Precolonial India in Practice: Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra

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Oxford University Press, Sep 20, 2001 - History - 328 pages
The society of traditional India is frequently characterized as static and dominated by caste. This study challenges older interpretations, arguing that medieval India was actually a time of dynamic change and fluid social identities. Using records of religious endowments from Andhra Pradesh, author Cynthia Talbot reconstructs a regional society of the precolonial past as it existed in practice.
 

Contents

Medieval India A History in Transition
1
Andhras Age of Inscriptions 10001650
19
The Society of Kakatiya Andhra
48
xiii
74
11
81
16
90
Temples and Temple Patronage in Kakatiya Andhra
95
50
103
299
169
The Kakatiyas in Telugu Historical Memory
174
67
198
Toward a New Model of Medieval India
208
Andhra Inscriptions 10001649
216
Kakatiya Andhra Inscriptions
226
Notes
259
References
265

Diversity of Temple Types
106
Motives for Temple Patronage
114
Subregional Patterns of Endowment
124

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Page 1 - From the scattered hints contained in the writings of the Greeks, the conclusion has been drawn, that the Hindus, at the time of Alexander's invasion, were in a state of...
Page 1 - From these notices,' says Mr Mill, ' the conclusion has been drawn that the Hindus, at the time of Alexander's invasion, were in a state of manners, society, and knowledge exactly the same with that in which they were discovered by the nations of modern Europe : nor is there any reason for differing widely from this opinion. It is certain that the few features of which we have any description from the Greeks bear no inaccurate resemblance to those which are found to distinguish this people at the...
Page vi - Mackenzie, and Jennifer Whiting. I am also grateful to the National Endowment for the Humanities for awarding me a fellowship for 1982-3, and to the Principal and Fellows of Brasenose College, Oxford, for electing me to a Visiting Fellowship for 1982-3.
Page xiii - A Collection of the Inscriptions on Copper - plates and Stones in the Nellore District.

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