Architecture of a Deccan Sultanate

Pushkar Sohoni is a Lecturer in South Asian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He previously taught at the University of British Columbia and has had fellowships at various institutions, including the American Institute of Indian Studies, the Max-Planck Institute and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He has published in the books The Visual World of Muslim India and Garden and Landscape Practices in Pre-Colonial India and in the Journal of Deccan Studies and South Asian Studies. He received his doctorate in the History of Art from the University of Pennsylvania.

• CHAPTER 1 LOCATING FRAGMENTS: BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DECCANThe Deccan: a brief historyHindustan and the Deccan as diverse and unified landscapesVisual Culture of the Deccan SultanatesContinuities and ruptures: Purity and Hybridity of Architecture in the Deccan­CHAPTER 2MULTIPLE PASTS: THE NIZAM SHAHS OF AHMADNAGARThe Nizam ShahsArchitectural patronage under the Nizam ShahsDrawing boundaries: Historiography of the Nizam ShahsCHAPTER 3CONSTRUCTING SOCIETY: SOCIETY AND ARCHITECTURAL KNOWLEDGE Methods to study architectural remainsGuilds and movements of craftspeople recovered Sultanate architecture and regional variations Extra-regional Architectural Programs and Building TypologiesGlobal Architecture and Local ConstructionUrgency to study, research and recoverCHAPTER 4 LAYING THE LAND: PATTERNS OF URBAN SETTLEMENTS AND THEIR DIS-TRIBUTION Urban Design and SettlementsJunnarDaulatabadAhmadnagarChaulParendaSindkhed RajaUrban Systems: Water Supply and civic buildingsMilitary Design and FortificationCHAPTER 5DESIGNS OF GRANDEUR: PALACES AND MANSIONSPalaces and MansionsFarah Bakhsh BaghHasht Bihisht Bagh ManzarsumbahPalace near Bhatavadi (Kalawantinicha Mahal)Architecture of Palaces for the SultanCHAPTER 6OTHER ARCHITECTURAL PROGRAMSMosquesTombsHammams, caravansarais and miscellaneous buildingsCHAPTER 7MATERIAL CULTURE BEYOND ARCHITECTURE AND SETTLEMENTSVisual spaceAhmadnagar paintingsCoins of the Nizam ShahsTextsOther contributionsCultural production and technological innovationCHAPTER 8CONCLUSION: END OF AN OLD WORLD BIBLIOGRAPHY

Any reader, academic or casual, of Sohoni’s splendid monograph must feel humbled by the enormity of his labour, his scholarly acumen and his gentle humanism.