South of the Vindhyas: Early Deccan History - Aloka Parasher Sen

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Its ‘Histories’ in the plural primarily because our vantage point is to discuss regional, sub-regional and local historical tendencies that then define the whole region we have identified as the Deccan. It’s also our concern to move beyond linguistically defined modern regional entities that are of recent origin to argue that most of these were historically constituted differently, often with flexible boundaries. Emphasizing on looking at histories of small regions and localities also enables one to move beyond mere dynastic history, which in their aim to valorise the present, talk of great individual rulers and icons to then privilege only political history to justify similar tendencies in the contemporary.

The task then is to share with you an inclusive historical narrative that suggests that before and after the rise of the so-called big ‘empires’ there were political systems of organisation that we…