Somantha: The Many Voices Of A History - Rilegato

Thapar, Romila

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 1844670201 ISBN 13: 9781844670208

Casa editrice: Verso Books, 2005

Riassunto

In 1026, Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni raided the Hindu temple of Somanatha (Somnath in textbooks of the colonial period). The story of the raid has reverberated in Indian history, but largely during the raj. It was first depicted as a trauma for the Hindu population not in India, but in the House of Commons. The triumphalist accounts of the event in Turko-Persian chronicles became the main source for most eighteenth-century historians. It suited everyone and helped the British to divide and rule a multi-millioned subcontinent.

In her new book, Romila Thapar, the doyenne of Indian historians, reconstructs what took place by studying other sources, including local Sanskrit inscriptions, biographies of kings and merchants of the period, court epics and popular narratives that have survived. The result is astounding and undermines the traditional version of what took place. These findings also contest the current Hindu religious nationalism that constantly utilises the conventional version of this history.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

“Romila Thapar is the most eminent Indian historian.”—Eric Hobsbawm (in praise of The Penguin History of Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300)

L'autore:

Romila Thapar is Emeritus Professor in History at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. She has served as visiting professor at Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania and is currently the Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of the South at the Library of Congress. Among her previous books are Ashoka and the Decline of the Mauryas, Indian Tales, and The Penguin History of Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Verso Books
• Data di pubblicazione: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1844670201
• ISBN 13: 9781844670208
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 265