Kingship and Polity on the Himalayan Borderland

Arik Moran received his doctorate from the University of Oxford in 2010, and is a member of the Department of Asian Studies at the University of Haifa since 2011. He studies the oral and written histories and ritual cultures of the Indian Western Himalaya.|Willem van Schendel, Professor of History, University of Amsterdam and International Institute of Social History, the Netherlands. He works with the history, anthropology and sociology of Asia. Recent works include A History of Bangladesh (2020), Embedding Agricultural Commodities (2017, ed.), The Camera as Witness (2015, with J. L. K. Pachuau). See uva.academia.edu/WillemVanSchendel.

"By challenging common perceptions regarding Pahari Rajput tradition, this book opens new avenues to explore intricate connections and divisions within the dynastic histories in the Himalayan borderland. [...] Using both oral and written accounts to document Rajput historiography in the Himalayas, the book offers a novel method to explore the multifarious constitution of identities in the region. The book is likely to stimulate further lines of scholarly inquiry, and will be of immense interest for historians, anthropologists and scholars of Himalayan and South Asian studies."- Nilamber Chhetri, Indian Institute of Technology, Asian Studies Review (2020)

• INTRODUCTION, CHAPTER 1. MEMORIES OF A FEUD: CHINJHIAR, 1795 1.1 THE BILASPUR-KANGRA RIVALRY, C. 1750-1795 1.2 THE BARD'S TALE 1.3 ENTER SIRMAUR 1.4 THE RAJPUTIZATION OF PAHARI KINGSHIP: NARRATIVES OF CHINJHIAR, C. 1900 CHAPTER 2. ALTERITY AND MYTH IN HIMALAYAN HISTORIOGRAPHY: KANGRA, SIRMAUR, AND GORKHA RULE IN THE WEST 2.1 THE RISE OF THE KATOCH LEGEND 2.2 BEYOND THE BILASPUR-KANGRA RIVALRY: SIRMAUR 1795/6-1815 2.3 EXPLAINING THE SILENCE BEHIND GORKHA RULE IN WEST HIMALAYAN HISTORIES CHAPTER 3. SATI AND SOVEREIGNTY IN THEORY AND PRACTISE 3.1 THE MULTIPLE ROLES OF ROYAL WOMEN, C. 1775-1825 3.2 THE GULERI RANI OF SIRMAUR 3.3 RETHINKING SATI AND WOMEN'S AGENCY IN BRITISH INDIA 3.4 EUROPEAN AND PAHARI RAJPUT APPROPRIATIONS OF SATI CHAPTER 4. STATECRAFT AT THE EDGE OF EMPIRE: BILASPUR, 1795-1835 4.1 BEYOND THE RAJPUT FOLD: BRAHMINS, ASCETICS, AND MONASTIC ADVISORS 4.2 THE FINAL THROES OF THE BILASPUR-KANGRA RIVALRY: KOT DHAR, 1819 4.3 KINGSHIP RECALIBRATED: KHARAK CHAND'S BILASPUR, 1824-35 CHAPTER 5. WIDOWED RANIS, SCHEMING RAJAS, AND THE MAKING OF 'RAJPUT TRADITION': BILASPUR'S FORGOTTEN REVOLUTION, 1839-40 5.1 A MARRIAGE OF INTERESTS: THE SIRMAURI RANIS IN BILASPUR 5.2 KINGSHIP AMD ITS PRACTISE: BILASPUR, SIRMAUR, AND THE 'RAJPUT STATE' 5.3 THE RANIS' REVOLUTION: BILASPUR, 1839-40 AFTERWORD: PAHARI RAJPUTS IN THE INDIAN IMAGINATION, BIBLIOGRAPHY, APPENDICES