Studies in History

Chamba region in western Himalayas has attracted the attention of researchers after decipherment of hundreds of inscriptions spanning the period between early eighth to eighteenth century. The present article is a fresh attempt to study the epigraphs to probe into the arrival of the brāhmaṇa community from different parts of the country at different time spans into Chamba. How this arrival in periodical waves affected the political and religious milieu of the region is the focus of the present study. An interaction of pre-existing indigenous elements of polity and religion with the new dominating Brāhmaṇical elements ultimately legitimized the position of the kings within the Brāhmaṇical order, in reciprocity for the land grants these brāhmaṇas received.

In epigraphs, we notice the dominance of brāhmaṇa writers with specific indication of their gotra and sometimes Vedic affiliation that has been summarized in this research through tabular data for an easy understanding of their content and context. Our analysis throws light on new information with regard to migration, grants-in-perpetuity and the Brahmanization of the royal house of Chamba between the eighth and eighteenth centuries.

How does a state govern a territory which has seen a sudden spurt in population and become the most densely populated regions of the province? How does the state account for the governance of a place which very recently has seen the transition from a rural or a semi-rural tract to a town? And most importantly, how does the state govern a place where the main source of power resides with the proprietors of private enterprises? These were some of the questions which the colonial state had to deal with when it was faced with the prospect of administering some of the most rapidly ‘urbanizing’ or expanding regions of Bengal, that is, the industrial belt or the riparian municipalities of the districts of 24 Parganas and Hooghly and the mining and railway junctions of Ranigunj and Asansol from the last quarter of the nineteenth century. How was their administration going to be any different from the other mofussil municipalities, which also had a semi-rural character? This article will look at these questions and try to understand how through the process of municipalization the colonial state was trying to control the newer territories and how the locals reacted to these attempts. This article will investigate and hence argue that any attempt at improvement in these mofussil municipalities was being throttled due to the lack of understanding, on the part of the provincial government, of the local socio-economic conditions and the ineffectiveness of the local self-government in these towns.

In what is today known as Odisha and in its adjoining areas, the closing centuries of the first millennium ce and beyond were marked by the shift from usual kingdoms to larger and more complex state systems, spread over several subregions/regions (maṇḍalas). The socio-economic and cultural processes—ranging from agrarian growth and the rise of markets, merchants and towns to the shaping of a region-specific caste system and vernacular language and literature—which sustained these political developments and the new requirements such as the elaboration in the structure of administration and legitimation constitute the subject matter of this article. The transregional states under discussion are somewhat comparable with imperial formations insofar as they were conquest states and perpetuated unevenness and differences between spaces, peoples and cultures across the constituent spatial segments. However, in terms of their territorial dimensions and resources, they fell short of the empires and therefore may be seen to be located between the usual kingdoms and celebrated empires.

This essay explores the inseparability of sexual violence and dominant-caste privileges embedded in structures of local power, which are finally nested within the legal institutions of the State. This essay examines the court transcripts of the trial of a village lynchpin, Gobinda Nandi, on the charge of rape. The individual to bring in the charges was a 20-year-old woman by the name of Genubala. The essay lays out the internal dynamics of the low-caste Bagdi community, as its members confront the rapist who controlled most of the village sources of livelihood. The essay turns on the refusal of the aggrieved Genubala and her husband Pashupati’s refusal to abide by Bagdi community’s unhappy decision to opt for a compromise with Gobinda Nandi. The political economy of the village power structure marks the aggrieved couple’s deliberate choice to approach legal institutions and the judicial process of the state as the crucial moment of departure from the communitarian redistributive justice and its specific life-world. But what does this choice imply for the two highly vulnerable individuals who are reluctant to be part of the Bagdi community, and who are seeking to activate the Indian State’s judicial system in their favour?

This article seeks to trace the journey of the state in South India under the Cōļas. They begin as chiefs in a relatively undifferentiated society. It was the proximity of the kinsmen with the chiefs or otherwise that determined the relative status of different sections of society and not differentiation on account of unequal access to resources and surplus at this stage. However, changes in the means and relations of production, especially the introduction of non-kin labour for purposes of agricultural production, brought about major changes in the social order. This changed order required the institution of the state, and the emergence of the Cōļa kingdom in the Kāvēri valley can be shown as a response to this demand. Further elaboration and refinement enabled the Cōļa state to graduate to the level of an empire; but since the parts too were coming of age, this empire fell apart in about a century. By the close of the thirteenth century, the Cōļa kingdom fell prey to the Hoysala invasions and became already a thing of the past, but with vivid memories recounted in legend and song.