Oxford India Perennials Series – serie

Muhammad Bin Tughlaq, who ruled from Delhi in the fourteenth century, was a man of many dimensions. A well-read scholar of the arts, theology, and philosophy, a brilliant calligraphist, a mystic, as well as a poet, it is the 'madness' that earned him the epithet 'Mad Muhammad', that Karnad explores in the play. Using history and myth in equal measure, Karnad delves into the psyche of Muhammad to understand and interpret the rationale behind his whimsical actions. Operating at both symbolic and metaphoric levels, the action of the play is closely paralleled with 'contemporary' political and social events. The new Prologue by Karnad recounts the personal history behind the genesis of the play as well as its afterlife-the many productions and general reception. With an Introduction by U.R. Ananthamurthy and an essay by Aparna Dharwadker, this Oxford India Perennials edition is the testimony of Tughlaq's enduring influence even after four decades of its first publication.

The Mauryan period witnessed the rise of the first subcontinental empire which required administration appropriate to a changing political economy, communication adequate to a subcontinental territory, and new ideological attempts to draw support from a multicultural population. This book provides a fresh interpretation of the history of early India and its linkages with later developments. It discusses the history of the Mauryas with a special emphasis on the reign and activities of A?oka. The author focuses on sources, socio-economic conditions, administration, Dhamma, foreign relations, and the decline of the Mauryas. This new edition includes a Pre-word, updating the research on the subject. This book is an important reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students and teachers, as well as researchers of ancient Indian history. It will also interest the informed general reader.

This path-breaking work on the social and economic history of colonial India traces the evolution of north Indian towns and merchant communities from the decline of Mughal dominion to the consolidation of British empire following the 1857 'mutiny'. C.A. Bayly analyses the response of the inhabitants of the Ganges Valley to the upheavals in the eighteenth century that paved the way for the incoming British. He shows how the colonial enterprise was built on an existing resilient network of towns, rural bazaars, and merchant communities; and how in turn, colonial trade and administration were moulded by indigenous forms of commerce and politics. This edition comes with a new introduction.This book is an important reading for students, scholars, and teachers of modern Indian history, economic history, and sociology.

First published in 1973, Bharathipura is about the practice of untouchability in a traditional society that is evolving into modernity through new economic forces brought in by a certain class of people. The story revolves around the life of an 'enlightened' modern Indian, Jagannatha. Violent and unexpected events follow Jagannatha's attempts to revolutionize everyone and everything by linking his own transformation to the changes he wishes to orchestrate. With its display of literary discipline in handling intertwining themes, the novel exposes the complexities of the caste system and the myth of social justice in modern India.