Department of History

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Browsing Department of History by Author "Ghosh, Suchandra"
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    A Hoard of Copper Plates: Patronage and the Early Valkhā State
    ( 2015-01-01) Ghosh, Suchandra
    The horizontal spread of the state society accompanying the institution of land grants leading to the formation of a monarchical state polity is frequently witnessed during c. 300–600 CE. Among the many new and small kingdoms which surfaced during the time of the Guptas was the kingdom of Valkhā in Central India located on the banks of the Narmada. The kingdom, as it appears from their land grants, was situated on both sides of the Narmada river, at the southern periphery of the important Gupta strongholds in central India (Airikiṇa, Eran) and beyond the northern frontier of the Vākāṭakas kingdom to the south. In case of the Valkhā kingdom, it appears that in the process of transition from a pre-state to a state, it can be placed in a category where, with the formation of the kingdom around the mid-fourth century CE, Valkhā has just transcended the pre-state stage and could be placed in the genre of an early state. We seek to understand the early character of the Valkhā state through the lens of twenty-seven copper plates found together in a hoard and five others published in a scattered manner. It goes to the credit of K.V. Ramesh and S.P. Tewari who edited the plates in 1990 and revealed the names of the rulers of Valkhā. Through a reading of these charters we seek to understand the emergence and growth of the Valkhā state. Due to the donations, the donee assumes a significant position and so the nature of patronage of the Valkhā rulers becomes central to our study. © 2015, Jawaharlal Nehru University. All rights reserved.
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    Anahilapura: Understanding Its Expansive Network during the Time of the Chaulukyas
    ( 2018-01-01) Ghosh, Suchandra
    Gujarat's role in the international trade network has long been researched. During the first half of the second millennium CE, the Indian Ocean emerged as a vast trading zone; its western termini were Siraf/Basra/Baghdad in the Persian Gulf zone and Alexandria/Fustat (old Cairo) in the Red Sea area, while the eastern terminus extended up to the ports in China. However, this essay privileges a single place, Anahilapura, which acted as a hinterland to many of the ports of Gujarat.
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    Buddhist moulded clay tablets from Dvaravati: Understanding their regional variations and Indian linkages
    ( 2017-08-29) Ghosh, Suchandra
    The regional variations of the Dvaravati Buddhist clay tablets are the subject of this essay. The act of making tablets as a part of meditation practice, religious exercise or merit making was itself the main reason for the production of these tablets. The essay further probes into the possible adoption or adaptation from India as the practice of making these tablets is of Indian origin and numerous equivalents in the shape of plaques dating from seventh to eleventh centuries have been uncovered in abundance on different Buddhist sites of India. The essay argues that moulded clay tablets, albeit, a minor object in the vast repertoire of artistic or religious expressions are also to be taken into account as an element for understanding shared cultural practices across Asia.
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    Crossings and contacts across the Bay of Bengal: a connected history of ports in early South and Southeast Asia
    ( 2019-09-02) Ghosh, Suchandra
    The eastern Indian Ocean could be viewed as a world of flows and connections. This paper focuses on three ports of the eastern sea-board of India and their interactions with ports in Srilanka and in Peninsular Thailand in the early–medieval period (c.600 CE–1300 CE). These ports are Samandar (Chittagong), Vishakhapattinam and Nagapattinam. These were nodes of mercantile organization and hubs through which connections were fostered. Among the three ports, Samandar in Chittagong gains primacy in our discussion with its strong hinterland and extensive foreland. Port towns were often a unique site of cultural exchange that challenged boundaries. Put differently they formed a point of convergence of different types of people and thus were open to a rich array of exchanges both mercantile and cultural. This paper attempts to explore some of these exchanges.
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    Seals, amulets and coinages of Dvāravatī cultural sites: Understanding their social environment and religious network
    ( 2011-01-01) Ghosh, Suchandra ; Ghosh, Lipi
    This paper focuses on minor artifacts, such as sealings, tablets, coinages, small figurines and amulets, that form integral parts of the socio-religious cultural milieu of a society. Such objects were recovered from various sites in Thailand attributed to the Dvāravatī cultural period, and they lead us to two concerns: First, what the nature of the society was that encouraged production and use of objects like sealings, terracotta figurines and amulets, and second, the persons that made them and the agency that percolated such socio-religious beliefs/rituals in the mind of people. An overview of archaeological materials recovered from Dvāravatī sites in central Thailand allow us to perceive a kind of society where Buddhism dominated, with elements of Brahmanism in its rituals. Seals and amulets were sure to come as voyaging objects from India in their initial phase. The ideology behind the offering and making of seals was then deeply ingrained in the Southeast Asian societies The network of Buddhism can be understood also from the penetration of Mahayana ideas in the Dvāravatī sites. These ideas could have percolated both from Srivijaya and also from South eastern Bengal after traversing Arakan. In some cases, there are definite examples of emulation of Indian cultural practices. In others, there are examples of adaptation. Nonetheless, the strong presence of indigenous elements cannot be overlooked.
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    State, power and religion in the Indo-Iranian borderlands and North-west India, c. 200 bc–ad 200
    ( 2017-06-01) Ghosh, Suchandra
    The Greek tradition of coinage was maintained by the Bactrians, Indo-Greeks, Śakas and Kushanas, ruling successively in the North-west from the second century bc to second century ad. On their coins, apart from the rulers themselves, appear the figures and names of several deities. These were Greek deities in the beginning, to whom Iranian and Indian deities went on being added. The paper traces this process in detail and examines how the rulers first seem to address, through their coins, only an elite Greek or Hellenised aristocracy and then the wider Iranic and Indian populations, through the medium of deities figured on their coins. There was simultaneously the objective of legitimation and glorification of the rulers themselves by the same means. Curiously, Buddhism so important in Gandhara sculpture has only a rare presence on these coins even under the Kushanas.
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    Understanding Transitions at the Crossroads of Asia: C. Mid Second Century B.C.E. to c. Third Century C.E.
    ( 2007-01-01) Ghosh, Suchandra
    The expression ‘Crossroads of Asia’ has been borrowed from a publication by Elizabeth Errington and Joe Cribb. It seemed to be the most befitting expression to underline the wide geographical horizon extending from Afghanistan to north-west India, which this paper intends to dwell upon. In earlier historiography this period, generally known as the post-Mauryan period, was often seen as one of ‘foreign invasions’. The paper would seek to examine how far this notion was guided by the representation of these ‘foreigners’, their social standings in the contemporary texts. The paper will also bring in certain images that were markers of Hellenism. People of the north-west were themselves of varying cultures, and the region displayed networks of wide ranging territorial and inter-civilizational contacts. A synthesis of the archaeological materials found in this region indicates multi-prong linkages of which the Central Asian connection played a significant role in the shaping of the culture of the region. © 2007, Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.