The stabilisation of Delhi as the centre of power in the subcontinent reorganised not only political and military structures in north India but also opened up new connections for trade and traders. This article traces the journey of one Hindu merchant family from their ancestral home in the Indus Valley to new prominence in the Sultanate capital. A close reading of a Sanskrit donative inscription written in ornate poetry from the Delhi hinterland shows the changing imagination of politics, religion and space among elite merchants. Uḍḍhara Ṭhakkura adapts the linguistic heritage of Sanskrit public presentation and creates a new and self-aware ideational language to express geography, politics and piety. Uḍḍhara's model was powerful; over the next century, other merchant families adapt it to present their own donative largess. While F. Flood has highlighted the role of Hindu traders through material culture in his magisterial work Objects of Translation (2005), the Sanskrit literary production patronised by mobile mercantile groups can advance and nuance the picture, showing the complex negotiations in creating and presenting a public identity for Hindu groups in the Sultanate period.

中文翻译：

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优陀罗的世界：南亚苏丹国的虔诚与贸易地理

德里作为次大陆权力中心的稳定不仅重组了印度北部的政治和军事结构，而且为贸易和贸易商开辟了新的联系。本文追溯了一个印度教商人家庭从他们在印度河流域的祖居到在苏丹国首都新崛起的旅程。仔细阅读德里腹地华丽诗歌所写的梵文捐赠铭文，可以看出精英商人对政治、宗教和空间的想象不断变化。Uḍḍhara Ṭhakkura 改编了梵文公开演讲的语言传统，并创造了一种新的、具有自我意识的概念语言来表达地理、政治和虔诚。Uḍḍhara的模型很强大；在接下来的一个世纪里，其他商人家族对其进行了改造，以展示他们自己的捐赠。而F。翻译对象（2005），移动商业团体赞助的梵文文学作品可以推进和细微差别，展示了在苏丹国时期为印度教团体创造和展示公共身份的复杂谈判。