The Ramayana traditions of South India and Southeast Asia are examined at multiple levels in this volume. The research presented here offers in-depth investigations of chosen moments in the development of the epic tradition together with broader trends that help in understanding the epic?s multivalence. The journey and localization of the R?m?ya?a is explored in its manifold expressions ? from classical to folk, from temples and palaces to theatres and by-lanes in cities and villages, and from ancient to modern times. Regional R?m?ya?as from different parts of South India and Southeast Asia are placed in deliberate juxtaposition to enable a historically informed discussion of their connected pasts across land and seas. The three parts of this volume, organized as visual, literary, and performance cultures, discuss the sculpted, painted, inscribed, written, recited, and performed Ramayanas. A related emphasis is on the way boundaries of medium and genre have been crossed in the visual, literary, and performed representations of the R?m?ya?a.These are rewarding directions of research that have thus far received little attention. Bringing together 19 well-known scholars in Ramayana studies from Cambodia, Canada, France, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, UK, and USA, this thought-provoking and elegantly illustrated volume engages with the inherent plurality, diversity, and adaptability of the R?m?ya?a in changing socio-political, religious, and cultural contexts and with shifting norms, tastes, traditions, and ideologies.

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The early Buddhist architectural vocabulary, being the first of its kind, maintained its monopoly for about half a millennium, beginning from the third century BCE. To begin with, it was oral, not written. The Jain, Hindu, and other Indian sectarian builders later developed their vocabulary on this foundation, though not identically. An attempt is made here to understand this vocabulary and the artisans who first made use of it.

In the epigraphic ledger, the first reference to the mythical creator of the universe, the Visvakarma (Visakama), is made on the thupas at Sanchi and Kanaganahalli; the earliest excavators of cave temples, comprising five specialists – selavdhaki, nayikamisa, kadhicaka, mahakataka and mithaka –  as well as a team of master-architects and supervisors, called the navakamis, appear at Kanheri. Besides these, there were also others called avesanis, atevasinas, acaryas, and upajjhayas all over the Buddhist world. The list does not end with these, because there were yet others called vadhakis (carpenters), seli-vadhakis (stonecutters), sela-rupakas (stone sculptors), mithakas (polishers), and so on. All these artisans who have recorded their life stories on the stone surface are identified, and their professional contributions evaluated here for the first time.

India?s Princely States have enjoyed only a minor place in the narrative of modern nationhood. Certain Princely States used the dynamics of transfer of power to carve autonomy from the colonial British to advance their societies. Some of the Princely States modernized their education, public health and industrial sectors way ahead of the British administered territories. Prof Washbrook provides a macro picture of the dynamics in the Princely States of South India and sees a distinctive and indigenous form of modernity. Hierarchy, religion, heredity and caste were not obliterated for rationalism and secularism. As socialism and pseudo-secularism are fading away, the significance of the indigenous forms of modernity of the Princely States becomes more relevant to understand India in the 21st century. Ten historian thought leaders provide an interesting perspective to make it a compelling read. K Sadashiva is the architect of this book. As he developed the theme and brought together historians from various parts of the world, an interesting tapestry was woven. He is a historian actively researching the Indian Union, the Princely States and the rise of political power of caste and class in independent India. D A Prasanna has an interest in history, visual art, public health and education. He has supported new initiatives in these fields and has actively nurtured ideas to result in outcomes