The frontiers of memory: What the Marathas remembered of Vijayanagara

Modern Asian Studies

Volumn 43, Issue 1, 2009, Pages 269-288

  Guha, Sumit ^a  

^a RUTGERS UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CONFERENCE PROCEEDING; ETHNIC GROUP; FRONTIER REGION; HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE;

ASIA; EURASIA; INDIA; KARNATAKA; SOUTH ASIA; VIJAYANAGARA;

EID: 57049176685     PISSN: 0026749X     EISSN: 14698099     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0026749X07003307     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (61)

1. An earlier version of this paper was presented at a conference in honour of John Richards, Duke University, 29-30 September 2006.
2. Romila Thapar, Interpreting Early India, (Delhi: Oxford India paperback, [1992] 1999), p. 137.
3. Here and throughout the rest of this paper, the Common Era dates are inserted without specific marking; the calendrical system is indicated in all other cases.
4. Hayden V. White, "The Burden of History", History and Theory, Vol. 5, No. 2 (1966), p. 130.
5. Gabrielle M. Spiegel, The Past as Text: The Theory and Practice of Medieval Historiography, (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997), p. 51, xix.
6. Sheldon Pollock, The Language of the Gods in the World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture and Power in Premodern India, (Delhi: Permanent Black edition, 2007), pp. 155-161.
7. Sastri cited on p. 160.
8. Prachi Deshpande, Creative Pasts: Historical Memory and Identity in Western India, 1700-1960, (New York: Columbia University Press 2007), p. 4. Emphasis added.
9. Eviatar Zerubavel, Time Maps: Collective Memory and the Social Shape of the Past, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004), pp. 2-3.
10. "The Legendary Topography of the Gospels in the Holy Land" in Lewis A. Coser (ed. and trans.), On Collective Memory, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), p. 215.
11. V. Narayana Rao, "Epics and Ideologies: Six Telugu Folk Epics", p. 132 in Stuart H. Blackburn and A. K. Ramanujan (eds.), Another Harmony: New Essays on the Folklore of India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), p. 132.
12. "Reflections on State-Making and History-making in South India 1500-1800" in Penumbral Visions: Making Polities in Early Modern South India, (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 186.
13. On autobiographical memory, see Craig R. Barclay, "Autobiographical remembering: Narrative Constraints on Objectified Selves" in David C. Rubin (ed.), Remembering Our Past: Studies in Autobiographical Memory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 94-127.
14. The quote is from Shahid Amin's "Prologue" to Event, Metaphor, Memory : Chauri Chaura 1922-1992, (New Delhi: Penguin edition 2006), p. xx.
15. Ernest Renan, "Qu'est-ce qu'une nation?" reprinted in Oeuvres Completes, Vol. 1, (Paris: Calmann-Levy, [1882] 1947), p. 891.
16. Indrani Chatterjee, "Captives of Enchantment?: Gender, Genre and Transmemoration" Seminar paper presented at the University of California Santa Cruz, Workshop on Comparative Feminisms, March 2005.
17. Phillip B. Wagoner, Tidings of the King: A Translation and Ethnohistorical Analysis of the Rayavacakamu, (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1993).
18. S. Krishnaswamy Iyengar (ed.), Sources of Vijayanagar History (Madras: University of Madras, 1919).
19. K. A. Nilakanta Sastri and N. Venkataramanayya, Further Sources of Vijayanagar History, (Madras: University of Madras, 1946, 3 vols.), Vol. 3, p. 197.
20. Govind Sakharam Sardesai, Marathi Riyasat, Revised and annotated edition (Mumbai: 1988, 8 vols.), vol. 1, p. 89-109.
21. Jayarama Pindye, Radhamadhavavilasacampu (ed.) Vishwanath K. Rajwade, (Pune: Varda Books [1923] 1993), pp. 256-7.
22. For background, see Hermann Kulke, "Maharajas, Mahants and Historians: Reflections on the Historiography of Early Vijayanagara and Sringeri" in Kings and Cults: State Formation an Legitimation in India and Southeast Asia, (Delhi: Manohar reprint, 2001), pp. 208-39.
23. Natalie Tobert, Anegondi: Architectural Ethnography of a Royal Village, (Delhi: Manohar for the American Institute of Indian Studies, Vijayanagara Research Project Monograph Series, Vol. 7, 2000), x-xii, pp. 192-96.
24. Dictionary of Marathi and English compiled by J. T. Molesworth assisted by George and Thomas Candy - Second Edition revised and enlarged by J. T. Molesworth [1857] 2nd Corrected Reprint Pune: Shubhada Saraswat 1982, Preface to the second edition, pp. xviii-xxi.
25. D. V. Potdar and G. N. Mujumdar (eds.), Sivacaritra Sahitya-2 (Pune: BISM 1930), pp. 333-38;
26. I located this reference via the valuable article by D. V. Potdar, " Marathit Vijayanagara" in Dattatreya P. Karmarkar and Rajaram V. Oturkar (eds.) Vijayanagara Smaraka Grantha (Marathi Avrutti), (Pune: BISM 1936-37), pp. 338-50. The discussion of the rival narratives of the Sardesai and Padhye households is taken from that essay.
27. Cited in Potdar, "Marathit Vijayanagara", pp. 339-40.
28. Y. Khu. Deshpande, "Vijayanagarce Rajanca ullekha" with notes by D. V. Potdar and S. N. Joshi BISMT, 10, 3 (1929), pp. 113-15.
29. Potdar, "Marathit Vijayanagara" pp. 343-44.
30. S. Paramashivan, "Vijayanagarakalina Citrakala" in Vijayanagara Smaraka Grantha, pp. 208-9.
31. As Zerubavel points out, beginnings are highly significant. "Origins help articulate identities, and where communities locate their beginnings tells us quite a lot about how they perceive themselves." Time-Maps, p. 101, emphasis original.
32. T. Sambamurti Row copied and published, The Marathi Historical Inscription at the Sri Brihadeeswaraswami Temple at Tanjore, (Tanjore: The Editor 1907), pp. 1-2.
33. Equally interesting but not relevant to the present theme is the systematic downplaying of Shivaji and his line.
34. Incomplete text, without ascription, published as "Aitihasik sphuta lekha" pp. 21-9, in Itihasa Samgraha, Vol. 1, Nos. 10-11 (1908-9).
35. Internal evidence suggests that this was a copyist's error, and either the year was in Fasli or the number should perhaps be 1224. The regimes covered extend up to Sake 1739, or 1817-18.
36. Datto Vamana Potdar ed., Anjanvela Talukyaci Vahivata, in Khanderav Cintamana Mehendale (ed.) (BISM Varshika Itivritta Sake 1835), pp. 318-20.
37. Published by V. K. Rajavade and D. V. Apte in ibid., pp. 169-75.
38. Arthur Steele, The Hindu Castes Their Law, Religion and Customs, (Delhi: Mittal Publications, reprint 1989), pp. 4-5. This text is a reprint under a different title of The Law and Custom of Hindoo Castes of the Dekhun Provinces, first published in 1827.
39. Potdar, "Marathit Vijayanagara" p. 350.
40. This is something that if held in the mouth gives supernatural powers to the holder.
41. adl means justice; adalat meaning court of law was assimilated into Marathi. The function of Adal-shah is thus fancifully reconstructed from the dynastic title. Bahiri-sasana is the Marathi for peregrine falcon - hence the occupation of the Nizam Shah!
42. An echo of the derogatory tradition found in the Rayavacakamu: "a fellow named Barid of Bidar...began to rule...His hawk keeper came to be known as Nizam Shah, his water-pot bearer became known as Adil Shah, and the man who was in charge of keeping the dogs became known as Qutb Shah. Each of the three was given charge over a province..." Wagoner trans. Tidings of the King, p. 123.
43. An excellent survey is in Burton Stein, Vijayanagara (Cambridge: University Press, New Cambridge History of India, I.2, 1989), pp. 4-7.
44. This information is derived from the introduction to the reprinted text in Avinash Sovani (ed.), Aitihasika Bakhari-Khand pahila, (Pune: Shabdavedha Prakashan 1998), p. 12 (preface); pp. 13-23 (text).
45. S. K. Iyengar, "The Bakhair of Rama Raja" in Proceedings of Meetings, (Poona Calcutta: Government Central Press, 1925), Vol. 7, pp. 53-63.
46. See also Rajaram V. Herwadkar, A Forgotten Literature: Foundations of Marathi Chronicles, (Mumbai: Popular Prakashan 1994), pp. 12-13;
47. idem, Marathi Bakhar, (Pune: Venus Prakashan, Revised enlarged edition, 1974), pp. 40-41.
48. Further Sources, Vol. 3, pp. 204-42. Note on p. 205 refers to the Mackenzie translation as India Office Mss no. X.
49. Na. Shri. Rajpurohit, "Rakshas-Tangdiya rananganaca sthalanirnya", Bharata Itihasa Samshodhaka Mandala Traimasika, Vol. 10, No. 1 (1928-29), pp. 17-22.
50. Phillip Wagoner (personal communication) suggests that it might even have been written for, or at the behest of, Colin Mackenzie in 1809-10 when his research assistants, Narrain Row and Ananda Row were both in the vicinity of Bellari.
51. I have translated and discussed this text in "Literary Tropes and Historical Settings: A study from Southern India" in Rajat Datta (ed.), Rethinking a Millennium: India from the Eighth to the Eighteenth Centuries Delhi, forthcoming.
52. G. B. Gramopadhye (ed.) Marathi Bakhar Gadya, (Pune: Mehta Publishing House, [1952] 1988). He titled it 'Rakshes Tagdicha Ranasamgrama'-the Battle of Rakshes Tagdi., pp. 17-22; annotation pp. 170-1.
53. This heavily edited text is briefly discussed in Rao, Shulman and Subrahmanyam Textures of Time, pp. 227-8.
54. Gramopadhye, 18 footnote.
55. Wagoner, Tidings of the King, pp. 5-9.
56. Every sixty years, the planets return to a particular configuration and the cycle resumes. Each year has a specific name - the first being Prabhava and the last Akshaya.
57. Sovani (ed.), Aitihasika Bakhari, pp. 22-23.
58. On the political and cultural significance of the Mandala, see Prachi Deshpande, Creative Pasts, pp. 117-20.
59. Karamarkar (ed.), Vijayanagara Smaraka Grantha, pp. 1-2.
60. Ibid., pp. 1-7.
61. T. S. Shejwalkar, "Vijayanagara Samrajyace Maratheshahivarila parinama" in Vijayanagara Smaraka Grantha, pp. 64-5.