Susmita Basu Majumdar

Bio: Susmita Basu Majumdar is an academic researcher from University of Calcutta. The author has contributed to research in topics: Cultural history. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 2 publications receiving 3 citations.

State formation and religious processes in the north–south corridor of Chhattisgarh (from first century bc to eighth century ad):

Abstract: Chhattisgarh in central India, a hilly and forested region, offered passages connecting the Gangetic basin with the Deccan, which opened it to influences from both the north and the Deccan. This ma...

Book Review: Shonaleeka Kaul (ed.), Cultural History of Early South Asia: A ReaderShonaleekaKaul (ed.), Cultural History of Early South Asia: A Reader, New Delhi: Orient Blackswan, 388 pp., ₹850.

Abstract: arising out of friction among different kinds of knowers. Several fields of knowledge with a variety of concepts and methods like archaeology, architecture, art, sociology, literature have to collaborate to produce a good narrative (history). This compilation is an important tool for the researcher. ICHR and the editors deserve our gratitude for the effort and Primus our appreciation for meticulous copy-editing, layout and elegant production.

Review Essay: Eloquent Inscriptions on Indic Experiences of State Society, Material Milieu and Religious Complexes: Integration vis-à-vis Appropriation (c. 700–1600 ce):

Abstract: A meaningful understanding of the pre-modern pasts of India stems from the recognition and explanation of identifiable changes in its socio-political situations, material cultures and religious experiences. Such changes need to be situated beyond dynastic shifts, although socio-economic and cultural developments were, of course, interlocked with the then politics and polities. Such an approach naturally negates the perceptions of the immutable social, economic and cultural (especially religious) institutions and practices over millennia in the subcontinent. The image of the unchanging East, typified by ‘traditional India’, which is perceived to have thrived on sanatana dharma, is largely constructed by preferring to represent pre-modern India through normative treatises (sastras), mostly written in Sanskrit and from a predominantly Brahmanical perspective and ideology. That the narrative literature may often present images of society, economy, political and cultural activities distinct from and contrary to the ideals upheld by normative treatises has of late gained considerable historiographical visibility. What needs to be underlined here is that the pre-modern pasts of India can hardly be grasped by the Sruti–Smriti literary traditions which leave a strong impression of memorialised orality, the practice of written words and documents, therefore, being reduced to marginality. The present review article precisely proposes to highlight the significance of written documents in the form of inscriptions for generating data and impressions of the pasts of India with certain distinctiveness which is hardly available in other categories of evidence, especially in the normative texts. This is not to claim that inscriptions are stand-alone sources for the study of pre-modern India. Inscribed texts, as