Overview

This book explores the manner in which human societies understood and managed scarce water resources. Focusing on the arid, rain shadow region of Marathwada, it documents the panoramic history of this region’s most important resource – water. It shows how water delineates the establishment of political authority, marks the intersection of networks of trade and pilgrimage and is the bearer of identity through community memories. The book foregrounds how, as a material as well as a ritual and symbolic element, water flows across the boundaries of caste, sect and religion, bringing communities together and linking the past with the present. It not only analyses textual and archaeological sources but also focuses on oral narratives and their potential to provide consensual as well as alternative narratives of the historical and cultural landscape of Ellora–Khuldabad–Daulatabad. It also shows how water has been framed in myriad forms in human history – as a ritual, allegorical element present in the myths and cosmology that order the sacred geography of pilgrimage centres, as a physical tangible presence manipulated through human technology to sustain the population and finally, as a subliminal driver for historic agency, its often hidden, underground presence underwriting the region’s vitality over the past millennium. A nuanced history of water over millennia, this book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of environmental history, historical geography, South Asian studies, heritage studies and environmental studies.

Full Product Details

Author:   Yaaminey Mubayi
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge India
Weight:   0.453kg
ISBN:  

9780367723682

ISBN 10:   0367723689
Pages:   136
Publication Date:   13 September 2022
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

List of figures Preface Acknowledgements Introduction: Foregrounding water within the cultural landscape of Ellora–Khuldabad–Daulatabad – a methodological approach Overview of historical developments in Ellora–Khuldabad–Daulatabad Delineating the cultural landscape of Ellora–Khuldabad–Daulatabad 1 Water and settlements – historical development of the region vis-à-vis the political economy of the Deccan; networks of trade and patronage Daulatabad – a layered historical narrative Politics of patronage – the water cisterns of Ellora caves Takaswami ashram – a modern reuse of a cave cistern 2 Water and sacrality – sacred geography and networks of pilgrimage Sacred geography and the inflow of people and ideas Water as the embodiment of fertility and healing powers Calling the monsoon – the Panchami festival in Verul 3 Water and memory – community identities as the past remembered; memories as carriers of values, beliefs and practices Re-covering “Malik Ambar ki Pipeline” – reconstructing the past through community memories Malik Ambar: the slave who became a sultan Imagining the region: locating community memories in space Conclusion: A unique cosmopolitanism Cosmopolitanism unfolding in the Deccan landscape The Kitab-e-Nauras of Ibrahim Adil Shah: a kaliedoscopic vision of Deccan cosmopolitanism Bibliography Index

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Author Information

Yaaminey Mubayi is a historian who has worked in the area of cultural heritage and community development over the past 20 years. Her work includes studies of craft, local histories, community memories, traditional knowledge and indigenous ecologies. She has published widely in these areas, and her previous book, Altar of Power – The temple and the state in the land of Jagannatha, came out in 2005. She lives with her family in New Delhi, India, and, in recent years, has focused her energies on teaching, research and writing.

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