Re-searching Transitions in Indian History

Re-searching Transitions in Indian History

Author: Radhika Seshan

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2018-06-27

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 0429946309

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The idea of transitions in Indian history emerged early when the term ‘transition’ denoted shifts from one period to another. The notion of transition itself has moved beyond being primarily economic to include dimensions of society, culture and ideology. This volume brings together scholarly works that re-examine and re-define the concept of transition by looking into a range of subjects including religion, culture, gender, caste and community networks, maritime and mercantile modes, ideas of nationalism and historiographies across geographical and temporal settings. With contributions by leading scholars from South Asia, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers of ancient history, modern Indian history, sociology and social anthropology, and South Asian studies.


The Routledge Handbook of the State in Premodern India

The Routledge Handbook of the State in Premodern India

Author: Hermann Kulke

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-01-13

Total Pages: 594

ISBN-13: 1000485145

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This handbook presents a multilayered and multidimensional history of state formation in premodern India. It explores dense and rich local and subregional historiography from the mid-first millennium BC to the eighteenth century in South Asia. Shifting the focus away from economic and political factors, this handbook revises the conventional understanding of states and empires and locates them in their quotidian conduct and activity on socio-cultural and concomitant factors. Comprehensive in scope, this handbook addresses a range of themes connected with the idea of state formation in the subcontinent. It includes discussions and debates on ritual practices and the Brahmanical order in early India; the Delhi Sultanate and role of Sultans among the Hindu kings; the cosmopolitan ‘Islamicate’ cultural influences on Puranic Hinduism; cultural background of the Mughal state. The handbook examines new questions and ideologies of state formation, such as: · facets of violence and resistance; · the significance of the autonomous spaces and forests; · regional elites, including ‘Little kings’; tribal background of some famous cults; · trade and maritime commerce; · royal patronage, courtly manners, lineage formation; · imperial architecture, monuments, and temple, among others. Featuring case studies from different part of the India subcontinent, and with contributions by renowned historians, this authoritative handbook will be an indispensable reading for teachers, scholars, and students of early India, medieval India, premodern India, South Asian history, Asian history, historiography, economic history, historical sociology, and South Asia studies.


The Route to European Hegemony

The Route to European Hegemony

Author: Ruby Maloni

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-04-19

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 1000373231

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The advent of the Europeans was crucial in transforming the contours of Maritime Asia. The commercial situation in the Indian Ocean was impacted in many ways over the longue duree from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. To offset the adverse balance of trade and to maximize profits, the Europeans imposed their own coercive and monopolistic systems along the existing trade routes. Systematic exploitation of economic opportunities in Asia by Europeans began with the coming of the Portuguese, followed by other European maritime powers. It culminated with Britannia ruling the Asian waters with warships and a strong merchant marine. A study of the operational and ideological motivations that propelled the European powers’ activities in the Indian Ocean can help to construct a coherent interpretation of the foundations of empire that were being laid, at first insidiously and later, aggressively. This book analyses the mechanism and implications of Europe’s sustained engagement in Intra-Asian trade which is as an essential context to the establishment of colonial empires. Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.


Handbook of Ancient Afro-Eurasian Economies

Handbook of Ancient Afro-Eurasian Economies

Author: Sitta Reden

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2019-12-02

Total Pages: 954

ISBN-13: 3110604949

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The notion of the “Silk Road” that the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen invented in the 19th century has lost attraction to scholars in light of large amounts of new evidence and new approaches. The handbook suggests new conceptual and methodological tools for researching ancient economic exchange in a global perspective with a strong focus on recent debates on the nature of pre-modern empires. The interdisciplinary team of Chinese, Indian and Graeco-Roman historians, archaeologists and anthropologists that has written this handbook compares different forms of economic development in agrarian and steppe regions in a period of accelerated empire formation during 300 BCE and 300 CE. It investigates inter-imperial zones and networks of exchange which were crucial for ancient Eurasian connections. Volume I provides a comparative history of the most important empires forming in Northern Africa, Europe and Asia between 300 BCE and 300 CE. It surveys a wide range of evidence that can be brought to bear on economic development in the these empires, and takes stock of the ways academic traditions have shaped different understandings of economic and imperial development as well as Silk-Road exchange in Russia, China, India and Western Graeco-Roman history.


The Archaeology of Early Medieval and Medieval South Asia

The Archaeology of Early Medieval and Medieval South Asia

Author: Swadhin Sen

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-11-30

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 1000780759

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This book looks at the ways in which archaeological methods have been used in debates concerning the early medieval and medieval periods in South Asia. Despite the incorporation and use of archaeological data to corroborate historical narratives, the theories and methods of archaeology are largely ignored in and excluded from the dominating, institutionalized, and hegemonic disciplinary discourses. The volume offers contesting insights, polemical narratives, and new data from archaeological contexts to initiate a debate on many foundational premises of archaeological and historical narratives. It focuses on the much-neglected region of the Eastern Ganga-Brahmaputra Basin as a spatial frame to do this and studies themes such as spatial and temporal scales of concepts and methods, multi-scaler factors and processes of continuity and changes, the settlement archaeology of the alluvial landscape, changing patterns of agrarian transformation, and material cultures, including coins, inscriptions, pottery, and sculptures, in their contexts in sub-regional, regional, and supra-regional intersections. Dedicated to historian Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya, this volume presents a crucial and unprecedented intervention in the study of the early medieval and the medieval periods. It will be useful for scholars and researchers of archaeology, ancient history, medieval history, water history, earth sciences, palaeoecology, historical ecology, epigraphy, art history, material culture studies, Indian history, and South Asian studies in general.


Women and Society in Early Medieval India

Women and Society in Early Medieval India

Author: Anjali Verma

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2018-07-16

Total Pages: 207

ISBN-13: 0429826427

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This book examines women and society in India during 600–1200 CE through epigraphs. It offers an analysis of inscriptional data at the pan-India level to explore key themes, including early marriage, deprivation of girls from education, property rights, widowhood and satī, as well as women in administration and positions of power. The volume also traces gender roles and agency across religions such as Hinduism and Jainism, the major religions of the times, and sheds light on a range of political, social, economic and religious dimensions. A panoramic critique of contradictions and conformity between inscriptional and literary sources, including pieces of archaeological evidence against traditional views on patriarchal stereotypes, as also regional parities and disparities, the book presents an original understanding of women’s status in early medieval South Asian society. Rich in archival material, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers of ancient and medieval Indian history, social history, archaeology, epigraphy, sociology, cultural studies, gender studies and South Asian studies.


The Politics of Marriage in India

The Politics of Marriage in India

Author: Sabita Singh

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2019-05-27

Total Pages: 259

ISBN-13: 019909828X

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The history of marriage is viewed as social history related to customs and laws, but it is also a reflection of an inner life—one that comprises tales of joy, suffering, and the mundane—most of it hidden from the historian’s eye. Analysing the institution of marriage in medieval Rajasthan, Singh reconstructs the regional social structures and cultures of the time. The history of Rajasthan has always been romanticized, especially the legends of Sati and Jauhar, both of which along with the rituals related to widowhood are seen as institutional forms of women’s oppression. Singh offers a fresh perspective on these customs, often challenging the conventional narrative and unearthing the complex motives behind them. Referring to extensive archival and literary sources, the author delves deep into practices such as polygamy, dowry, and concubinage which are situated in the changing socio-political structures. As the author takes cognizance of the regional variations with respect to cultural norms, what becomes unequivocally clear is the multicultural ethos of India and the fact that history cannot be interpreted in monolithic universal terms.