Contributed seminar papers.

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 economic history of early India is a rich and diverse area of study, covering agricultural developments, trade, markets, occupation and professional groups, urbanization and the institutions that govern the economy. Recent research has expanded our understanding of the processes of transformation of the economy in different temporal contexts within the Indian sub-continent. They have particularly led us to explore connected histories given the trans-continental trading networks and movements of people from very early times. This volume seeks to draw attention to this vast and unexplored terrain in the economic history of early India, by bringing together essays on a new and rich historiography. Essays in the volume cover neglected regions, economic processes and structures. Scholars have looked at questions of settlements, crops that were cultivated and market orientation. Essays cover material culture and provide insights into how early Indians lived, what kinds of activities they were engaged in, and how they organised their production activities within and outside domestic spaces. Further the volume bring new insights on hierarchy of settlement types, nature of exchange, and the significance of a nodal site in exchange networks. Maritime history as well as the understanding of trade in its varied forms and manifestations are covered in several essays.

This textbook narrates the ancient Indian history from the genesis of civilisations to the early middle ages. It examines the sources, chronology of civilisations and authoritatively details the facts, feats, triumphs and religious crusades of the period. It unveils the rich cultural, religious and social diversity that is uniquely and peculiarly Indian.

Presenting the grand sweep of Indian history from antiquity to the present, A History of India is a detailed and authoritative account of the major political, economic, social and cultural forces that have shaped the history of the Indian subcontinent. Hermann Kulke and Dietmar Rothermund provide a comprehensive overview of the structural pattern of Indian history, covering each historical period in equal depth. Fully revised throughout, the sixth edition of this highly accessible book has been brought up to date with analysis of recent events such as the 2014 election and its consequences, and includes more discussion of subjects such as caste and gender, Islam, foreign relations, partition, and the press and television. This new edition contains an updated chronology of key events and a useful glossary of Indian terms, and is highly illustrated with maps and photographs. Supplemented by a companion website (www.routledge.com/cw/kulke), it is a valuable resource for students of Indian history.

Some Aspects Of Early Indian Society is a comprehensive study of certain social institutions of early India based on literary and epigraphic traditions, located between Vedic times to the 8th century A.D. It poses new questions on ticklish issues like the social thought of Kautilya, Hindu sacraments, graded early Indian society, the question of the Sudras, subjection of women, Buddhist attitudes towards women, Ashoka Dharma as gleaned from rock edicts, feudal relationship and obligations between kings and vassal. This study of Kautilya's social thought is probably the first of its kind to discover the essentials of Hindu social thought and its systematic presentation. Some Aspects Of Early Indian Society is an attempt to trace the origin and growth of various Hindu sacraments in early Indian society.

The present book comprises of five essays on Vedic history. An attempt has been done to analyze the demographic situation accordingly the Aryan migration model. This contains studies on tribal structures, culture, demographic settlements, collapse of the Indus political-economic system followed by the formative phase of the Rigvedic period and the subsequent demographic expansion in Ganga valley. Transition to settlements has been discussed with reference to the archaeological sources discovered hitherto including Ochre Color Pottery (O.C.P.), Black-and-red Ware (B.R.W.), Painted Grey Ware (P.G.W.) and Northern Black Polished Ware (N.B.P.W.). Continuity of the Rigvedic tribes in the P.G.W. period has been discussed including some historical aspects of the Mahabharata. Fusions of the Rigvedic tribes to form bigger tribal identities and effects of territorial settlements on the lineage identity have been discussed.

Caste, Communication and Power explores communication and the constitution of caste in Indian society. Intimately connected, both communication and caste are determined by historical developments. The book looks at communication as a lens to study caste and power relations, with its immense potential to shape perception and affect ground reality. It also studies the evolution of the conceptual and theoretical foundations of caste and power relations, and maps their emergence from communicative resources and practices. These communication practices are inevitably linked to the social structure, with their reliance on symbolic forms of self-expression, often revealing the underlying ideological attitudes. The book studies this interface of culture and media, evaluating the caste question and the associated power relations in terms of modes of communication practised in the society.