Deccan : Society and Economy, Vols. I and II

Contents: Preface. Acknowledgements. Abbreviations. List of illustrations. I. Introduction: 1. Geographical background. 2. Historical background. II. Society: 1. Structure of the society. 2. Marriages, family life, position of women. 3. Food and drinks. 4. Dresses and ornaments. 5. Means of entertainment. III. Economy: 1. Agriculture, horticulture and professions. 2. Faunal wealth and professions. 3. Floral wealth and professions. 4. Water wealth and professions. 5. Stone, mineral and metal wealth and professions. 6. Sources of revenue. 7. Trade and commerce. Bibliography. Index.

“There are number of works devoted to the study of the political history of almost all dynasties of Deccan. But there hardly exists any work tracing the progress of society and economy in Deccan from the period of the Satavahanas to that of that of the Yadavas with the help of the internal evidence from epigraphs along with archaeological, literary, sculptural and numismatic evidence.

The present project is an attempt towards achieving this end. It is based mainly on the inscriptions issued by the kings of Satavahana, Vakataka, Calukya of Badami, Rastrakuta, Calukya of Kalyani, Yadava and Silahara dynasties as well as of some other dynasties which had some sort of contacts with these royal families and the data obtained is supplemented and corroborated wherever possible and essential with the evidence available from other sources. Taking into account the vast gamut of the territory and the period the study is restricted to the region ruled by these dynasties and particularly to western and northern Deccan including Vidarbha.

The other point to be noted here is that in order to have clear idea about the position of different so called castes in the society, efforts are made to describe these classes in the context of their duties prescribed in Dharmasastras.

Here an attempt is made to trace the beginning of different arts and professions based on each of these sources with the corroboration of the evidence from different sources.” (jacket)