Culture and politics in the courts of medieval India
By: Daud Ali.
Series: Cambridge studies in Indian history and society
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2002
Place of publication: Cambridge
Language: eng
Number of pages: 320
ISBN-13: 9780521816274
Subjects: India -- History -- 1000-1765.; India -- Court and courtiers.; India -- Civilization -- To 1200.; India -- Civilization -- 1200-1765.; India -- Politics and government -- 997-1765.
Description: "Scholars have long studied classical Sanskrit culture in almost total isolation from its courtly context. As the first study to focus exclusively on the royal court as a social and cultural institution, this book fills a gap in the literature. Using both literary and inscriptional sources, it begins with the rise and spread of royal households and political hierarchies from the Gupta period (c. 350-750), and traces the emergence of a coherent courtly worldview, which would remain stable for almost a millennium to 1200. Later chapters examine key features of courtly life which have been all but ignored by the previous literature on ancient Indian society: manners, ethics, concepts of personal beauty and theories of disposition. The book ends with a sustained examination of the theory and practice of erotic love, in the context of the wider social dynamics and anxieties which faced the people of the court."--BOOK JACKET.