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Differentiating Settlements and the ‘Urban’ Across Early Central and Eastern Deccan

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Handbook on Urban History of Early India

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Abstract

This chapter attempts to differentiate settlements that thrived during the early historic period by contextualizing their locations and analyze the factors that enable us to define some as ‘urban’ and others as key nodes in connecting across different localities of the central and eastern Deccan. It argues that the long-term habitation of local communities from the Chalcolithic and Megalithic times played a critical role in certain ecological zones of the region in defining the evolution of some of these settlements as ‘urban’. It evaluates the role of the deep spread of Buddhism in these parts as an additional factor for generating an urban environment. However, ultimately, it is suggested that the tenacious local network of linkages enabled society of the region to, one the one hand, sustain its identity and on the other, express certain features of the ‘urban’ that can be compared with other regions of the sub-continent.

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Acknowledgements

I place on record my thanks to Dr. E. Siva Nagi Reddy, formerly Officer on Special Duty with the Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Andhra Pradesh before 2014 to use and publish photographs in the Repository of the Museum. His help in this regard is greatly appreciated. I also thank Hemant Dalavi, Deputy Director, Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, Pune, Government of Maharashtra for having made the ‘Map showing Localities and places under study’—Fig. 16.1—at short notice. To M. A. Srinivasan, Telugu University, Hyderabad I extend my sincere thanks for having helped me in various ways to acquire data for this chapter. Last but not the least I place on record my thanks to Manohar Publishers and Distributors, New Delhi for having granted me permission to use some material earlier published by them in my book Settlement and Local Histories of the Early Deccan. 2021.

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  1. Professor Retired, Department of History, University of Hyderabad, Telangana, Hyderabad, India

    Aloka Parasher Sen

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  1. Formerly Professor Department of History, School of Social Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

    Aloka Parasher Sen

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Parasher Sen, A. (2024). Differentiating Settlements and the ‘Urban’ Across Early Central and Eastern Deccan. In: Parasher Sen, A. (eds) Handbook on Urban History of Early India. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-6230-9_16

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