India & Cambridge - Cambridge University Press India

HISTORYA Social History of theDeccan: 1300-1761: EightIndian LivesRichard EatonIn this fascinating account of oneof the least known parts of SouthAsia, Eaton recounts the history ofthe Deccan plateau in southernIndia from the fourteenth centuryto the rise of European colonialism.He does so, vividly, through thelives of eight Indians who lived atdifferent times during this period, and who eachrepresented something particular about the Deccan. In thefirst chapter, for example, the author describes the demiseof the regional kingdom through the life of a maharaja. Inthe second, a Sufi sheikh illustrates Muslim piety and stateauthority. Other characters include a merchant, a general, aslave, a poet, a bandit and a female pawnbroker. Their storiesare woven together into a rich narrative tapestry, whichillumines the most important social processes of the Deccanacross four centuries. This is a much-needed book by themost highly regarded scholar in the field.Richard Eaton is one of the premier scholars of pre-colonialIndia.6 maps 16 plates 3 tables9780521514422 222pp HB ` 695.00The Political Economy ofCommerce: SouthernIndia 1500–1650Sanjay SubrahmanyamThis book is based on extensiveand previously unused Portugueseand Dutch archival sources. Itssecondary theme is to explore therelationship between thedocumentation used and thecontext within which it wasgenerated, thus illuminating howEuropeans and Asians reacted toone another.This is Sanjay Subrahmanyam’s first book, long out of print,now reprinted.Sanjay Subrahmanyam is Professor and Doshi Chair ofIndian History at the University of California at Los Angeles.9788175961944 411pp PB ` 345.00India Before EuropeCatherine B. Asher& Cynthia TalbotIndia is a land of enormousdiversity. Cross-cultural influencesare everywhere in evidence, in thefood people eat, the clothes theywear, and in the places theyworship. This was especially thecase in the India that existed from1200 to 1750, before the Europeanintervention. The book takes thereader on a journey across thepolitical, economic, religious and cultural landscapes ofmedieval India, from the Ghurid conquests and the DelhiSultanate to the great court of the Mughals. This was a timeof conquest and consolidation, when Muslims and Hinduscame together to create a unique culture which stillresonates in today’s India. As the first survey of its kind inover a decade, the book is a tour de force. It is beautifullyillustrated and fluently composed, with a cast of characterswhich will educate students and general readers alike.Catherine B. Asher is Associate Professor in theDepartment of Art History at the University of Minnesota.Cynthia Talbot is Professor of History and Asian Studies atthe University of Texas at Austin.73 halftones 11 maps9780521517508 336pp HB ` 795.00Indo-Persian Travels in theAge of Discoveries1400-1800Muzaffar Alam &Sanjay SubrahmanyamThis is a path-breaking work basedon detailed and sensitive readingsof travel-accounts in Persian,dealing with India, Iran and CentralAsia between 1400 and 1800. It isthe first comprehensive treatmentof this neglected genre ofliterature (safar nama) that linksthe Mughals, Safavids and Central Asia in a crucial period ofthe transformation and cultural contact. The authors’ closereading of these travel accounts helps us to enter themental and moral worlds of the Muslim and non-Muslimliterati who produced these valuable narratives. Theseaccounts are presented in a comparative framework, whichsets them side by side with other Asian accounts, as well asearly modern European travel-narratives, and opens up arich and unsuspected vista of cultural and material history.This book can be read for a better understanding of thenature of early modern encounters, but also for the sheerpleasure of entering a new world.Muzaffar Alam is Professor, in the Department of SouthAsian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago.Sanjay Subrahmanyam is Professor and Doshi Chair ofIndian History at the University of California at Los Angeles.18 half-tones 5 maps9780521898522 416pp HB ` 795.006 order online at www.cambridgeindia.org