Studies on Fortification in India.

• Author: L. Smith, Monica
• Position: Book review

Studies on Fortification in India. By JEAN DELOCHE. Collection Indologie, vol. 104. Pondichery: INSTITUT FRANCAIS DE PONDICHERY, 2007. Pp. 266. Rs. 800. Four Forts of the Deccan. By JEAN DELOCHE. Collection Indologie, vol. 111. Pondiche'ry: INSTITUT FRANCAIS De PONDICHERY, 2009. Pp. 206. Senji (Gingee): A Fortified City in the Tamil Country. By JEAN DELOCHE. Collection Indologie, vol. 101. Pondichery: INSTITUT FRANCAIS DE PONDICHERY, 2005. Pp. 391.

This trio of books celebrates the military architecture of the southern Indian subcontinent from the earliest era through the medieval and early modern periods, and follows up in book form several of the author's seminal articles from the 1990s. The present volumes are not about military history, nor about the "grand strategies" of expansion and conquest by subcontinental states. Instead, they provide details and commentary on the layouts and architectural embellishments of fortified sites. The principal focus of the first two books is a descriptive catalog of architectural elements that can be traced to the period before and after the development of artillery; the third book is a single-site study of Senji in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu that examines the pre- and post-gunpowder era through original fieldwork.

As Deloche notes, researchers have devoted a great deal of attention to India's religious monuments but have generally ignored their secular counterparts. Fortifications, however, are testament to much larger quantities of labor and materials for their construction, with long-term building and modification programs that became the focal point for local populations as well as for their leaders. Often placed at points of the landscape that already were natural strongholds and places of ritual devotion, the fortifications are marked by the investment of political authorities in place-making through monumental encircling ramparts, imposing gateways, and complex entranceways designed to foil invaders.

Fortifications also are places where the material history of the medieval and early colonial period can be documented. The "tit-for-tat" of that era's arms race was one in which greater and more versatile artillery was utilized against the massive encircling fortifications, with a physical record of change that is evident in material remains. Cannons became larger and larger (up to truly gargantuan size, such as the 55-ton cannon named the Malik-i-Maidan at Bijaptir). At the same time...