In a 1995 essay, Ashis Nandy reminds us that a single historical narrative may just be one way of constructing the past. By offering a plurality of interpretations pertaining to the evolution of south India, Noburu Karashima’s edited collection of essays on the history of the region seems to be alive to this possibility.
While remaining concise in its presentation, the book spans a very long period of time and space through chronologically divided chapters from the beginning of the Common Era, through the middle ages and up to the twenty-first century. Broadly, each chapter focuses on the geographical region that represented south India in a particular era, the variety of people that inhabited these spaces, their culture, most often represented by the art and literature produced during that period, religious practices and trade and livelihood. As time progressed, greater stress is paid on regionalism within what is broadly demarcated as the region “south of the Vindhyas”; state formation and inter-state wars for territorial domination and the emergence of the sovereign. Attention is also given to the appearance of new forms of religious practices sometimes as a result of migration of saints from north India, such as the Bhakti movement and its appeal to both rulers and the ruled in the middle ages.
While each chapter follows a predictable pattern in the form of short sections written by several scholars, the narrative is by no way monotonous. In particular, Karashima puts into conversation his thick description of the emergence of political states with theoretical and empirical observations from disciplines other than history, highlighting the unique manner in which states as entities distinct from other groups in society appeared and gained legitimacy in south India. In contrast to the western idea of a state emerging out of an ethical separation from god and the rise of popular sovereignty, he points to close links between religious and spiritual practices with state formation. Drawing on the work of anthropologist Nicholas Dirks, he cites the practice of performing yajna as the only way to become king. Further accounts point to the emergence of the notion of a sacred lineage of kings from the Hindu deity Vishnu. Still further, he points to the complex adoption of Bhakti by rulers as a means to improve relations with their peasant subjects and alludes to religion as a strategy for good governance.
Similarly, Karashima’s tracing of land and revenue administration across the centuries goes beyond regular textbook descriptions. He traces the emergence of private land tenures to the granting of land to “high officials” during the middle to late Chola period for livelihood which further led to the practice of sale of land among individuals and the holding of private tenure among communities other than the Brahmanas. This in the colonial period formed the bases of the raiyatwari system—the system of directly extracting taxes from self-cultivating peasants.
Other notable insights from the archive include a focus on women in pre-modern south India beyond the domains of religion and the household to that of the economy. This is followed by an essay on postcolonial women’s movement in pre-independent south India, revealing a gender sensitive rendition of the past. Several sections are devoted to the emergence of a dense network of international trade links in the pre-colonial and early colonial era and its impact on the economy of coastal south India.
For obvious historical reasons, the book’s focus is on the geographical region of Tamil Nadu. Yet, the near absence of an intra-regional narrative, particularly the lack of a deeper engagement with the political, economic and cultural nuances of the region of Karnataka may disappoint a few. Further, with some exceptions, Noburu Karashima’s intellectually rich style is unfortunately not matched by his contributing authors. Despite these minor objections, the book is a tremendously successful attempt at chronicling the history of an ancient region. Interspersed liberally with a collection of maps and pictures from various eras, the book will be of great interest to scholars as well as anyone generally interested in the history of south India.