2 - The Far South

Summary

Urbanism is a distinctive feature of the economic history of later medieval south India, and urbanization may well have been the most significant historical process of the period from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century in the sense of being a summation of the most important economic as well as cultural and political trends of that period. Thus, if it were recognized that devotional, or bhakti, worship was one of the most significant cultural developments of the medieval age, then the place of the temple as the locus of that worship would be given prominence, and the urban temple centre, often as the pinnacle of a system of rural shrines, would be given first attention. If it were further recognized that the state which commanded the greatest respect and sovereignty of the age – the Vijayanagara state (c. 1336–1630) – was based upon heavily fortified administrative centres often under the control of warriors and Brahmans who were strangers to the place (as most Telugu nāyakas and Brahman or fort commanders, durgādhipatis, were), then, again, attention would necessarily go to such centres and their relationships with extensive rural hinterlands as well as with the premier city of much of that time, Vijayanagara itself. Finally, if it were conceded that the strong trend of evidence on the economy of south India from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century was in the direction of ever greater commodity production in an increasingly monetized economy, then, once again, urban trade and handicraft centres would merit attention.