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South Asian Studies 2012 - Vol. 28,2

South Asian Studies
South Asian Studies / BASAS, British Society for South Asian Studies. Ed. by Adam Hardy [u.a.]. - Vol. 28 (2012), No. 2. - London [u.a.] : Routledge, 2012. - S. 93-187 : Ill.
ISSN 2153-2699 (electronic), 0266-6030 (paper)
URL: Taylor and Francis: South Asian Studies

Inhalt: Vol. 28,2 (2012)
Zakirullah Jan:
Before There Were Cities: Excavations at Gandi Umar Khan and New Evidence for Pre-Urban Cultural Transitions on the Gomal Plain, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, S. 93-105
DOI: 10.1080/02666030.2012.725577
Abstract: Recent archaeological investigations of the Gomal plain in northwestern Pakistan have revealed important new evidence for the types of regional socio-economic transformations that were taking place in the lead up to the development of urban centres on the Indus plain in the third millennium BC. It is now clear that there were several early phases of cultural development in the region, and excavations at the site of Gandi Umar Khan have revealed evidence for a previously unknown transition, between the ‘Tochi-Gomal’ and ‘Kot Diji’ phases. This article will present the evidence for this transition and investigate its broader cultural context.

Dennys Frenez & Massimo Vidale:
Harappan Chimaeras as ‘Symbolic Hypertexts’. Some Thoughts on Plato, Chimaera and the Indus Civilization, S. 107-130
DOI: 10.1080/02666030.2012.725578
Abstract: This paper presents an analysis and interpretation of the so-called Harappan chimaera, one of the most peculiar and elaborate iconographies of Indus Civilization (c. 2600–1900 BCE). It is represented on many stamp seals of fired steatite and corresponding clay sealings, terracotta tablets in bas-relief, copper tablets, and tokens. The Harappan chimaera was composed of body parts derived from different animals, as well as humans and other fantastic beings of the Indus imagination. A detailed documentation and description of all the objects bearing chimaeras makes it possible to recognize not only a basic set of regular combinations and some aspects of their possible change in time, but also visual associations among selected parts of the chimaera's body that could be perceived and semantically interpreted at different levels. We believe that the sophisticated structure of these images fully deserves to be considered an early form of ‘hypertext’, following definitions currently used in computer sciences. We conclude by relating the evidence and its cognitive background to other spheres of the early urban societies in the Indus basin.

Upinder Singh:
Governing the State and the Self: Political Philosophy and Practice in the Edicts of Aśoka, S. 131-145
DOI: 10.1080/02666030.2012.725581
Abstract: The edicts of the Maurya Emperor Aśoka (c. 268–232 BCE) constitute the first self-representations of imperial power in ancient South Asia. Questioning the usual presuppositions and methodology of historical interpretations of Aśoka's inscriptions, this essay attempts a fresh, detailed analysis of the political philosophy expressed in the edicts, with a special focus on their ideas and arguments regarding the relationship between political power, violence, happiness, and the good. The ideas of a political and moral empire, the inclusion of humans and animals in the king's constituency, the political importance attached to emotions, the connection between the governance of the state and the self, the rationale for the mitigation of conflict and violence in the social and political spheres – all have to be understood as interconnected parts of a larger whole, firmly anchored in culturally rooted ideas of karma, merit, and the attainment of heaven. While constituting an exceptionally rich epigraphic source for political ideas, the edicts also vividly reveal how these ideas intersected with the problems and practice of governing a vast, very variegated empire. The methodological emphasis of the paper is that inscriptions have to be treated as inscribed texts and that excavating the world of ideas embodied in them is an important part of the analysis of these material remains of the past.

Frederick M. Asher:
Travels of a Reliquary, Its Contents Separated at Birth, S. 147-156
DOI: 10.1080/02666030.2012.725582
Abstract: This paper presents the discovery and travels of relics assumed to be those of the Buddha and the small bronze reliquary that housed them, one that, despite its small size and inelegant appearance, has been the focus of a great deal of scholarship, mostly intended to determine its date and authorship. The paper focuses especially on the reliquary's elusive nature: the relics it housed were sent away, the inscription's interpretation is contested, and the present location of the reliquary is a mystery.

Kathleen D. Morrison:
Doorways to the Divine: Vijayanagara Reservoirs and Rural Devotional Landscapes, S. 157-169
DOI: 10.1080/02666030.2012.725584
Abstract: The area around the city of Vijayanagara saw a large-scale expansion in irrigation works between the mid-fourteenth and late sixteenth centuries. Of these, reservoirs or ‘tanks’ played an important role in extending farming into areas beyond the reach of perennial irrigation. Reservoirs were linked to Hindu temples, not only through networks of patronage, but also physically, in aspects of form and decoration. Indeed, reservoirs can be thought of as temples themselves, as well as statements of power and authority, functional objects, and tangible connections to larger social and conceptual worlds. This paper presents reservoirs in four ways: as agricultural features, as (political) monuments, as oceans, and as temples. This juxtaposition is made possible only because of the intersection of textual representation and material form, different modes of representation which may be critically evaluated and compared. Reservoirs formed one part of a complex rural landscape of devotion that included field shrines, hero stones, and even archaeological sites of earlier eras. Through the long-term use-lives of reservoirs, we can see the ways in which rural devotion and practice both responded to the specifics of local histories and, over time, reshaped regional landscapes.

Vibhuti Sachdev:
Negotiating Modernity in the Princely State of Jaipur, S. 171-181
DOI: 10.1080/02666030.2012.725585
Abstract: This paper questions established accounts of national identity and modernity in Indian art in the light of the experience of a princely state. The princely states were regions under indirect British control, ruled by maharajas, nawabs, etc., and their officials. The most prominent role in the story of India's artistic modernity is commonly assigned to the Bengal School, but the implied equation of India with one part of it may be misleading. Throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, contrary to the experience of British India, the boundaries of nationhood were already in place for the many princely states, large and small, which numbered well over 500 and together constituted nearly two-fifths of India. In many of these states the chief factor in the fashioning of identity was not nationalism, but modernity. Paradoxically, while the nationalist artists looked ever deeper into India's limitless past to define an Indian identity that stretched beyond current boundaries of time and region, in the princely states Indian-ness was an unselfconscious living reality. My study explores identity and modernity in one political and social context very different from, but concurrent with, the Bengal School – namely the state of Jaipur during the reign of Maharaja Madho Singh II (1880–1922). What were the terms for negotiating modernity and tradition in Jaipur? How was this particular negotiation reflected in the art and architecture patronised by the maharaja, and how did it compare with the contemporary architectural vision in British India? In exploring these questions, the sources used reflect indigenous voices of both British and Indian India.

Book Reviews, S. 183-187

Quellen: Taylor and Francis Online