Table Of ContentEXPLORING SOUTH ASIAN
URBANITY
This book looks at the typologies of cities and ideas of urbanity. Focusing specifically
on cities in South Asia, it analyses the unique planning concepts, archaeology, art,
culture, life, and philosophy of various cities of ancient and modern South Asia.
T he book explores the concept of urbanity and the idea of an ideal city; it interrogates
general notions of urbanity by juxtaposing city life in various periods and geographies
of South Asia. By analysing the demography, architecture, rituals, and culture of various
cities, it looks at the different spatialities of these places in terms of their size, population,
commerce, and philosophy as well as the reasons behind the transformation of these
places into urban centres. Drawing from various archeological and literary sources, the
volume includes rich details about heterogeneity, rituals, festivals, social stratification,
penal systems, famines, and insurrections in ancient cities as well as modern cities like
Lahore, Dhaka, and Calcutta, among many others in South Asia.
T his book will be of interest to researchers and students of ancient and modern
history, archaeology, urban studies, urban and town planning, urban sociology, urban
geography, cultural studies, post-colonial studies, ancient and medieval architecture,
heritage studies, conservation studies, and South Asian studies.
Urvi Mukhopadhyay completed her PhD at the School of Oriental and African
Studies. She is now teaching as Associate Professor in the Department of History,
West Bengal State University, Barasat, India. She has authored The ‘Medieval’ in
Film: Representing Contested Time on the Indian Screen (1920s to 1960s) and
numerous articles on culture, media, and history. Her research areas include politics
of representation, urbanity, and communal constructions. Her ongoing research
includes inter-community relations in urban India and textile networks.
Suchandra Ghosh is a professor in the Department of History, University of
Hyderabad. She broadly takes interest in the politico-cultural history of early
Northwest India, the Indian Ocean Buddhist and trade network, regional history,
and the history of everyday life in early India. She has participated in projects
relating to India’s relationship with Southeast Asia. She was awarded the Savitri
Chandra Shobha Memorial Prize of the Indian History Congress for the book From
the Oxus to the Indus: A Political and Cultural Study in 2017.
E XPLORING SOUTH
ASIAN URBANITY
Edited by Urvi Mukhopadhyay
and Suchandra Ghosh
First published 2022
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
a nd by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 selection and editorial matter, Urvi Mukhopadhyay and
Suchandra Ghosh; individual chapters, the contributors
T he right of Urvi Mukhopadhyay and Suchandra Ghosh to be
identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors
for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
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or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
I SBN: 978-0-367-13429-7 (hbk)
I SBN: 978-1-032-11428-6 (pbk)
I SBN: 978-1-003-21987-3 (ebk)
D OI: 10.4324/9781003219873
T ypeset in Sabon
b y Apex CoVantage, LLC
T his volume is dedicated to our mentors,
Prof. Ranabir Chakravarti
and
Prof. Daud Ali,
who introduced us to the various facets of urbanity.
CONTENTS
List of figures x
List of maps xii
List of tables xiii
List of contributors xiv
P reface xviii
Perceiving the urban: South Asia—introduction 1
PART I
Concept of urbanity 27
1 Urbanity and the city: a note 29
RILA MUKHERJEE
PART II
Locating urban space: case studies from early South Asia 51
2 Experiencing the urban: neighbourhoods of Ancient Bhir
and Sirkap 53
SUPRIYA VARMA
3 Peripheral city of Māgama: a case of tropical urbanism
in Sri Lanka 76
RAJ SOMADEVA
4 Nature, knowledge, construction, and medieval archaeology:
revisiting the by-lanes of medieval capital city Mandu 101
SANJAY SUBODH
vii
CONTENTS
PART III
Texts and images: representing cities 125
5 Elusive borders: the city in Gandhāran narrative art 127
CHANDREYI BASU
6 The city, the Ka¯ma culture, and Dandin: shades and varieties
··
of urban life in the Daśakumāracarita 152
KANAD SINHA
7 Cities as a point of convergence: case studies from early
medieval India 177
SUCHANDRA GHOSH
8 The Deccan ports and their hinterlands 195
RADHIKA SESHAN
PART IV
Making of the cities 205
9 Dhaka – from an obscure urban settlement to a mega-city 207
SHARIF UDDIN AHMED
10 Class in a colonial port city: Bombay, opium, and empire 222
AMAR FAROOQUI
1 1 Lahore: a cultural and literary ‘New’ Delhi for North India
after 1857 255
JEFFREY M. DIAMOND
12 From a wilderness to capital city: the making of Agartala 279
ANINDITA GHOSHAL
PART V
Urban fringes and insurrections 301
13 Slum dwellers as agencies and victims of urbanization in
Calcutta from the past to the present 303
SUMANTA BANERJEE
viii
CONTENTS
14 Locating Metiaburz against the backdrop of urban Calcutta:
experiencing marginality 317
URVI MUKHOPADHYAY
15 Insurrectionary city: revolts in colonial Calcutta, 1918–1946 332
SUGATA NANDI
Index 346
ix
