Pub Date : 2022-07-03DOI: 10.1080/02666030.2022.2111086
M. Zahir, Abdul Ghani Khan, Sohail Farooq
This paper investigates the Buddhist stupa carvings at Chilas Bridge site, District Diamer, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. We studied a total of 199 stupa carvings using statistical techniques to explore the depiction of Buddhist stupas and their constituent parts in this key region of northern Pakistan. Analysis of the stupa carvings suggests that the majority of the stupas were of small and medium size, primarily oriented in preferred directions and positions. Most of the stupa carvings at Chilas Bridge were depicted at a height/width ratio of 2:1, perhaps reflecting a real artistic and architectural convention following Hinayana Buddhism. The artists at Chilas Bridge appear to have used Gandharan stupa construction techniques as inspiration for developing their own style of stupa carving tradition, which lasted for around 700 years.
{"title":"Enquiring the Rocks: Statistical Investigation of Buddhist Stupa Carvings at Chilas Bridge, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan","authors":"M. Zahir, Abdul Ghani Khan, Sohail Farooq","doi":"10.1080/02666030.2022.2111086","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2022.2111086","url":null,"abstract":"This paper investigates the Buddhist stupa carvings at Chilas Bridge site, District Diamer, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. We studied a total of 199 stupa carvings using statistical techniques to explore the depiction of Buddhist stupas and their constituent parts in this key region of northern Pakistan. Analysis of the stupa carvings suggests that the majority of the stupas were of small and medium size, primarily oriented in preferred directions and positions. Most of the stupa carvings at Chilas Bridge were depicted at a height/width ratio of 2:1, perhaps reflecting a real artistic and architectural convention following Hinayana Buddhism. The artists at Chilas Bridge appear to have used Gandharan stupa construction techniques as inspiration for developing their own style of stupa carving tradition, which lasted for around 700 years.","PeriodicalId":52006,"journal":{"name":"South Asian Studies","volume":"22 1","pages":"116 - 140"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74747204","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-03DOI: 10.1080/02666030.2022.2111103
E. Smagur
This paper discusses three extraordinary imitations from India the obverses of which are based on Roman issues while the reverses imitate Sasanian coins. These specimens are exceptional and puzzling for two reasons: the unique combination of obverse and reverse designs and the absence of genuine issues which could have been used as their reverse prototypes among finds from the territories they were made and used in. Employing the object biography paradigm for investigating the imitations provides a dynamic perspective on objects actively involved in social relationships. The role of those imitations in understanding the use of Sasanian coins in the Indian Ocean trade will be discussed as well.
{"title":"“Romano-Sasanian” Imitations from India: Notes on Their Life Histories and the Indo-Sasanian Trade","authors":"E. Smagur","doi":"10.1080/02666030.2022.2111103","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2022.2111103","url":null,"abstract":"This paper discusses three extraordinary imitations from India the obverses of which are based on Roman issues while the reverses imitate Sasanian coins. These specimens are exceptional and puzzling for two reasons: the unique combination of obverse and reverse designs and the absence of genuine issues which could have been used as their reverse prototypes among finds from the territories they were made and used in. Employing the object biography paradigm for investigating the imitations provides a dynamic perspective on objects actively involved in social relationships. The role of those imitations in understanding the use of Sasanian coins in the Indian Ocean trade will be discussed as well.","PeriodicalId":52006,"journal":{"name":"South Asian Studies","volume":"957 1","pages":"192 - 205"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85617130","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-03DOI: 10.1080/02666030.2022.2111747
S. Mantellini, A. Fusaro, Federica Duva, Zahida Quadri
The site of Banbhore is located in the western delta of the Indus river (Sindh, Pakistan), identified as the harbor town of Daybul mentioned in pre-Islamic and Early Islamic written sources. The archaeological activities conducted here since the beginning of the past century revealed a long and uninterrupted occupation and complex urban planning (1st century BCE-early 13th century CE). A systematic field survey was carried out for the first time around Banbhore within the Italian-Pakistani archaeological expedition. Investigation revealed the presence of a densely settled hinterland, with a clear strategy in land use and occupation. Surface artefacts suggest a very long period of frequentation, from at least the Sasanian period to the Modern era. Results find an interesting comparison with both the information available in written texts and the materials from the excavation of the fortified town.
{"title":"Beyond the Fortified Town: Preliminary Insights on Land Use and Occupation Strategies at Banbhore (Sindh, Pakistan)","authors":"S. Mantellini, A. Fusaro, Federica Duva, Zahida Quadri","doi":"10.1080/02666030.2022.2111747","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2022.2111747","url":null,"abstract":"The site of Banbhore is located in the western delta of the Indus river (Sindh, Pakistan), identified as the harbor town of Daybul mentioned in pre-Islamic and Early Islamic written sources. The archaeological activities conducted here since the beginning of the past century revealed a long and uninterrupted occupation and complex urban planning (1st century BCE-early 13th century CE). A systematic field survey was carried out for the first time around Banbhore within the Italian-Pakistani archaeological expedition. Investigation revealed the presence of a densely settled hinterland, with a clear strategy in land use and occupation. Surface artefacts suggest a very long period of frequentation, from at least the Sasanian period to the Modern era. Results find an interesting comparison with both the information available in written texts and the materials from the excavation of the fortified town.","PeriodicalId":52006,"journal":{"name":"South Asian Studies","volume":"15 1","pages":"206 - 230"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90763868","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-03DOI: 10.1080/02666030.2022.2111087
A. Datta
This article explores the lives of Indian travelling ayahs (nannies and servants), who are usually hard to find in the historical records of the imperial state, using travel documents, such as ships’ manifests, passage slips, passage permissions and most significantly passports. Passports have recently been studied as sites of colonial and anti-colonial politics. This article puts passports and other travel documents to a different use, exploring the way they expose fleeting voices and choices in personal representation (in those documents) which reveal elements of the identities, experiences and agency of these colonised subjects. The central argument of this article is that, whilst travel documents, particularly passports were hegemonic documents, created as means of surveillance which enabled discrimination between coloniser and colonised, they also compelled colonial administrators to recognise and even humanise certain subaltern subjects, whose individual identities had often been erased in other documents. In an archival context wherein written and visual records left by travelling ayahs are scarce, this article thus also highlights the value of surviving passports for historians in re-visioning the histories of subaltern subjects.
{"title":"Becoming Visible: Travel Documents and Travelling Ayahs in the British Empire","authors":"A. Datta","doi":"10.1080/02666030.2022.2111087","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2022.2111087","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the lives of Indian travelling ayahs (nannies and servants), who are usually hard to find in the historical records of the imperial state, using travel documents, such as ships’ manifests, passage slips, passage permissions and most significantly passports. Passports have recently been studied as sites of colonial and anti-colonial politics. This article puts passports and other travel documents to a different use, exploring the way they expose fleeting voices and choices in personal representation (in those documents) which reveal elements of the identities, experiences and agency of these colonised subjects. The central argument of this article is that, whilst travel documents, particularly passports were hegemonic documents, created as means of surveillance which enabled discrimination between coloniser and colonised, they also compelled colonial administrators to recognise and even humanise certain subaltern subjects, whose individual identities had often been erased in other documents. In an archival context wherein written and visual records left by travelling ayahs are scarce, this article thus also highlights the value of surviving passports for historians in re-visioning the histories of subaltern subjects.","PeriodicalId":52006,"journal":{"name":"South Asian Studies","volume":"15 1","pages":"141 - 160"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75680382","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-03DOI: 10.1080/02666030.2022.2111097
P. Heehs
{"title":"The Light of Asia: The Poem that Defined the Buddha","authors":"P. Heehs","doi":"10.1080/02666030.2022.2111097","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2022.2111097","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":52006,"journal":{"name":"South Asian Studies","volume":"30 1","pages":"262 - 263"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89846072","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-03DOI: 10.1080/02666030.2022.2111084
S. Muthukumaran
Domesticated rice (Oryza sativa), typically a water-intensive crop, is widely cultivated in the semi-arid zones of South India and Sri Lanka and is a staple among sedentary populations in these regions when the opposite should prevail in light of environmental constraints. This paper investigates the origins of large-scale rice cultivation in South India and Sri Lanka and the attendant innovations in hydraulic technologies using a wide range of sources but with a special focus on Tamil ”Caṅkam” texts, the earliest surviving textual corpus for the Dravidian language family.
{"title":"Rice and Water in Early Historic South India and Sri Lanka","authors":"S. Muthukumaran","doi":"10.1080/02666030.2022.2111084","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2022.2111084","url":null,"abstract":"Domesticated rice (Oryza sativa), typically a water-intensive crop, is widely cultivated in the semi-arid zones of South India and Sri Lanka and is a staple among sedentary populations in these regions when the opposite should prevail in light of environmental constraints. This paper investigates the origins of large-scale rice cultivation in South India and Sri Lanka and the attendant innovations in hydraulic technologies using a wide range of sources but with a special focus on Tamil ”Caṅkam” texts, the earliest surviving textual corpus for the Dravidian language family.","PeriodicalId":52006,"journal":{"name":"South Asian Studies","volume":"249 1","pages":"101 - 115"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80682797","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-03DOI: 10.1080/02666030.2022.2111099
A. Saxena
The classical Sanskrit texts composed in early India are one of the most celebrated texts from South Asia. The Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata, and the Purāṇas are an integral part of socio-cultural, and now political life of contemporary India. Texts composed in classical Sanskrit are assumed to represent an unblemished civilization, with a righteous rule and unadulterated social harmony; this is especially true about their afterlives as depicted in popular culture, cinema, and art. Often, during arguments about the safety of women in India calls are made for “going back to the ethos of ancient India culture”. This is done based on false beliefs about narratives presented in the classical Sanskrit text especially assumptions that women were “safer” in ancient India and that evils like rape, sexual assault and harassment of women did not exist. In contrast, this essay takes a closer look at the Sanskrit text, which not only narrates numerous stories of rape, but also considered rape a criminal offence.
{"title":"“I Curse You on Her Behalf” Narratives of Sexual Assault from Sanskrit Literature","authors":"A. Saxena","doi":"10.1080/02666030.2022.2111099","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2022.2111099","url":null,"abstract":"The classical Sanskrit texts composed in early India are one of the most celebrated texts from South Asia. The Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata, and the Purāṇas are an integral part of socio-cultural, and now political life of contemporary India. Texts composed in classical Sanskrit are assumed to represent an unblemished civilization, with a righteous rule and unadulterated social harmony; this is especially true about their afterlives as depicted in popular culture, cinema, and art. Often, during arguments about the safety of women in India calls are made for “going back to the ethos of ancient India culture”. This is done based on false beliefs about narratives presented in the classical Sanskrit text especially assumptions that women were “safer” in ancient India and that evils like rape, sexual assault and harassment of women did not exist. In contrast, this essay takes a closer look at the Sanskrit text, which not only narrates numerous stories of rape, but also considered rape a criminal offence.","PeriodicalId":52006,"journal":{"name":"South Asian Studies","volume":"48 1","pages":"183 - 191"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84868365","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/02666030.2022.2035085
Shuhita Bhattacharjee
This essay focuses on three films from Gurinder Chadha’s South-Asian diasporic oeuvre, Rich Deceiver (1995), It’s A Wonderful Afterlife (2010), and the documentary titled What Do You Call An Indian Woman Who’s Funny? (1994), in order to understand the brand of humour that is theorized and staged from the filmmaker’s diasporic context of hybridity and liminality. I will argue that the female characters in the first two films produce dark humour from a position of marginality – -gendered and class-based in the case of Ellie Freeman (Rich Deceiver), gendered and racialized (diasporic) in the case of Mrs. Sethi (It’s A Wonderful Afterlife) – which in turn allows these characters agency and control in a public space where humour is generally assumed to be the exclusive preserve of masculine authority. I will argue that the very figure of a woman performing/producing dark humour – especially in a racially-inflected diasporic context such as Chadha’s own – functions as a vehicle for the critique of normative social oppression, whether gender-, class-, or race-based, and therefore becomes an inherently empowering template and expository medium both for the female characters and for the genre of South Asian diasporic cinema.
{"title":"Dark Humour and the Female Performance of Subversion in South-Asian Diasporic Cinema: Chadha’s Rich Deceiver, It’s A Wonderful Afterlife, and What Do You Call An Indian Woman Who’s Funny?","authors":"Shuhita Bhattacharjee","doi":"10.1080/02666030.2022.2035085","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2022.2035085","url":null,"abstract":"This essay focuses on three films from Gurinder Chadha’s South-Asian diasporic oeuvre, Rich Deceiver (1995), It’s A Wonderful Afterlife (2010), and the documentary titled What Do You Call An Indian Woman Who’s Funny? (1994), in order to understand the brand of humour that is theorized and staged from the filmmaker’s diasporic context of hybridity and liminality. I will argue that the female characters in the first two films produce dark humour from a position of marginality – -gendered and class-based in the case of Ellie Freeman (Rich Deceiver), gendered and racialized (diasporic) in the case of Mrs. Sethi (It’s A Wonderful Afterlife) – which in turn allows these characters agency and control in a public space where humour is generally assumed to be the exclusive preserve of masculine authority. I will argue that the very figure of a woman performing/producing dark humour – especially in a racially-inflected diasporic context such as Chadha’s own – functions as a vehicle for the critique of normative social oppression, whether gender-, class-, or race-based, and therefore becomes an inherently empowering template and expository medium both for the female characters and for the genre of South Asian diasporic cinema.","PeriodicalId":52006,"journal":{"name":"South Asian Studies","volume":"101 1","pages":"40 - 55"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76261934","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/02666030.2022.2051823
Joaquim Rodrigues dos Santos
In the mid-nineteenth century, all that was left of the city of Goa, the former Portuguese capital of the Estado da Índia, was a vast field of palm trees dotted by some large churches stoically resisting time and surrounded by the many ruins of what was once known as “Golden Goa”. Among all the ruins of Old Goa stands a built structure, now classified as a national monument of India, known as the Gate of the Palace of Adil Shah. However, this structure is not a ruin but can rather be considered a folly ruin erected at the beginning of the twentieth century. This article aims to study this structure by analysing its evolution, the creation of its late-Romantic ruinism and its appropriation for ideological purposes, focusing also on the ongoing misunderstanding of it.
{"title":"Gate of the Palace of Adil Shah, Old Goa: A Misunderstood Monument","authors":"Joaquim Rodrigues dos Santos","doi":"10.1080/02666030.2022.2051823","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2022.2051823","url":null,"abstract":"In the mid-nineteenth century, all that was left of the city of Goa, the former Portuguese capital of the Estado da Índia, was a vast field of palm trees dotted by some large churches stoically resisting time and surrounded by the many ruins of what was once known as “Golden Goa”. Among all the ruins of Old Goa stands a built structure, now classified as a national monument of India, known as the Gate of the Palace of Adil Shah. However, this structure is not a ruin but can rather be considered a folly ruin erected at the beginning of the twentieth century. This article aims to study this structure by analysing its evolution, the creation of its late-Romantic ruinism and its appropriation for ideological purposes, focusing also on the ongoing misunderstanding of it.","PeriodicalId":52006,"journal":{"name":"South Asian Studies","volume":"27 1","pages":"56 - 68"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87777137","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/02666030.2022.2051825
M. Ameri, G. Jamison
Seals and other inscribed materials of the Indus Civilization (2600–1900 BCE) are a valuable source of data for studying this ancient cultural system, from writing, craft production, and economics, to art and ideology. In the absence of deciphered texts, detailed comparative studies of these materials allow us to explore their roles and significance in the organizational dynamics of one of the world’s earliest urban societies. This article contributes to the study of inscribed objects by applying complementary methodologies from art history and archaeology to the examination of seals and related artifacts that depict the tiger motif. It explores the consistency and variability in these objects as a reflection of the unique carving styles and techniques employed to make them, the distinct identities that they embody, and the ideas embedded within them. Identified patterns provide insights into the production strategies, shared ideologies, and potential meanings of this uniquely South Asian icon and highlight larger issues of Indus sociopolitical organization and integration. This innovative approach for investigating inscribed materials allows for a deeper exploration of their role in and reflection of the unique cultural systems that defined the Indus during the third millennium BCE.
{"title":"Mixed Methodologies: Collaborative Approaches to Indus Tiger Seals","authors":"M. Ameri, G. Jamison","doi":"10.1080/02666030.2022.2051825","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2022.2051825","url":null,"abstract":"Seals and other inscribed materials of the Indus Civilization (2600–1900 BCE) are a valuable source of data for studying this ancient cultural system, from writing, craft production, and economics, to art and ideology. In the absence of deciphered texts, detailed comparative studies of these materials allow us to explore their roles and significance in the organizational dynamics of one of the world’s earliest urban societies. This article contributes to the study of inscribed objects by applying complementary methodologies from art history and archaeology to the examination of seals and related artifacts that depict the tiger motif. It explores the consistency and variability in these objects as a reflection of the unique carving styles and techniques employed to make them, the distinct identities that they embody, and the ideas embedded within them. Identified patterns provide insights into the production strategies, shared ideologies, and potential meanings of this uniquely South Asian icon and highlight larger issues of Indus sociopolitical organization and integration. This innovative approach for investigating inscribed materials allows for a deeper exploration of their role in and reflection of the unique cultural systems that defined the Indus during the third millennium BCE.","PeriodicalId":52006,"journal":{"name":"South Asian Studies","volume":"13 1","pages":"69 - 99"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81625597","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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