The Political Structure of Early Medieval South India - Softcover

Kesavan Veluthat

Softcover

ISBN 10: 8125046518 ISBN 13: 9788125046516

Publisher: Orient Blackswan Pvt. Ltd, 2012

Synopsis

Language: English
Pages: 306

Back of the book
This book was a major intervention in Indian historiography when it was first published in 1993. The author has examined the power structure of the four monarchies of south India under the Pallava, Pandya, Cera and Cola kingdoms from the seventh through thirteenth centuries of the Common Era. He has questioned the validity of models that sought to categories the kingdoms as centralised empire or segmentary state.
This revised edition has a new introduction where the author has examined when the process of formation of a state became visible in South India. He has also analysed the causes for these changes.
The new introduction adds an important dimension to this book. It will be useful for students and scholars studying the nature of state in early medieval India.
Kesavan Veluthat is Professor, Department of History University of Delhi.
Preface to this Edition
This book has been out of print for quite some time. A reprint, work on which was begun in May 1995, did not materialise for some reason. The publishers recently came back to me but suggested that I revise the book for a second edition or write an afterword surveying the development in the field since its publication. They told me that at the very least a new Introduction was necessary. As I was too busy-a euphemism for 'too lazy'-, I agreed to the last suggestion.
In reality, to go back to a book one wrote about a quarter of a century ago should be interesting in many ways. Among the many temptations that it holds out is that one can detach oneself from the book, and look at it more critically with the benefit of the experience one may have gained with the passage of time. The wealth of knowledge that has since accumulated in the field can help in this. However, I do not claim to have made an alternative reading of the sources or revisited the field in a

About this title

About the Author

Kesavan Veluthat is Professor, Department of History, University of Delhi.

Edition details

• Publisher: Orient Blackswan Pvt. Ltd
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 8125046518
• ISBN 13: 9788125046516
• Binding: Paperback