The Deccan

Khabar-e-tahayyur-e-ishq by Siraj Aurangabadi (Farid Ayaz and Abu Muhammad)

This site is dedicated to all things Deccan (Urdu- دکن ; Sanskrit दक्षिण). The word has been used variously to describe the Indian subcontinent south of the Narmada river or the Vindhya mountain range. This includes the modern-day states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, as well as regions of Madhya Pradesh close to the Maharashtra border. And sometimes can include parts of Gujarat. On this site you will find books, archival material, paintings, photographs, maps, poetry, and above all over a thousand years worth of stories of fascinating characters, of all races and genders from the Deccan and across the world.

Each blog entry is categorised by period, polity, region, and theme (politics, economy, culture, gender, caste, ecology, etc). Cutting across these are historical sites and personalities. The Resources page is always a work in progress. I will add materials as I find them. Please let me know if you have materials that could be added: texts of contemporary scholarship, older British-era and pre-colonial histories, as well as primary sources, photographs, paintings, and whatever else.

View of the Achyuta Deva Raya temple complex from Matanga Hill, Hampi, Karnataka.

The site draws on photographs that I have been taking over the past four years. I took the above photo in Hampi, Karnataka. The combination of the bouldered landscape and the temple-bazaar complex is quintessential of the abandoned capital of the Vijayanagara kings. A few more sample are given below. Images, from top left are the tomb of Malik Ambar in Khuldabad, Maharashtra; the Ibrahim Rauza in Bijapur, Karnataka; the tank at the Bhoga Nandeeshwara temple in Dodaballapur, Karnataka; Veerabhadra temple at Lepakshi, Andhra Pradesh, the mihrab of the Jama Masjid in Bijapur; the Wadeyar palace in Mysuru; Keshava temple at Somanathapura near Mysuru; and Rani ki Vao, Patan, Gujarat.