Bibliography and references about ancient times (+ book reviews)

I open this thread to offer a starting point for those that want to deepen specific topics and to centralize the different useful sources found by the members of our community. Anybody can propose a reference to add to the list. I will update the list when I can. To ease the reading, I put the title first, then the author name and the year. The goal here is NOT to reference EVERYTHING. There are too many books on the same topics. The best option should be to propose some key readings on spe

A text frequently mentioned in connection with ancient India in general, and the Mauryas specifically, is Kauṭilya's Arthaśāstra. You can find the Sanskrit at: https://sarit.indology.info/kautalyarthasastra.xml The text was considered lost for centuries, but rediscovered in 1905. The first complete (English) translation, by R. Shamasastry, appeared in 1915 (it's now in the public domain and available at Wikisource); however, this translation is often faulty at best: when the work reapp