-
Were the Cretulae (Clay Sealings) from the Indus Port Town of Lothal Part of an Administrative Archive? Contextual, Interpretive, and Comparative Evidence South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2024-09-12 Dennys Frenez
Clay sealings (cretulae) have traditionally been assumed to have been used in ancient administrative systems to secure the shipment of commodities and to account for their receipt. However, researc...
-
Mudgagiri, a Pāla “Jayaskandhāvāra”: An Assessment of Recent Sculptural and Inscriptional Findings at Munger, Bihar South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2024-08-28 Akash Pandey, Sushmita Sen, Rahul Maurya
This article explores recently reported inscriptional and sculptural evidence from an early Medieval “Jayaskandhāvāra” i.e. the royal administrative headquarters of the Pāla dynasty, named Mudgagir...
-
The Sapta Sthala Along The Kaveri: Among the Earliest Chola Temples Epigraphy as a Tool South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-29 Vidya Dehejia
In 1985, Rick Asher and G.S. Gai, jointly edited a volume published by the American Institute for Indian Studies that was titled Indian Epigraphy. Its Bearing on the History of Art. The volume carr...
-
Being in the World Artfully: Institutions, Infrastructure, Interconnections South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-29 Rebecca M. Brown, Sumathi Ramaswamy
Published in South Asian Studies (Vol. 40, No. 1, 2024)
-
Bamiyan Comes to Bangkok: Situating the Buddha of the Cave Museum at Wat Saket South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-29 Sraman Mukherjee
This paper traces the making of Bamiyan Buddhas beyond the Bamiyan valley in Afghanistan since 2002. Recounting the building and rebuilding of a monastic complex in Bangkok, the study focuses on on...
-
Why Ananda Coomaraswamy’s Time in Sri Lanka (Still) Matters South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-29 Janice Leoshko
While the period that Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (1877–1947) spent as the Director of the Mineralogical Survey of Ceylon (1903–1906) is acknowledged as an important aspect of his development, exactly w...
-
Aesthetic of Light and Time: An Intellectual History of Pictorialism from India South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-29 Ranu Roychoudhuri
Pictorialism emerged in the last quarter of the nineteenth century as a global aesthetic movement that argued for photography’s artistic status on par with other plastic arts more powerfully than e...
-
Artistic Relations: Mapping KCS Paniker’s Constellations South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-29 Rebecca M. Brown
As student, teacher, and principal of the Madras School of Art, and as mentor, colleague, editor, and painter, KCS Paniker (1911–77) lived within a network of relations that one might map, followin...
-
Satyagraha After Cancel Gandhi: Race and Caste through Labor and Architecture, C. 1896-1942 South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-29 Venugopal Maddipati
In the early twentieth century M.K. Gandhi articulated Satyagraha as a decentering quest for truth through everyday politics. Satyagraha privileged the “minor” or the marginalized over the dominant...
-
Routes of Translation: Connected Book Histories and al-Jazari’s Robotic Wonders from the Mamluks to Mandu South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-25 Vivek Gupta
Over the course of the long fifteenth century, scholars and books moved across regions and spurred transcreations of numerous Islamicate manuscripts in South Asia. This essay undertakes a close rea...
-
Rethinking the Regional in Rājamatī’s World: Placemaking, Patronage and the Performance of Polity in Chanderi, c. 1479 South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-25 Saarthak Singh
A bilingual inscription on a stepwell built in 1479 on the suburbs of Chanderi, Madhya Pradesh presents a rare biography of its patron Rājamatī, a female entertainer (bhāṭiṇi), who is said to have ...
-
Editorial Note on the Special Issue South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-25
Published in South Asian Studies (Vol. 39, No. 2, 2023)
-
From the Interstices of History: Rethinking Regional Polity in North India and the Deccan, 14th–16th Centuries South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-25 Daud Ali
Published in South Asian Studies (Vol. 39, No. 2, 2023)
-
Region, Politics and Literary Culture: Reflections from Mithila in the Long 15th Century South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-25 Pankaj Jha
This paper examines the notion of region as they figure in certain literary texts of the medieval and early modern north India across diverse linguistic archives. The idea is to look at and beyond ...
-
Creating an Ecumene: Cultural, Economic, and Social Boundaries of the Deccan Sultanates South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-25 Pushkar Sohoni
A notional region was fashioned by the rulers of the sixteenth-century Deccan; they used cultural, economic, social, and urban organisations to define the region. In the choices they made about min...
-
Re-imagining the Regional Polity: Lessons in Bhrātṛbhāva and Bandhubhāva from the Baghel Kingdom South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-25 Ayesha Sheth
Confronted by an increasing number of mahārājādhirājas and shahanshāhs during the period between the fourteenth-sixteenth centuries, how do we characterise state-making and royal projections of aut...
-
Historical Convergences and Region Making in Sultanate Gujarat South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-25 Jyoti Gulati Balachandran
This article reflects upon the role of intra-, inter-, and trans-regional networks in the making of distinctive regional formations in the long fifteenth century. Through its focus on Gujarat, a re...
-
The Pursuit of Gandhāran Sculptures: A Record of Amateur Excavations in the Former Khyber Agency South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2023-11-02 Zarawar Khan
This article explores the history of clandestine activities concerning Buddhist antiquities in the former Khyber Agency of the British Indian Empire. To this end, the archives kept at the Directora...
-
“It is a Gurdwara, Not a Memorial.”: The Politics and Aesthetics of Sikh Memorials for 1984 South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2023-10-31 Kanika Singh
This paper looks at two memorials built in India to commemorate Sikh victims of the violent events of June 1984 and November 1984. Gurdwara Yaadgaar Shaheedan (Gurdwara Martyrs’ Memorial) was built...
-
Ranajit Guha: A Tribute South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2023-10-31 David Hardiman
Published in South Asian Studies (Vol. 39, No. 2, 2023)
-
Encapsulating Dance in Sculpture: The Story of “Arjuna and the Hunter” as Represented in the Hoysaḷa Temples South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2023-07-31 Anna Tosato
This article assesses the topic of theatrical performances and sculpture in medieval India through an analysis of the relationship between narrative sculptures, literary works of poetry (kāvya), and theatrical performances, as these are described in the manuals on dance/theatre (nāṭya), such as the Nāṭyaśāstra of Bharata, with the commentary Abhinavabhāratī by Abhinavagupta, Saṅgītaratnākara, and Nṛttaratnāvalī
-
An Urban Approach to the Archaeology of Buddhism in Gandhara: The Case of Barikot (Swat, Pakistan) South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2023-07-20 Elisa Iori
By moving beyond the walls of monumental religious architecture, this article adopts a city-lens approach to the investigation of lived Buddhism in the third century cities of northern Gandhara. Based on the evidence available for the city of Barikot (Swat, N Pakistan), the layered complexity of urban religiosity is approached here through a contextual analysis of the built-up environment and intra-site
-
Mobility and Festivity: Krishna Icons and the Reunion of the Seven Svarūps of 1739–40 South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2023-06-22 Isabella Nardi
This study brings together written and visual evidence of an imposing religious event in the Vallabha sampradāy history: a liturgical performance known as the Festival of the Seven Svarūps. Officiated at the Śrī Nāthjī temple of Nathdwara in 1739–40, it was attended by priests, royalty, and devotees to launch a new period of prosperity and well-being after challenging historical times. This study integrates
-
Ethnoarchaeological Study of the Artifacts Discovered from Pind Kahoot Mound, District Chakwal, Punjab, Pakistan South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2023-02-09 Hadiqa Imtiaz, Saqib Raza, Safina Baig, Komal Zahra
Chakwal is located in Potohar Plateau of the Punjab Province. Town Bhoun of District Chakwal has historic significance as it is famous for carding archaeological sites and monuments. A rich archaeological mound of Pind Kahoot is located on the periphery of town Bhoun in District Chakwal. The site is occupied for agricultural activities. Whenever the farmers plough their fields and stones stuck the
-
Tracing Ancient Itinerants and Early Medieval Rulers in the Forests of Bandhavgarh South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2023-01-31 Nayanjot Lahiri, M.B. Rajani, Debdutta Sanyal, Samayita Banerjee, Satyendra Tiwari
This article arises out of a disquiet about the archaeology of historical India which has largely been concerned with cities and villages. Forests and wilderness rarely figure there, except in passing when the expanding agricultural terrain is described in relation to forest lands being domesticated or when there is an exploration of lines of communication, some of which pass through forested tracts
-
The Told and Untold South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2023-01-30 Jiajing Mo
Believed to be an eye-witnessed report by Xuanzang 玄奘 (c.602–664 CE), the Datang Xiyu ji has long been held up in the western scholarship as a handy guide for the historical geography of South Asia and a standard source for identifying archaeological sites since the pioneer archaeologist Alexander Cunningham (1814–1893). Strangely, over a century of using the Xiyu ji has generated little critical awareness
-
The Other Archaeologists: The Ignorant Villagers and the Colonial Archaeology of Taxila in the Late Nineteenth Century South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-11-11 Ifqut Shaheen
This paper investigates the role ordinary people have played in archaeological field research during the late nineteenth century. Its geographical focus is on the Taxila valley in Pakistan. It was in the early later nineteenth century that Alexander Cunningham carried out extensive explorations in the area. He engaged local people during the course of his explorations aiming at gathering information
-
Sultanganj Re-Visited: Encountering the Past Through Living Traditions South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-11-11 Ruma Bose
This ethnographical paper re-explores the ancient remains of Sultanganj, Bihar, reports new findings of interest to archaeologists and art historians of eastern India and attempts to explain the historical context for the emergence of the site. Intervowen are prevailing popular conceptions of recovered old images and their place in the living traditions of a complex socio-religious pilgrimage town
-
A Story Without Architecture: The Mythical Origins of Mumbai South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-11-11 Pushkar Sohoni
Stories that explain the origins of cities are often memorialised in architectural or natural monuments. Often, these man-made or natural formations are created or imagined respectively, to suit a particular narrative. In the case of Mumbai, the story of the city goddess Mumbadevi is central to the early imagined history of the city. Her canonical story is a relatively late creation, representing a
-
Linguistic Hegemony and Latent Typology: The Case of Harappan Script Scholarship South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-09-27 Pallavee Gokhale
Harappan script scholarship is an archaeological discourse debating on the linguistic nature of the undeciphered signs, popularly known as Indus script. The article argues existence of linguistic hegemony in this scholarship and explicates its root causes, phases, consequences, and the present state of research. The phases are a result of combined influence of multiple parallel developments in the
-
Beyond the Fortified Town: Preliminary Insights on Land Use and Occupation Strategies at Banbhore (Sindh, Pakistan) South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-09-23 Simone Mantellini, Agnese Fusaro, Federica Duva, Zahida Quadri
The site of Banbhore is located in the western delta of the Indus river (Sindh, Pakistan), identified as the harbor town of Daybul mentioned in pre-Islamic and Early Islamic written sources. The archaeological activities conducted here since the beginning of the past century revealed a long and uninterrupted occupation and complex urban planning (1st century BCE-early 13th century CE). A systematic
-
“I Curse You on Her Behalf” Narratives of Sexual Assault from Sanskrit Literature South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-09-01 Anisha Saxena
The classical Sanskrit texts composed in early India are one of the most celebrated texts from South Asia. The Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata, and the Purāṇas are an integral part of socio-cultural, and now political life of contemporary India. Texts composed in classical Sanskrit are assumed to represent an unblemished civilization, with a righteous rule and unadulterated social harmony; this is especially
-
Becoming Visible: Travel Documents and Travelling Ayahs in the British Empire South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-08-23 Arunima Datta
This article explores the lives of Indian travelling ayahs (nannies and servants), who are usually hard to find in the historical records of the imperial state, using travel documents, such as ships’ manifests, passage slips, passage permissions and most significantly passports. Passports have recently been studied as sites of colonial and anti-colonial politics. This article puts passports and other
-
“Romano-Sasanian” Imitations from India: Notes on Their Life Histories and the Indo-Sasanian Trade South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-08-23 Emilia Smagur
This paper discusses three extraordinary imitations from India the obverses of which are based on Roman issues while the reverses imitate Sasanian coins. These specimens are exceptional and puzzling for two reasons: the unique combination of obverse and reverse designs and the absence of genuine issues which could have been used as their reverse prototypes among finds from the territories they were
-
Rice and Water in Early Historic South India and Sri Lanka South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-08-15 Sureshkumar Muthukumaran
Domesticated rice (Oryza sativa), typically a water-intensive crop, is widely cultivated in the semi-arid zones of South India and Sri Lanka and is a staple among sedentary populations in these regions when the opposite should prevail in light of environmental constraints. This paper investigates the origins of large-scale rice cultivation in South India and Sri Lanka and the attendant innovations
-
Enquiring the Rocks: Statistical Investigation of Buddhist Stupa Carvings at Chilas Bridge, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-08-15 Muhammad Zahir, Abdul Ghani Khan, Sohail Farooq
This paper investigates the Buddhist stupa carvings at Chilas Bridge site, District Diamer, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. We studied a total of 199 stupa carvings using statistical techniques to explore the depiction of Buddhist stupas and their constituent parts in this key region of northern Pakistan. Analysis of the stupa carvings suggests that the majority of the stupas were of small and medium size
-
The Light of Asia: The Poem that Defined the Buddha South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-08-10 Peter Heehs
Published in South Asian Studies (Vol. 38, No. 2, 2022)
-
The Folded Gaze: Looking at Legal Documents in South Asia South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-04-08 Megha Sharma Sehdev,Piyel Haldar
-
The Folded Gaze: Looking at Legal Documents in South Asia South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-04-08 Megha Sharma Sehdev,Piyel Haldar
-
Mixed Methodologies: Collaborative Approaches to Indus Tiger Seals South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-04-06 Marta Ameri,Gregg Jamison
-
A Unique Sculptural Illustration of Kuṇḍalinīyoga at Jogeśvara Temple, Devalane, Maharashtra South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-03-13 Anuja Joshi
-
A Unique Sculptural Illustration of Kuṇḍalinīyoga at Jogeśvara Temple, Devalane, Maharashtra South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-03-13 Anuja Joshi
-
Dark Humour and the Female Performance of Subversion in South-Asian Diasporic Cinema: Chadha’s Rich Deceiver, It’s A Wonderful Afterlife, and What Do You Call An Indian Woman Who’s Funny? South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-02-17 Shuhita Bhattacharjee
-
Tirchhi Nazar: The Gaze in South Asia beyond Darshan South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-02-14 Niharika Dinkar
-
Tirchhi Nazar: The Gaze in South Asia beyond Darshan South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-02-14 Niharika Dinkar
-
Glass Bangles in India: Antiquity, Functional Use and Traditional Production South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-11-25 Alok Kumar Kanungo
-
Pornography Pre-modern: Viṟaliviṭu Tūtu and the Genealogy of Tamil Sexual Literature South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-11-17 S. Gunasekaran
-
Seeing the Elephant: Animal Spectatorship and the Imperial Gaze in Colonial India South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-07-03 Niharika Dinkar
-
Opening the Eyes of South Asian Museums: Making Sense of the Visitor Gaze South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-05-10 Shaila Bhatti
-
From Reference to Knowledge Repositories: On Mimetic Aspects of Kalamkari Making South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-01-02 Rajarshi Sengupta
This essay seeks to explore the significance of mimetic actions in making the knowledge reserve of the early modern kalamkari textile makers of the Coromandel region, southern India. A shared pool of visuals found in these textiles, south Indian murals, Deccani architecture, and artifacts allow us to assess the histories of the artisans who engaged with cross-cultural and intermedial mobilities. Images
-
Mayakonda, A Fortified Headquarters Town of the Chitradurga Nayakas South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-01-02 R. Barry Lewis
The Chitradurga Nayakas ruled part of central Karnataka between the 1550s and 1779. When mapped by the British in the early 1800s, the former Chitradurga kingdom comprised eleven parganas or districts, each of which were administered by a headquarters town. Similar territorial divisions existed throughout the Early Modern kingdoms and chiefdoms of South India. Taking Mayakonda as an example, I trace
-
Cloistering Water: Technological Rupture, Religious Continuity in Sixteenth Century Western India South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-01-02 Sara Keller
The introduction of the underground cistern in South Asia, through Western India, offers a fascinating case study of knowledge migration and technological transfers between West and South Asia. It addresses the question of past hydraulic technologies used in the Western Indian cities and the modalities of a fundamental shift in the relationship to water during the 16th century. The present paper is
-
Making Kantha, Making Home. Women at work in colonial Bengal South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-01-02 Rosemary Crill
-
Krishna’s lineage. The Harivamsha of Vyāsa’s Mahābhārata South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-01-02 Danielle Feller
examples of Indian miniature painting, sculpture and textiles are anonymous this argument does not convince. Their absence from museum collections is more likely to be because they were made as domestic objects by non-professional women, and were thus much less likely to come to the attention of the (mostly male) museum curators of the time. The core of the book takes two historic kanthas, one in the
-
Mapping the Pāśupata Landscape: Narrative, Place, and the Śaiva Imaginary in Early Medieval North India South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-01-02 Benjamin J. Fleming
-
The Master may Wander into Servanthood: The King and his Architect South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-01-02 Libbie Mills
Sanskrit building literature offers a thorough presentation of the complex planning, building and ritual that goes into a construction. Among the factors considered by these building manuals is the choice of the architect. In greater or lesser depth, they list the qualifications and qualities to be looked for in an architect so that all will go well, and a few of them go on to address what can go wrong
-
Richard Grove (1955-2020) and the Quest for Interdisciplinary Environmentalism South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2020-07-02 Rohan D’Souza
-
The Great Agrarian Conquest: The Colonial Reshaping of a Rural World South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2020-07-02 Anshu Malhotra
-
Reading Time: the Sarnath Buddha and the Historical Significance of Donor Portraits in Early Medieval South Asia South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2020-07-02 Jinah Kim
How was time conceptualized and represented in Indian art? Through case studies re-examining a few canonical examples in Indian art, from Sarnath Buddha, to Udayagiri Varāha tableau, to Ajanta’s Cave 26, this essay demonstrates that the carefully composed insertion of miniature human donor figures can be taken as a visual clue to understand how the sense of history and time was experienced and articulated
-
Indian Sex Life: Sexuality and the Colonial Origins of Modern Social Thought South Asian Studies (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2020-07-02 Rianna Price
The status of the prostitute in the colonial Indian medical, moral and legal imagination has received various scholarly attentions over the years, but none so thorough and evocative as that of Durb...