Includes bibliographical references and index.

Tidal waves of India history--between the empires and beyond / Harry Falk -- Autonomous spaces and the authority of the state : the contradiction and its resolution in theory and practice / Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya -- The Vana and the Ksetra : the tribal background of some famous cults / Günther-Dietz Sontheimer -- The state, violence and resistance / Upinder Singh -- Structure of the chiefdom in peninsular India / Rajan Gurukkal -- Trade and the making of state society in early India (c.600-1300 CE) / Ranabir Chakravarti -- State formation and the frontiers : autochthonous communities, ritual practices and the Brahmanical order in early India / Bhairabi Prasad Sahu -- Little kingdoms / Georg Berkemer -- A theatre of broken dreams 2.0 : Vidisha during the days of Gupta hegemony / Hans Bakker -- State, patronage and religion in the early Valkha state (c. 4th to 5th centuries CE) / Suchandra Ghosh -- Violence, courtly manners and lineage formation in early medieval India / Daud Ali -- State formation under the Western Gangas in Karnataka (4th to 10th centuries CE) / Yogender Dayma -- State formation and polity of Brahmapura-Kārttikeyapura in central Himalayas (c. 5th-10th centuries CE) / Dev Kumar Jhanjh -- State and its fortunes : the cola experience, South India / Kesavan Veluthat -- Imperial rulers and regional elites in early medieval central India (8th to 13th centuries CE) / Annette Schmiedchen -- Revisiting the Chola State / Y. Subbarayalu -- Imperial architecture and the ideology of kingship in Odisha : Tanjavur's Brihadisvara Temple as the model for Odisha's monumental temples? / Hermann Kulke -- The mouse in the ancestry / Romila Thapar -- Building a past : creation and re-creation of a royal Sanskrit genealogy in medieval Rajasthan / Ulrike Teuscher -- Kosalananda Kavyam and the making of a Rajput Dynasty : a study on the Chauhans of Western Orissa / Shishir K. Panda -- Sultan among Hindu kings : dress titles and the Islamicization of Hindu culture at Vijayanagara / P. Wagoner -- Preparing for the Mughal State : a view from the textual worlds of the fifteenth century / Pankaj Jha -- Durga and the king : ethnohistorical aspects in the politico-ritual life of a South Orissan jungle kingdom / Burkhard Schnepel -- The formation of a centre out there : the case of Ranpur / Niels Gutschow -- King, goddesses and Jagannatha : regional patriotism and subregional and local identities in early modern Orissa / Akio Tanabe -- Virtual relations : little kings in Malabar -- Margret Frenz -- From dispute to 'disturbance' : the 'gond disturbances' in late 19th century Bonai (Odisha) / Uwe Skoda.

"This handbook presents a multilayered and multidimensional history of state formation in premodern India. It explores dense and rich local and subregional historiography from the mid-first millennium BC to the eighteenth century in South Asia. Shifting the focus away from economic and political factors, this handbook revises the conventional understanding of states and empires and locates them in their quotidian conduct and activity on socio-cultural and concomitant factors. Comprehensive in scope, this handbook addresses a range of themes connected with the idea of state formation in the subcontinent. It includes discussions and debates on ritual practices and the Brahmanical order in early India; the Delhi Sultanate and role of Sultans among the Hindu kings; the cosmopolitan 'Islamicate' cultural influences on Puranic Hinduism; cultural background of the Mughal state. The handbook examines new questions and ideologies of state formation, such as, · facets of violence and resistance; · the significance of the autonomous spaces and forests; · regional elites, including 'Little kings'; tribal background of some famous cults; · trade and maritime commerce; · royal patronage, courtly manners, lineage formation; · imperial architecture, monuments, and temple, among others. Featuring case studies from different part of the India subcontinent, and with contributions by renowned historians, this authoritative handbook will be an indispensable reading for teachers, scholars, and students of early India, medieval India, pre-modern India, South Asian history, Asian history, historiography, economic history, historical sociology, and South Asia studies"--