Ráŕh, the appearance of human beings in Ráŕh, and the geological birth of the remaining portions of Bengal still farther east than eastern Ráŕh. With Ráŕh as the main nucleus, civilization developed throughout Bengal, and Ráŕh spread its influence to other lands also. In Ráŕh: The Cradle of Civilization, Shrii Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar tells this story.

The original book was published in Bengali in 1981. In view of the wealth of information that the author has given in the book on geological and geographical, historical, archaeological, sociological, linguistic, artistic and even spiritual subjects, there has been a long-standing demand for an English version (a demand to which some noted archaeologists have recently added their voices). We are now happy to be able to fulfil that demand, however belatedly.

Unsigned footnotes, indicated with asterisks, are those of the author. Since many readers may not be entirely familiar with Bengal or even India, the translators have also provided notes wherever necessary. Footnotes by the translators have all been indicated with numbers and signed “–Trans.” Square brackets [   ] in the text are used to indicate translations or other insertions by the translator, while round brackets (   ) indicate a word or word given by the author, and normally his own use of such punctuation. Some of the translators’ footnotes provide further background to a topic with excerpts from other works by the author.

The author used a certain shorthand for explaining the etymologies of words. Under this system, a minus sign (–) follows a prefix, and a plus sign (+) precedes a suffix. Thus ava – tr + ghaiṋ = avatára can be read, “the root tr prefixed by ava and suffixed by ghaiṋ becomes avatára.”

This book contains a multitude of place names and names of historical figures. Since Europeans first came to India, such proper names have been rendered in roman script according to a variety of romanization systems, and also sometimes in haphazard ways that could not be called systems at all. The surname that in Ananda Marga’s romanization system would be rendered as “Ráycaodhurii”, has over the years been romanized in about sixty ways – “Roychoudhury”, “Roy Choudhury”, “Raychowdhuri”, etc. Nevertheless, such spellings have stuck, and citizens of India are now familiar with them. In this book we have normally tried in the case of each proper name to use the romanization preferred by that particular person or that particular place themselves, and with which Indians might be most familiar; but obviously we may often have been wrong as to what was preferred or most familiar. If the name was an obscure one for which there might be no preferred or familiar romanization, we have followed the Ananda Marga system. For all common nouns, name of gods and goddesses, name of religions, philosophical systems, literary movements, etc., we have followed the Ananda Marga system.

In the original Bengali book, the number 9 as a chapter number was inadvertently skipped, so the chapters were numbered 1-8 and 10-32. In this book they have been numbered 1-31.

Shrii Viiresh Bose set the English translation of this book on a strong foundation, preparing the entire first draft. Since Shrii Viiresh was unable to be present during later review and modification, any defects there may be in the book are the responsibility of the co-translator alone.

We wish to thank Ácárya Satyashivánanda Avadhúta and Ácárya Prańavátmakánanda Avadhúta, who contributed greatly to the translation of the early chapters of this book, Ácárya Priyashivánanda Avadhúta, who contributed greatly throughout, and Shrii Hitáḿshu Banerjee, who assisted much with the later chapters. We are also grateful to some of the archaeologists mentioned above, who spared their valuable time to assist us.