Politics, Kingship, and Poetry in Medieval South India
Moonset on Sunrise Mountain

Whitney Cox presents a fundamental re-imagining of the politics of pre-modern India through a revisionist reading of the dynastic history of the Cholas.

Whitney Cox (Author)

9781316623626, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 21 February 2019

325 pages, 5 b/w illus. 4 maps 1 table
22.9 x 15 x 1.5 cm, 0.5 kg

'In what is essentially a biography of a great South Indian king, Whitney Cox tells a splendid tale, but one that challenges us as well. I cannot imagine a more welcome contribution to scholarship on the history of India - and indeed to much more (Indian literature, historiography, political theory …).' Leslie C. Orr, Concordia University, Montreal and author of Donors, Devotees and Daughters of God: Temple Women in Medieval Tamilnadu

In this compelling new study, Whitney Cox presents a fundamental re-imagining of the politics of pre-modern India through the reinterpretation of the contested accession of Kulottunga I (r.1070–1120) as the ruler of the imperial Chola dynasty. By focusing on this complex event and its ramifications over time, Cox traces far-reaching transformations throughout the kingdom and beyond. Through a methodologically innovative combination of history, theory and the close reading of a rich series of Sanskrit and Tamil textual sources, Cox reconstructs the nature of political society in medieval India. A major intervention in the fields of South Asian social, political and cultural history, religion and comparative political thought, this book poses fresh comparative and conceptual questions about politics, history, agency and representation in the pre-modern world.

Figures
Acknowledgements
Note on the transliteration and presentation of texts
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Râjiga, before 1070
2. Râjendracola, June 1070–May 1074
3. Kulottunga: the King and the Poets, ca.1087–1115
4. The Emperor of the Three Worlds and the Lord of the Little Shrine
Conclusions
Notes
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Comparative politics [JPB], Social theory [JHBA], Society & social sciences [J], Religion: general [HRA], Religion & beliefs [HR], Medieval history [HBLC1], Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], Asian history [HBJF], History [HB], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]