Vijayanagara.

• Author: Talbot, Cynthia

The Vijayanagara empire of the mid-fourteenth through mid-seventeenth centuries was south India's last large state system prior to the British colonial takeover. The significance of Vijayanagara in south Indian history is manifold: it has been perceived as the final great era of "traditional" Hindu India as well as the archetype for the subsequent small kingdoms doms encountered by the British. At one time, Burton Stein also emphasized the continuities between Vijayanagara and previous periods. In his more recent Vijayanagara, however, it is the early modern features of this age that Stein stresses. Above all, the Vijayanagara era was a transitional phase in which "Indian society was transformed from its medieval past toward its modern, colonial future" (p. xi). Stein's new perspective fits in well with the overall emphasis of the New Cambridge History of India of which it forms a part, since the series basically commences its coverage of Indian history c. 1500 c.e. Accordingly, Vijayanagara's "detailed and systematic treatment of the kingdom begins in the late fifteenth century" (p. xii). In this short introductory volume, Stein has done a masterful job of both synthesizing a large secondary literature and providing it with an interpretive framework.

The essence of Stein's highly original interpretation can be divided into two components, one relating to overall developments and the other with the Vijayanagara state system proper. Dynamism was the outstanding attribute of the era's society and economy, as evidenced by its growing urbanization, commercialization and monetization. Stein views these trends as largely a continuation of indigenous processes already set into motion during the thirteenth century by the growth of temple centers and by increased colonization of the dry upland interior of south India. The extension of Muslim power into the peninsula from the fourteenth century onward served as a further stimulus, as did the expansion of intemational trade linkages. The dynamic aspect of the period politically was its rising militarism, again originating in the thirteenth century with the martial peoples of the dry interior but accelerating after contact with Muslim polities. Enhanced military capabilities, combined with a larger commercial resource base, meant that "lordships of all sorts became more powerful than ever before" (p. xi).

Reflecting these changes in the larger society, Stein believes that Vijayanagara kingship...