Temple Urbanism in Medieval South India
The Tamil country of South India experienced a flowering of political, economic, and cultural forces during the Chola period (849–1279). The environments supporting this expansion were nucleated settlements focused on temples, surrounded by verdant paddy fields with artificial irrigation networks. This article is a study of the sacred sites and nucleated settlements that were the heart of this medieval civilization. The purposes of the study are two: first, to portray the dynamics of early urbanism during a crucial period of regional integration in South Asia, and especially to portray the geography of early centers; second, to provide the basis for a comparative study of early South Indian urbanism and premodern urbanism in other world areas.
The Indus Civilization
THIS little book is the first of a series of handbooks of sectional archaeology, authoritative but not technically advanced, intended for both the general reader and the student. Dr. Mackay has covered the main outline of the results of the excavation of the prehistoric sites of northern India and the relations, chronological and cultural, of the Indus civilisation adequately and with the lucidity to be expected from his intimate and detailed knowledge. He appends a useful bibliography and an excellent series of small but very clear illustrations. If the volumes which follow maintain the standard of the first—and they should if the names of the authors who are to contribute may be taken as a guarantee— this series will be a distinct addition to the literature of ‘science made popular’ in the best sense.The Indus Civilization.Dr.ErnestMackayEdited by. Pp. viii + 210 + 16 plates. (London: Lovat Dickson and Thompson, Ltd., 1935.) 6s. net.
An Introduction To The Study Of Indian History Ed.2nd
. . . on the one hand Indian prehistory . . . displays, like the Indian landscape, wide expanses of uniformity: a monotonous and interminable Palaeolithic, a diffuse Microlithic, centuries of Indus Civilization, centuries of Ganges Civilization, leagues of Megaliths. But on the other hand, again like the Indian landscape, this monotony is broken by sudden changes and heights; ever and anon India leaps from its sleep and grasps new ideas, new opportunity, with quick and prehensile intelligence.