"To compensate a little for the treachery and weakness of my memory, so extreme that it has happened to me more than once to pick up again, as recent and unknown to me, books which I had read carefully a few years before . . . I have adopted the habit for some time now of adding at the end of each book . . . the time I finished reading it and the judgment I have derived of it as a whole, so that this may represent to me at least the sense and general idea I had conceived of the author in reading it." (Montaigne, Book II, Essay 10 (publ. 1580))

Thursday, December 27, 2018

Coromandel - A Personal History of South India (Charles Allen, 2017)

(370 pages)

Looking for materials focused on southern India - this is a new book by an author not previously encountered.

He goes through quite a bit of history - my background is still too weak to follow along effectively.  I learn that Buddhism and Jainism were forces - including in the south - before Hinduism pretty much displaced them.  (Though he mentions the Jain temple we visited, with a photo-with-fig-leaf.)

Ashoka and his rock edicts are discovered in the south.  Kalinga - war elephant story.  Roman traders (some coin hordes are found) - purchased spices with coins, not having goods that the Indians were interested in trading for.  Coins apparently typically melted into jewelry etc. since not really useful as such.

Lord Shiva, Lord Vishnu.  This part remains confusing - Lord Vishnu with 10 avatars, etc.

Discussion of arrival of Europeans.

The author calls it a "personal history" because he has personal connections to India and isn't trying to be comprehensive - it bounces around quite a bit, I will keep this at hand and page through it some more.
Posted by at
Labels: ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)