IX. Between Empire Building and State Formation. Official Elites in Java and Mughal India

Itinerario ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-194
Author(s):  
V.J.H. Houben ◽  
D.H.A. Kolff
Keyword(s):  
South India ◽  
Core Region ◽  
The South ◽  
Indian States ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Colonial India ◽  
Empire Building ◽  
The Core ◽  
South Indian ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries

The reason to compare the recent histories of India and Indonesia was that they were the scenes of the two most extensive and populous colonial empires of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The decision to push back the comparison to the pre-colonial era meant loosing track of the vital focus of the enterprise. Moreover, pre-colonial India presents a unity in only some respects whereas Indonesia as a territorial concept did not even exist then. The tendency of Indonesianists to focus, for convenience's sake, on the island of Java seems to become inescapable. This confronts those on the Indian wing of the comparison with the dilemma to what extent they are entitled to give up Indian unity and if they do, what part of India compares best with insular Java. Especially fit for comparison seem the regional states of South India: Vijayanagar, Madurai etc. Both the rice-based economies of the South Indian states and their size suggests this. Although Java became the core region of one of the colonial empires, whereas the South Indian states would stay at the periphery of the other, such a comparison could well be fruitful.

Reconstruction of the last three millennia South American Monsoon variability over the Amazon basin using speleothem isotope records 

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcela Eduarda Della Libera de Godoy ◽  
Valdir F. Novello ◽  
Francisco William Cruz
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Amazon Basin ◽  
Rainfall Variability ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Core Region ◽  
South American ◽  
The South ◽  
Continuous Increase ◽  
South American Monsoon ◽  
The Core

<p>South American Monsoon System (SAMS) and its main feature, the South American Convergence Zone (SACZ) are responsible for the major distribution of moisture in South America. The current work presents a novel high-resolution oxygen isotope record (δ<sup>18</sup>O) based on speleothems from southwest Amazon basin (Brazil), right at SAMS' core region and SACZ onset, where there is still a gap of high resolution paleoclimate records. The novel δ<sup>18</sup>O record presents an average of 3 year-resolution, composed by 1344 stable isotope analysis performed in two speleothems with a well-resolved chronology (37 U/Th ages) with average errors <1%. This work aims to describe the rainfall variability of the core region of the South American monsoon for the last 3k years and to take a broader look at precipitation patterns over Amazon basin. The Rondônia δ18O record shows three main stages throughout this time period. The first is from -1000 to ~400 CE, where it’s in accordance with most of other paleorecords from the Amazon basin. the second segment  is from ~400 to 1200 CE, when there is a continuous increase in the δ18O record until it reaches its highest values around 850 CE during the MCA (800-1200 CE), which is in accordance with western Amazon records, whilst the record in eastern Amazon presents an opposite trend. Thus, a precipitation dipole over Amazon emerges from ~400 CE onwards, majorly triggered by anomalous climate changes such as MCA, where western (eastern) Amazon is drier (wetter). During LIA (1450-1800 CE), on the other hand, Rondônia record presents its lowest values, also agreeing with western records and with records under the influence of SACZ whilst on eastern Amazon a drier period is established. Therefore, with this novel paleoclimate record located at the core region of SAMS, it's possible to evidence the dynamics of the precipitation dipole over the Amazon region, as well as understand the SACZ intensity variations.</p>

Epilogue

2020 ◽  
pp. 321-324
Author(s):  
Federico De Romanis
Keyword(s):  
Red Sea ◽  
South India ◽  
Second Century ◽  
The South ◽  
South Indian ◽  
Import And Export ◽  
Complex Relationships ◽  
The Ganges ◽  
Precious Stones

The epilogue summarizes what the two texts of the Muziris papyrus tell us about the pepper and ivory production of the ancient Cēra kingdom, South Indian commercial connections with the Ganges Valley, the logistics of the Red Sea–Alexandria transports, the complex relationships between the South India traders and the contractors of the Red Sea tax, and the assessment and payment of the import and export customs duties. It also looks at what the two texts do not mention—the part of pearls and precious stones in the South India trade of the mid-second century ad. Furthermore, a speculative estimate of the commercial venture final balance is attempted.

The South Indian Tradition of the Apostle Thomas

1924 ◽  
Vol 56 (S1) ◽  
pp. 213-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. Thoma
Keyword(s):  
South India ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
The South ◽  
The North ◽  
Indian Tradition ◽  
South Indian ◽  
Christian Origins ◽  
Final Settlement

Although a great deal has been written concerning St. Thomas's connexion with India, it has so far resulted only in barren controversies and inchoate theories. The finding of the “Gondophares.” coins in the Cabul region raised great hopes of a final settlement of the problem; but apart from the (itself doubtful) identification of a single name in the Ada Thomae, it has shed little light on the mysteries of Christian origins in India. Nay, it has had positively injurious results, inasmuch as it diverted the attention of scholars into fields far remote from the familiar haunts of the Thomistic tradition. South India is the quarter from which we should expect fresh evidence: the north has no known claims to any connexion with the Apostle. In the south live the Christians of St. Thomas—the so-called “Syrians” who for more than a thousand years have upheld their descent from the Apostle's disciples. There also we have what has been believed from immemorial antiquity to be the tomb of St. Thomas, with various lithic remains of pre-Portuguese Christianity around Madras. South India has a remarkably ancient tradition of St. Thomas; and it is a living tradition, not a dead legend. It can be traced back at least to the sixth century a.d., and it still lives in popular memories, not only of Christians, but of others not recognizing the claims of Christianity. The existence of this tradition is known and recognized; but no organized attempt has yet been made to explore it.

The Indo-Roman Pepper Trade and the Muziris Papyrus

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federico De Romanis
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
South India ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
South Indian ◽  
History Of ◽  
European Trade ◽  
Early Modern Times ◽  
Commercial Relationships

This book offers an interpretation of the two fragmentary texts of the P. Vindobonensis G 40822, now widely referred to as the Muziris papyrus. Without these two texts, there would be no knowledge of the Indo-Roman trade practices. The book also compares and contrasts the texts of the Muziris papyrus with other documents pertinent to Indo-Mediterranean (or Indo-European) trade in ancient, medieval, and early modern times. These other documents reveal the commercial and political geography of ancient South India; the sailing schedule and the size of the ships plying the South India sea route; the commodities exchanged in the South Indian emporia; and the taxes imposed on the Indian commodities en route from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. When viewed against the twin backdrops of ancient sources on South Indian trade and of medieval and early modern documents on pepper commerce, the two texts become foundational resources for the history of commercial relationships between South India and the West.

Sultan among Dutchmen? Royal dress at court audiences in South India, as portrayed in local works of art and Dutch embassy reports, seventeenth–eighteenth centuries

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (6) ◽  
pp. 1792-1845 ◽  
Author(s):  
LENNART BES
Keyword(s):  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
South India ◽  
East India Company ◽  
Dutch East India Company ◽  
Indian States ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Works Of Art ◽  
South Indian ◽  
Dress Codes ◽  
Islamic Courts

AbstractFrom the fourteenth century CE onwards, South Indian states ruled by Hindu kings were strongly influenced by politico-cultural conventions from Muslim-governed areas. This development was, for instance, manifest in the dress and titles of the rulers of the Vijayanagara empire. As has been argued, they bore the title of sultan and on public occasions they appeared in garments fashioned on Persian and Arab clothing. Both adaptations exemplified efforts to connect to the dominant Indo-Islamic world. From Vijayanagara's fragmentation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, new Hindu-ruled kingdoms arose. We may wonder to what extent those succeeding polities continued practices adopted from Islamic courts. With that question in mind, this article discusses royal dress at court audiences in four Vijayanagara successor states, chiefly on the basis of embassy reports of the Dutch East India Company and South Indian works of art. It appears that kings could wear a variety of clothing styles at audiences and that influences on these styles now came from multiple backgrounds, comprising diverse Islamic and other elements. Further, not all successor states followed the same dress codes, as their dynasties modified earlier conventions in different ways, depending on varying political developments.

“Sultan among Hindu Kings”: Dress, Titles, and the Islamicization of Hindu Culture at Vijayanagara

1996 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 851-880 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip B. Wagoner
Keyword(s):  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
South India ◽  
The State ◽  
The South ◽  
South Indian ◽  
Indian State ◽  
Natural Result

When Robert Sewell inaugurated the modern study of the South Indian state of Vijayanagara with his classic A Forgotten Empire (1900), he characterized the state as “a Hindu bulwark against Muhammadan conquests” (Sewell [1900] 1962, 1), thereby formulating one of the enduring axioms of Vijayanagara historiography. From their capital on the banks of the Tungabhadra river, the kings of Vijayanagara ruled over a territory of more than 140,000 square miles, and their state survived three changes of dynasty to endure for a period of nearly three hundred years, from the mid-fourteenth through the mid-seventeenth centuries (Stein 1989, 1–2). According to Sewell, this achievement was to be understood as “the natural result of the persistent efforts made by the Muhammadans to conquer all India” ([1900] 1962, 1). Hindu kingdoms had exercised hegemony over South India for most of the previous millennium, but were divided among themselves when the Muslim forces of Muhammad bin Tughluq swept over the South in the early decades of the fourteenth century: “When these dreaded invaders reached the Krishna River the Hindus to their south, stricken with terror, combined, and gathered in haste to the new standard [of Vijayanagara] which alone seemed to offer some hope of protection. The decayed old states crumbled away into nothingness, and the fighting kings of Vijayanagar became the saviours of the south for two and a half centuries” (Sewell [1900] 1962, 1).

scholarly journals Decomposing the performance metrics of coconut cultivation in the South Indian States

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shine Raju Kappil ◽  
Ranjan Aneja ◽  
Poonam Rani
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Tamil Nadu ◽  
Performance Metrics ◽  
Cocos Nucifera ◽  
Decomposition Analysis ◽  
Total Production ◽  
The South ◽  
Indian States ◽  
Growth Trends ◽  
South Indian

AbstractCoconut (Cocos nucifera) is extensively cultivated and used as a staple ingredient in Indian cuisines, especially in the South Indian cuisines. In India, other than edible purposes, coconut is widely used in religious practices and, it is considered as symbol of prosperity. Despite these facts, several upturns and downturns occurring in the growth trends of coconut in recent periods irrespective of geographical differences. This study attempts to decipher the growth trends in the area, the production and yield of coconut in major coconut producing states in India from 2000–2001 to 2017–2018. Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are the states in India where coconut palms are extensively cultivated and produced in large quantities. These states together contribute to approximately 84 per cent of the total area for cultivation of coconut and account for over 87 per cent of total production in the country. We analyse the growth trends in coconut cultivation using appropriate growth equations to estimate the growth rates and instabilities in growth trends. Besides, we use decomposition analysis to find the role of area, price, yield and crop mix effects on coconut production. The results reveal that Karnataka secured high growth in coconut production and its productivity and recorded better acceleration but fluctuated heavily between the phases of years under investigation. It shows that the price effect and yield effect play a crucial role in the total change of coconut production among the selected states. Based on the results, we recommend the local governments and other dedicated authorities to ensure that coconut growers have better access to modern technology, quality inputs, marketing and credit facilities following local necessity. Eventually, these measures can attract and encourage many new farmers into coconut cultivation and thereby achieving better advances in coconut farming.

Leadership and Individuality in South Asia: The Case of the South Indian Big-man

1990 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 761-786 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattison Mines ◽  
Vijayalakshmi Gourishankar
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
South India ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
The South ◽  
Indian Culture ◽  
Indian History ◽  
Dynamic Relationship ◽  
South Indian ◽  
Perceptions Of Leadership ◽  
The Individual

Although there has been great interest in how properly to conceptualize the person in Indian culture, few have explored Indian perceptions of leadership, achievement, and agency as valued features of individuality (Singer 1972; Mines 1988; Fox 1989). Indeed, since Dumont (1970a,b) forcefully argued that the values of equality and liberty that support the Western notion of the individual were absent from Indian society, the important roles that personal uniqueness, volition, and achievement play in Indian history have been largely overlooked or understated. This paper reconsiders an Indian sense of these roles by examining the south Indian concept of the “big-man” (periyar, periyavar), a notion of individuality and instrumentality that is central to the politics of south India and crucial to an understanding of the dynamic relationship that exists between action and organization in Indian society (cf., Fox 1989).

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