Elst also writes in detail about claims that certain Hindu rulers, including Pusyamitra Sunga, were iconoclasts; evidence to that effect had been previously presented by Romila Thapar, Richard Eaton and others.
Historians Vincent Smith and Romila Thapar advanced the popular theory of a division of the Mauryan Empire amongst Kunala and Dasaratha after the death of Ashoka.
Elst claims that historians of the Aligarh school (e.g. Irfan Habib) or Indian Marxists (e.g. Romila Thapar) have resorted to history-rewriting: "Therefore, in 1982 the National Council of Educational Research and Training issued a directive for the rewriting of schoolbooks. Among other things, it stipulated that: "Characterization of the medieval period as a time of conflict between Hindus and Muslims is forbidden.
Romila Thapar | Sukhdev Thapar | Karan Thapar | Amul Roger Thapar |
As a Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London in the 1950s and the 1960s, he taught a number of famous Indian historians, including Professors R.S. Sharma, Romila Thapar and V.S.Pathak