Deccan

Ellora is the place where caves associated with different sects and religions were carved over a span of at least 800 years. While the caves, narrowly understood, have been the subject of many studies, the 'place', as a site of political and social interaction, has been largely neglected. Ellora was larger than just the caves; it was a place with a long history where traders, monks, artisans and armies brought in different ideas, reconsidered the old and innovated upon cultural traditions that reflected on their own identities and their relationship with Ellora. These people and their actions stamped the place with meaning and identity, which accrued over time-sometimes exclusive, at other times hybrid, but inevitably transformative. Ellora was an important site that conjured multivalent sensibilities, more complex than many other places. This article uses toponym as an analytic focus to bring into play different subjects-the historical agents, religious organisations, monuments and textual materials-that provided structure and meaning to the Ellora Caves at different historical junctures. It argues how the place and people in power have different kinds of relationships with the past, especially when it is not their past but one that they need to master. The impact of material change and transition in the production of historical materials is particularly striking when studied in the long duration with focus on a relatively small but politically significant site.

This article considers the relationship between printed, written, and oral traditions in Hindu purāṇas and stotras along with their interaction and intersection with the development of sacred topographies. The question of the universalizing tendencies of purāṇic literature vs. the regionally specific concerns of stotras is raised. After this general discussion, special consideration is given to the Dvādaśajyotirliṅgastotra and the development of the cult of the twelve jyotirliṅgas (liṅgas of light) in the Deccan region.

Galley Proof from - Material Culture and Asian Religions: Text, Image, Object, ed. Benjamin J. Fleming and Richard Mann, Routledge 2014.

We conducted monthly road surveys for encounter rates of
Chinkara Gazella bennettii in Mayureshwar Wildlife Sanctuary (MWS),
Supe Baramati, Pune from June 2011 to May 2012. The sighting records
of Chinkara were collected from opportunistic surveys conducted
in adjoining areas of the Sanctuary, up to a distance of 200km in
the southwestern region of the Deccan plateau, Maharashtra. We
observed that the Chinkara was facing threats from habitat depletion,
including in MWS which was declared a sanctuary for their protection.
Road widening projects such as the four lane Pune-Solapur National
Highway runs 13km on its northern side and a district highway from
Ahmednagar to Satara running north-south from the boundary of the
Sanctuary have been proposed. Other threats like vehicular movement
from tar roads crossing the sanctuary, a proposed underground
canal, a major irrigation canal to be constructed along the boundary
of the sanctuary, and the increasing number of fenced plots for new
residential and other development projects are responsible for the
reduction in suitable habitats of the Chinakara. It appears that within
a few years, the sanctuary will become an isolated patch of protected
grassland, affecting the smooth movement of Chinkara within and
beyond the sanctuary limits. Therefore, the remaining population of
Chinkara from the entire human dominated landscape will struggle for
survival.

Hampi, with its temple complexes, palaces and fortresses, epitomised the rich historical, architectural-cultural and cosmopolitan legacy of the Vijayanagara Empire, which flourished on the banks of the Tungabhadra for more than 200 years from the mid 14th century. It is second on The New York Times list of 52 places to visit in 2019

This article examines a literary circuit of poets and chroniclers in the Deccan (south central India) region that formed around an Iranian émigré, Mustafa Khan Lari (d. 1648), using a largely neglected versified history in Dakkani Urdu. An earlier generation of historians drew on Persian materials, as well as Dutch and Portuguese archives, to illustrate the role of Iranians as statesmen and merchants. However, Dayal turns to Persian chronicles and a maṣnavī or narrative poem written in the courtly vernacular to understand Mustafa Khan’s role as a literary patron, especially of history writing across two languages in the seventeenth-century Deccan. This literary circle of poets and chroniclers—along with their patron—circulated across Safavid Iran, Mughal Hindustan, and the Deccan; they forged new allegiances and affinities during a period of conquest and chose to observe the world around them in new tongues. The polyphonic activities of this literary circuit challenge an ethnolinguistic parochialism pervasive in the study of court culture in early modern South Asia. Further, the circuit shows how itinerant literati used the technique of ethnography to apprehend enemies and friends while moving with armies in a period of volatile and unpredictable conquest.

Keywords: patronage networks, Deccan, Mughal, Bijapur, Persianate, Dakkani, literary cultures, Iranians

Trade is frequently cited as the primary influence on the florescence of rock-cut Buddhist monasteries in the Western Ghats mountains, India between 200 BCE and 400 CE. Yet the monasteries have been foci of art-historical scholarship without detailed investigation of archaeology and geography. The relationship between monasteries, trade routes, ports and urban centres are examined using GIS cost-surface analysis. Interpreted alongside inscriptions, the results demonstrate that not only merchants but craftspeople, royalty and members of monastic communities were important to monastic development. This diversity calls the monasteries' archetypal position for the study of Buddhism and trade into question.

A gathering of the Brahma Kshatriya community of Hyderabad, 1937-38 | Govind Lal A photo essay on the Brahma Kshatriyas of Hyderabad, whose association with the Mughal and the Nizam's administration produced a unique syncretic culture. The Brahma Kshatriyas of Hyderabad are a Hindu caste group with origins in three diverse geographical regions in north India: Punjab, Gujarat, and Uttar Pradesh. Employed in the bureaucracy of the Mughals and later of the Nizam of Hyderabad, the Khatri Biradri, as they called themselves, incorporated Islamic forms in their culture. The Brahma Kshatriyas were culturally and socially like the Muslim community around them. Their language, dress, jewellery, food habits, and other material forms of life matched the dominant culture. The Khatri way of life has been a process of cultural syncretism: incorporating another culture as one's own and an amalgamation of disparate schools of thoughts and cultures. The first known account of a community member is of Chabileram of the Shah family. He came to Hyderabad along with Asaf Jah I, the Mughal governor of the Deccan, who founded the independent princely state and ruled from 1724 to 1748. Raja Bansi Lal, a descendent of Chabileram, too was employed in the office of a later Nizam. Another early record is of Mahipat Ram of the Sehgal family, who was in the bureaucracy of the second Nizam and became the governor of Berar. Some accounts term Mahipat Ram as the first freedom fighter of Hyderabad for his anti-British stance, and he has a street in Hyderabad named after him.

The Indian Plate has been the focus of intensive research concerning the flood basalts of the Deccan Traps. Here we document a volcanostratigraphic analysis of the offshore segment of the western Indian volcanic large igneous province, between the shoreline and the first magnetic anomaly (An 28 ∼63 Ma). We have mapped the different crustal domains of the NW Indian Ocean from stretched continental crust through to oceanic crust, using seismic reflection and potential field data. Two volcanic structures, the Somnath Ridge and the Saurashtra High, are identified, extending ∼305 km NE–SW in length and 155 km NW–SE in width. These show the internal structures of buried shield volcanoes and hyaloclastic mounds, surrounded by mass-wasting deposits and volcanic sediments. The structures observed resemble seismic images from the North Atlantic and northwest Australia, as well as volcanic geometries described for Réunion and Hawaii. The geometry and internal seismic facies within the volcanic...

Whilst many rock-cut Buddhist monasteries in Maharashtra have been documented in detail, those located in the southern Konkan have not been published. Between the second century BCE and the fourth century CE several monasteries were cut close to the western edge of the Western Ghats mountains to the south of the better known rock-cut monasteries at Kuda and Mahad. This article documents the locations, dates and landscape contexts of the monasteries at Chiplun and Khed alongside detailed descriptions of individual caves. The article finishes with a reassessment of the dates of the early phase of cave cutting at Panhale Kaji. The region of the southern Konkan, and the town of Chiplun in particular, is significant to the present volume as Professor V. Shinde grew up in this area. By documenting the caves in full it is hoped that the archaeology of the area will feature in art-historical and historical debates about the ancient Deccan.

The Indian Plate has been the focus of intensive research concerning the flood basalts of the Deccan Traps. Here we document a volcanostratigraphic analysis of the offshore segment of the western Indian volcanic large igneous province, between the shoreline and the first magnetic anomaly (An 28 ∼63 Ma). We have mapped the different crustal domains of the NW Indian Ocean from stretched continental crust through to oceanic crust, using seismic reflection and potential field data. Two volcanic structures, the Somnath Ridge and the Saurashtra High, are identified, extending ∼305 km NE–SW in length and 155 km NW–SE in width. These show the internal structures of buried shield volcanoes and hyaloclastic mounds, surrounded by mass-wasting deposits and volcanic sediments. The structures observed resemble seismic images from the North Atlantic and northwest Australia, as well as volcanic geometries described for Réunion and Hawaii. The geometry and internal seismic facies within the volcanic...

The article deals with the most notable example of India's syncretic art - rāgamāla miniatures painting which combines three main forms of the art: music, literature and painting. This genre flourished from the second half of the fifteenth century and dwindled in the second half of the nineteenth century and was one of the most popular genres of north Indian (Pahari, Rajput) and Deccani paintings. The aim of this work is to uncover the genesis of pictorial narrative in miniatures and examine the reasons of its interpretations among different regional styles, which are descibed as idioms. The main tasks are to look at the evolution of three main forms of the art in general through religious, social, cultural and historical contexts and adapt their properties to the problems of rāgamāla phenomenon. By exploring the place of the three arts (or as we can name them - three medias) in it, identify each of their contributions to the development of the rāgamāla genre and critically evaluate them as the causes of visual interpretations. To achieve successful and objective analysis, the thesis is divided into a theoretical and practical parts. The theoretical part deals with background of development of rāgamāla painting and its two main classifications. And the practical part vividly reflects the specific pictorial examples of two rāgas and one rāgini. Using theoretical research methods - a comparative analysis of the specific painted examples, the conclusions were made that in the early development of rāgamāla paintings their pictorial narrative is closely associated with canonized sacral iconography and only development of literature and poetry led the narrative plot to emerge in the pictorial composition and portray it in detail. However, process of islamisation seculiarized content of miniatures and emphasized the authority of the king and the estates of cultural importance. The analysis also showed that the holistic and objective understanding of the phenomenon is must. The transformation of expression from music, through poetry to painting was a gradual one. Medieval musicians would associate each raga or mode with a deity and name it, intrigued poets of the late medieval period then personified these ragas and elaborated their tales in vivid verbal imagery. These stories along with other influential musical texts provided the poetic source for rāgamāla painting. This work may be used in further analysis of rāgamāla painting, putting emphasis on the literary aspect of the phenomenon.

The role of hotter than ambient plumemantle in the formation of a rifted volcanic margin in the northern Arabian Sea is investigated using subsidence analysis of a drill site located on the seismically defined Somnath volcanic ridge. The ridge has experienced >4 km of subsidence since 65 Ma and lies within oceanic lithosphere. We estimate crustal thickness to be 9.5–11.5km. Curiously <400mof the thermal subsidence occurred prior to 37Ma, when subsidence rates would normally be at a maximum. We reject the hypothesis that this was caused by increasing plume dynamic support after continental break-up because the size of the thermal anomalies required are unrealistic (>600 °C), especially considering the rapid northward drift of India relative to the Deccan-Réunion hotspot.We suggest that this reflects very slowlithospheric growth, possibly caused by vigorous asthenospheric convection lasting >28 m.y., and induced by the steep continent–ocean boundary. Post-rift slow subside...

यह आलेख बिदरी के अद्वितीय और बढ़िया शिल्प को स्पष्ट करता है जो दक्कन क्षेत्र में बहमनी और बरीदी सुल्तानों के शासन के दौरान भारत के बिदर में विकसित हुआ। शिल्प को बाद के शासकों द्वारा कई बार प्रोत्साहित किया गया है और इसे पुनर्जीवित किया गया है और इस दिन एक जीआई प्रदान किए जाने के साथ मौजूद है। सदियों से बने उत्पादों की उत्पत्ति, तकनीक, प्रकृति और विविधता आकर्षक है और इस लेखन में पता लगाया गया है। 17 वीं शताब्दी में बिदरी का विकास हुआ और वस्तु एक मिश्र धातु से बना था, तांबा और जिंक के साथ सीसा धातु; चांदी, सोना या पीतल, जो जटिल डिजाइनों में जड़  के  काम  में शोभित था । वस्तुओं में हुक्का बेस (हबल-बबल / वॉटर पाइप), ईवर्स या अफताबा, साल्वर, बेसिन या सैलाबची, कैंडेलब्रा या शमदान, सुराही, मिर-ए-फरश, मुकाबा, फूलदान, चगायर, धूपदान, उद-दान, डिबिया और  गुलाब पश , अन्य उपयोगितात्मक और सजावटी प्रकार की वस्तुएं शामिल हैं। 17 वीं से 19वीं शताब्दी तक उत्पादित बिदरी हुक्का सबसे आश्चर्यजनक वस्तुएं हैं। यह आलेख बिदरी शिल्प के इतिहास का पता लगाता है और कुछ बिदरी वस्तुओ को दर्शाता है।

कीवर्ड: बिदर, बिद्री, दक्कन की कला, बरीदी, बहमनी, भारत के हस्तशिल्प।

Le fort de Bellary représente l’ultime étape de la fortification indienne et une certaine forme d’aboutissement de l’adaptation à l’artillerie à la fin du 18ème siècle. C’est un des sites clôturant notre corpus des typologies de l’évolution des fortifications du Deccan malgré son emplacement géographique et géologique légèrement éloigné du plateau deccani. Le fort de Bellary reste attaché au contexte historique du Deccan médiéval et moderne.

La présente étude vise à mettre en lumière les dernières modifications indiennes, avant la prise du fort par les britanniques en 1800, liées à l’artillerie et fortement imprégnées par l’influence européenne de la poliorcétique du 18ème siècle dans le contexte des guerres carnatiques. Dès le 17ème siècle avec les Marathes, le changement de mentalité dans la stratégie et l’adaptation progressive des armées indiennes aux doctrines européennes , dont la conception des fortifications adaptées à l’artillerie, modifie considérablement les méthodes de guerre en Inde. Les comptoirs commerciaux européens sur les côtes indiennes jouent le rôle de vecteur de transmission technologique. La fortification bastionnée européenne n’est pas copiée à l’identique, seuls certains organes défensifs sont incorporés progressivement dans l’arsenal défensif des forts indiens en se greffant à des formes préexistantes de la fortification régionale.

The role of hotter than ambient plumemantle in the formation of a rifted volcanic margin in the northern Arabian Sea is investigated using subsidence analysis of a drill site located on the seismically defined Somnath volcanic ridge. The ridge has experienced >4 km of subsidence since 65 Ma and lies within oceanic lithosphere. We estimate crustal thickness to be 9.5–11.5km. Curiously <400mof the thermal subsidence occurred prior to 37Ma, when subsidence rates would normally be at a maximum. We reject the hypothesis that this was caused by increasing plume dynamic support after continental break-up because the size of the thermal anomalies required are unrealistic (>600 °C), especially considering the rapid northward drift of India relative to the Deccan-Réunion hotspot.We suggest that this reflects very slowlithospheric growth, possibly caused by vigorous asthenospheric convection lasting >28 m.y., and induced by the steep continent–ocean boundary. Post-rift slow subside...

With the rapid spread of Islam towards the east and the subsequent establishment of Indo-Islamic states in South Asia from the early thirteenth century, there followed steady waves of immigration from central and west Asia into the Indian subcontinent. This movement of people such as artists, scholars, warriors, statesmen, merchants and saints took place via both land-routes (across north-west India) and the Indian Ocean. The Iranians were arguably one of the major communities who left an indelible imprint on the history of the subcontinent. Historical scholarship has focussed on the role of these Iranians in aiding the process of political formations during the medieval period. The active policy of attracting human capital from Persia followed by the Bahmani Sultanate from the fifteenth century, that was taken up by their successors—the Niẓām Shāhīs of Ahmadnagar, the ‘Ādil Shāhīs of Bijapur and the Quṭb Shāhīs of Golconda—had significant repercussions. By a close reading of Indo-Persian court chronicles, this essay seeks to locate symbols of power and sustenance that enabled the migrant Iranian community to negotiate their identity within the heterogeneous political society of the Deccan. Their contest with the different sections of the ruling elite enables the scholar to engage with certain interesting problematics. How far did sectarian differences impact the dynamics of this contest? What were the means by which they articulated their identity in the foreign land? Of what relevance is their service in the capacity of diplomats and ambassadors, that facilitated communication between the polities of medieval South Asia and Safavid Iran, in this regard? By addressing these questions, this paper attempts to complicate existing historiographical understandings of the various facets of interactions that they fostered.

Keywords: migrant, community, diaspora, identity, Iranian, medieval Deccan, political Islam, maritime trade, power contestation, diplomacy