Between the 14th and 16th centuries, the major states of the northern and southern Deccan drew on the same resources to legitimize their claims to sovereign authority. One resource was indigenous but antique, namely, the memory of the prestigious Chalukya maharajas of Kalyana, who had dominated the entire Deccan between 973 and 1189. The other was external to the Deccan but contemporary, namely, the prestige and power associated with Persian language and the range of culture elaborated in the canon of Persian literature.

Please note the talk link will be shared a couple of hours before the event

At our Online Talk #IndiaInThePersianateAge, historian Prof. Richard M. Eaton explores the long-term interaction between the Persianate and Sanskritic worlds, between the Iranian Plateau and South Asia, and between Islam and Indian religious traditions.

About the speaker:

Richard M. Eaton is a Professor of History at the University of Arizona. His primary interest is the social and cultural history of pre-modern India (1000-1800). He has published monographs on the social roles of Sufis (Muslim mystics) in the Indian sultanate of Bijapur (1300-1700), on the growth of Islam in Bengal (1204-1760), on the social history of the Deccan from 1300 to 1761, and on the interplay between memory and art in the Deccan plateau between 1300 and 1600. Most recently, he has written India in the Persianate Age, 1000-1765, which was published by Penguin Books in summer 2020.