1st Edition
Water and Historic Settlements The Making of a Cultural Landscape
Introduction: Foregrounding water within the cultural landscape of Ellora-Khuldabad-Daulatabad - A methodological approach
- The Geographical and Geological landscape
- Historical Overview
- Review of literature – formulating an approach
1. Water and Settlements – Historical development of the region vis-à-vis the political economy of the Deccan; networks of trade and patronage
- Daulatabad – a layered historical narrative
- Politics of Patronage – the water cisterns of Ellora caves
- Takaswami ashram – A modern reuse of an Ellora cave cistern
2. Water and Sacrality – Sacred geography and networks of pilgrimage
- Sacred geography and the inflow of people and ideas
- Water as the embodiment of fertility and healing powers
- Calling the monsoon – Panchami festival in Verul village
3. Water and Memory – community identities as the past remembered; memories as carriers of values, beliefs and practices
- Re-covering “Malik Ambar’s Pipeline” – Reconstructing the past through community memories
Conclusion. A Unique Cosmopolitanism
Biography
Yaaminey Mubayi is a historian who has worked in the area of cultural heritage and community development over the past 20 years. Her work includes studies of craft, local histories, community memories, traditional knowledge and indigenous ecologies. She has published widely in these areas, and her previous book, Altar of Power – The temple and the state in the land of Jagannatha, came out in 2005. She lives with her family in New Delhi, India, and, in recent years, has focused her energies on teaching, research and writing.
