Interrogating Political Systems : Integrative Processes and States in Pre-Modern India

This work more than fulfills the requirement of a comprehensive volume on political processes and the structure of polities in pre-colonial India. It cuts across time and space, and provides the reader with an anthology of seminal contributions on the varied regions and different stages of Indian history. The introduction incorporates the recent concerns of historians in the field, and engages with the related themes and debates, including their overall implications. It argues that pre-modern states were dynamic insofar as they were continuously changing, adapting and incorporating ideas, spaces and peoples. To understand the dynamics of state system, the volume focuses on several strands: from conceiving processes and structures to situating early historical states, from the making of trans-local early kingdoms to the structure of later regional politics, and the constitution of authority across varying states. This book will interest students and scholars of ancient and medieval India, those interested in the study of the regions, as well as informed general readers. (jacket).…