Symbols of substance: court and state in Nāyaka Period Tamilnadu

The book looks at the three major Nayaka states--ruled from Senji, Tanjavur and Madurai, Tiruccirappalli--as well as at minor states located at their periphery. While these states had differing life-spans, developmental patterns, geo-ecological environments, and distinct forms of historical experience, they also shared salient structural and cultural features. At their height, in the early seventeenth century, they encompassed the greater part of the Tamil country. Early chapters set out the fundamental tensions of the period: the social flux caused by the resurgence of certain groups, which had either intruded into the area from the Telugu country, or entered the mainstream of Nayaka society from a marginal position. Related to this is the central paradox of Nayaka kingship-- the tension between inflated claims and the limited scale of kingship. Later sections set out these themes in some detail, and also delineate how such states were founded, what their resource base was, and how this base was portrayed and managed. The book's ambit extends considerably beyond the economic and political, to consider how the social flux of the epoch also found its counterpart in the central themes of Nayaka literature. Specifically, there is a focus on perceptions of the body and bodily mutilation and regeneration (here termed Nayaka anthropology), and on the parodic dialectic that underpins the rhetoric of kingship. Other chapters deal with contestation and war. The final chapter looks to the post-Nayaka transition, focusing once again on the kingdom that appears most of all to epitomize the Nayaka spirit: Tanjavur. What is distinctive about the Nayakas? How do they fit into the wider realities of their time? From what do they derive? How can we understand the emergence of new institutional patterns, of the striking artistic and especially literary creations at the Nayaka courts, of a novel historiography and culture? Supplementing standard sources by an imaginative use of Dutch, Portuguese, Tamil, Sanskrit, and Telugu sources, the authors show how the Nayakas witnessed, and partly produced, a profound shift in the conceptual and institutional bases of South Indian civilization. Contents......Page 7 Preface......Page 9 Abbreviations......Page 15 Acknowledgements......Page 17 List of Maps and Illustrations......Page 18 1. A Gandharva's-Eye View of South India......Page 21 2.The Subahdar of the Cot......Page 33 1. Outlines of Political History......Page 43 2. Nagama Nayaka Creates a State......Page 64 1. The Structure of Enjoyment......Page 77 2. The Spendthrift Sudra King......Page 92 3. Resources and their circulation......Page 102 1. The First Instrument of Dharma......Page 133 3. Ahalya and Tara: The Ideology of Violation......Page 163 1. Marriage-broker for a God......Page 189 [Plates]......Page 193 2. Virasrngara: The King as Avatar......Page 223 3. Love in the Soup-kitchen......Page 238 Conclusion......Page 252 Introduction......Page 256 A Military Revolution Perceived?......Page 257 The Spread of Firearms......Page 262 Nayaka Armies and the Balance of Power......Page 272 Towards the Eighteenth Century......Page 275 1. Yacama Nayaka and the Velugoti Line......Page 278 2. The South: Maravar, Kallar, and Maraikkayar......Page 300 Conclusion......Page 339 1. Visions of the Fall: Tanjavur, September 1673......Page 341 2. Towards the Marathas......Page 349 Tamil and Telugu Texts......Page 355 Sanskrit Texts......Page 357 Other References......Page 358 Sources for Nayaka History......Page 370 Index......Page 377 The volume deals with the political culture of the Nayaka period in medieval South India, an era which extends from the early 16th to the early 18th centuries. Velcheru Narayana Rao, David Shulman, Sanjay Subrahmanyam. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [319]-333) And Index.