Author Description

Penumbral Visions examines the politics of South India during the transition from Vijayanagara to colonial rule. Through a series of case studies, it argues for the inadequacy of standard models of conquest and instead depicts a flexible set of polities that are gradually undermined over the course of the eighteenth century. The book draws on a wide variety of sources, combining European and local perspectives on questions ranging from economics and political culture to historiography.