Revisiting Talikota (1565): A battle, its context, and its echoes
25/11/2008 - 16:00
25 November 2008
16.00 hrs
Sixteenth Gonda Lecture by Sanjay Subrahmanyam
In late January 1565, perhaps on the very day (January 26) now celebrated as independent India's Republic Day, an important battle took place in or around Talikota on the banks of the Don River, a tributary of the Krishna. The battle opposed the forces of the Vijayanagara (or Karnataka) empire and the combined armies of the Deccan Sultanates, principally Ahmadnagar, Bijapur and Golkonda. These kingdoms had all been engaged in complex negotiations and struggles over the previous decades, without any of them suffering a decisive defeat. However, in January 1565, the battle resulted in a substantial defeat for Vijayanagara, the death of the minister and éminence grise Aravidu Rama Raya (who was killed on the battlefield), and the extensive sack of the capital city of Vijayanagara.
While historians of an earlier generation such as N. Venkataramanayya, H.K. Sherwani, H. Heras (and before them Robert Sewell), and others have devoted attention to this battle, it is worth our while to return to it. The aim here is not to focus on the tactics and nitty-gritty of the battle itself so much as on its larger circumstances, and broader echoes and consequences. These assume a certain significance because of the important place that Talikota (or Rakshas-Tagadi, or Banihatti, as it is variously dubbed) now has in the received history of interfaith relations in South Asia. The lecture will be based on a close re-reading of certain well-known source-materials, and a consideration of hitherto neglected materials in both Asian and European languages.
Venue
Trippenhuis, Kloveniersburgwal 29, Amsterdam
Registration
Admission to the lecture is free, but you should register in
advance by submitting the online registration form on www.knaw.nl (Agenda/Events), or by sending an e-mail to Bernadette.Peeters@bureau.knaw.nl
About Sanjay Subrahmanyam
Sanjay Subrahmanyam was principally educated in New Delhi, where he received his PhD in Economic History in 1987 at the Delhi School of Economics. He is now Professor and Doshi Chair of Indian History at the University of California at Los Angeles, a position he has held since 2004. Subrahmanyam has also held visiting positions at many schools and universities. Most recently, he was A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University (2002-2008). He is Joint Managing Editor of the quarterly Indian Economic and Social History Review, besides serving on the boards of a number of other journals in the US, UK, and Portugal. Besides over a hundred and fifty published essays, his recent chief book-length publications include Penumbral Visions: Making Polities in Early Modern South India (Ann Arbor, 2001); Textures of Time: Writing History in South India, 1600-1800 (New York,
2003: with V. Narayana Rao and David Shulman); Explorations in Connected History, 2 Volumes (Oxford, 2004); and most recently Indo-Persian Travels in the Age of Discoveries, 1400-1800 (Cambridge, 2007: jointly with Muzaffar Alam). He is currently completing a short book based on the Menahem Stern Lectures delivered in Jerusalem in 2007.