The medieval and modern period of Deccan history offers an unparalleled range of research topics for historians, archaeologists and architectural historians focusing on fortifications, such as those who have contributed to this volume. The Deccan region preserves a large number of comparatively well preserved fortified sites, some familiar and now fairly well documented, like the great dynastic centres of Warangal, Hampi-Vijayanagara, Bidar and Golconda, others only recently identified and investigated, like the military outposts of Sagar, Naldurg, Torgal and Chitradurga.
Between the 13th and 18th centuries, Deccan was mostly divided between independent polities, competing with each other for well-watered lands, natural ressources, and control of routes leading to the lucrative Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal ports. In addition, there were intruders from northern India, from the Khaljis and Tughluqs to the Mughals, attracted by the region’s vast wealth. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that Deccan rulers had always to be concerned with the safety of their dynastic capitals and military outposts.
This book aims to define the types of fortifications and their evolution with the adaptation to new weapons, such as artillery. The different contributions are wide ranging in terms of the material examined, approaches and methods, as well as the state of research, from essays on ‘water harvesting’ and hydrology or early surveys of border forts to an analysis of the symbolism of urban planning at Warangal.
It is hoped that this volume and the revival of interest in the forts of Deccan will lead to increased enquiry and research in the times to come.
Dr. Nicolas Morelle, Archaeologist specialising in India. Associated researcher, LA3M, UMR 7298 CNRS, MMSH (Aix-en-Provence, France). After studies on crusader fortifications and influences between East and West in terms of construction techniques and military architecture, he studied technical interactions in Indian fortifications as part of his PhD thesis on the evolution of military architecture in the Deccan forts of Firozabad, Torgal, Naldurg and Bellary in 2018. In this context, he collaborated with several Indian institutions, including the Institute of Malik Sandal in Bijapur, to study Deccan forts.
Dr. Nicolas Faucherre, Professor of History of Art and Medieval & Modern Military Architecture, AMU, LA3M, UMR 7298 CNRS, Aix Marseille University (Aix-en-Provence, France). He is one of the most eminent specialists of classical fortification in France. He also teaches in Paris, at the Ecole de Chaillot (training of heritage architects) and at the Ecole du Louvre (military archaeology). His research, in addition to his PhD thesis on the citadels of the kings of France, Charles VII and Louis XI, led him to explore the world of the Vauban fortifications: as coordinator of the Vauban Year in 1982 and as historical advisor at the Musée des plans-reliefs de Paris between 1987 and 1992.
Frequently sent abroad for studies and expertise, he was interested in Byzantine and Mediterranean and Asian fortifications, for which he carried out numerous missions in Greece, Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain and India. He is an expert at UNESCO for fortified heritage.
The medieval period of Deccan history offers an unparalleled range of research topics for historians, archaeologists and architectural historians focusing on fortifications, such as those who have contributed to this volume. The Deccan region preserves a large number of comparatively well preserved fortified sites, some familiar and now fairly well documented, like the great dynastic centres of Warangal, Hampi-Vijayanagara, Bidar and Golconda, others only recently identified and investigated, like the military outposts of Sagar, Naldurg, Torgal and Chitradurga. These represent only a small fraction of such sites available for study in the Deccan, and it can only be hoped that that the present publication will stimulate further explorations of this kind.
Between the 13th and 18th centuries the Deccan was mostly divided between independent polities, competing with each other for well-watered lands, valuable minerals and diamonds, and control of routes leading to the lucrative Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal ports. In addition, there were intruders from northern India, from the Khaljis and Tughluqs to the Mughals, attracted by the region's vast wealth. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that Deccan rulers had always to be concerned with the safety of their dynastic capitals and military outposts. As the Deccan was one of the "edges" of the Muslim political, religious and cultural sphere in South Asia during this period, conflicts with the indigenous "Hindu" world and its majority population were unavoidable. But there were also more positive interactions and fruitful accommodations, influencing developments in local warfare techniques and architectural security systems. While some scholars have been concerned to distinguish "Islamic" from "Hindu" urban citadels, wall constructions and gateway typologies, in the end it is the mingling of these diverse defensive systems that make the Deccan fortified sites so rewarding to study, as is evident from the articles assembled here.
The Deccan is a region of vital importance, both in medieval and modern times, before its conquest by Aurangzeb in the end of XVIIth century. Throughout history it has served as both a frontier and as a zone of exchanges between the sultanates in North and the empire of Vijayanagara in South. The Deccan marks the states of Maharashtra, Telangana and the northern part of Karnataka. From 1347 to 1687, sultanates lived together or succeeded one another in the Deccan : Bahmanis then Baridi of Bidar, Adil-Shahi of Bijapur, Nizam-Shahi of Daulatabad, Qutb-Shahi of Golconda and Hyderabad.
Its art and architecture are famous around the world, thanks to the profusion of artefacts and precious illumination books preserved in many museums and many remarkably well-preserved monuments dotting this rich region. From Mandu to Vijayanagara, successive Indo-muslim rulers of the region adapted its defence not only to suit the relief, hydraulic facility, and population (language, religious and cultural limits). There are surviving monumental sites particularly spectacular with great conceptual unity of the artillery, both ostentatious as technical.
Though often relegated to a position of secondary importance in Indian History (Haroon Khan Sherwani and P.M. Joshi,' Ghulam Yazdani), the military architecture of the Deccan has been a specific subject of study for many scholars from different countries, such as Sydney Toy, M. Naravane, Madhukar Shripad Mate, J. N. Kamalapur, Jean Deloche, and, more recently,' Robert Brubaker. Before recent studies, analyses of fieldwork conducted in the 199os and 2000S address many interdisciplinary questions: the relationship between artillery and fortification, (Iqtidar Alam Khan, Klaus Rotzer), Urbanism (Marika Sardar, Pushkar Sohoni, Mark Zebrowski and George Michell, John Fritz), and the links of military architecture with commerce, power, and the seats of power, as in the capital cities (Mehrdad Shokoohy, Helen Philon, Richard Eaton and Philip Wagoner). Studies show that the defence is adapted to different areas of tension and also to the frontiers, which also serves as the place of innovation and diffusion of military and architectural technologies. Certainly in the last two decades in particular, publications on the Deccan have begun to enrich the erstwhile paucity of material available to scholars and students.
This book brings together archaeologists, architects, historians and art historians, all of whom provide insight into the Deccan through their technical, historical, and artistic analyses. These experts even throw light on influences of other regions, both in India and bordering with India. We would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their contributions.
This book should be viewed as a joint effort to understand the processes of evolution of the defence in the forts of the Deccan between 1200 and 1800. This collection examines not one court/empire but many. Nevertheless, the focus on the narrower topic of forts, fortifications, and defence as a lens through which to examine the vast Deccan should provide some continuity and cohesion. The object of the work is to summarise the original elements and characteristics of Indian fortifications that reflect the cultural mix of the medieval and modern Deccan, and the exchanges and influences from Central Asia, Safavid Iran, Europe and the Arab world."
The fortification is often built by or for the ruler, so it reflects the nature and culture of the local (or foreign) power reigning over a territory through its style, inscriptions or the function of the defensive elements (use of archery, artillery). It tells us a part of the political history and the relationship between power and territory, but also the occupations of each fort by garrisons, armies or civilians according to styles or types of fortifications. Thus, the arrival of the Muslim population has brought many defensive elements sometimes unknown in the pre-Muslim Deccan. The study of castles brings new elements to elucidate the complex interaction of cultures that constituted the Deccan over this period and changes that were sometimes swift in coming to the fortification due to the interactions between people and power. A comparative examination of fortification and defence might reveal much about the rich overlapping cultural interactions that characterized its development from 1200 - 1800 and the synthesis of this type of study must be put in its Indian and Asian context.
The different contributions are wide ranging in terms of the material examined, approaches and methods, as well as the state of research, from essays on 'water harvesting' and hydrology or early surveys of border forts to an analysis of the symbolism of urban planning at Warangal.
The articles deal with questions surrounding fortifications, from the adaptation of the forts of the Deccan to artillery by the example of Daulatabad (Tejas Garge), hydraulic works on the hill forts of South India (Jean Deloche) or temples in forts (Niharika Sankirtyayan) but also foreign influences or soldiers in forts (Jean-Marie Lafont). Equally, interdisciplinary issues irrigate all research works: construction methods, geology, borrowings and inventions, function of fortification, etc.
The question of the nature of fortification is important to study: Urban enceintes of Bijapur (Ameen Hullul and Kushal Kumar Kamble), Daulatabad (Nicolas Simon), the forts of Warangal (George Michell) and Bidar (Helen Philon), the border fort of Naldurg during the Adil Shahi period (Nicolas Morelle), and also the defensive plan of Chitradurga (Barry Lewis), Vijayanagara (Robert Brubaker) and Torgal (Nicolas Morelle).
**Contents and Sample Pages**
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