By K. Vijaya Kumar, Former Joint Director, Information & Publicity

Title:  Lords Of The Deccan —Southern India From The Chalukyas To The Cholas

Author: Anirudh Kanisetti

Year:      2022

Pages:  480

Price:     Rs. 799

Publisher:  Juggernaut Books

It is, indeed, a pleasure to review a book which is described as a critically acclaimed debut one. The author  Anirudh Kanisetti, a history researcher and writer, currently works at the Museum of Arts and Photography. He shines a light into the darkness bringing alive for the lay-reader the early medieval Deccan, from the sixth century CE to the twelfth century CE, in all its splendour and riotous glory.

The 480-page book is so attractively produced and brought out with a beautiful coloured  cover page titled ‘Lords Of The Deccan — Southern India From The Chalukyas To The Cholas.’ About 100 pages containing notes, bibliography, acknowledgements and index speaks of the writer’s indepth study of the reference works meticulously researched.

 In his acknowledgements  in January 2022, writer Anirudh says ‘Lords of the Deccan’ has been three years in the making and it is true the long time taken proves the results of the hard study by him while readers go on reading this thrilling riveting account of South India.

The very first page is decorated with the following Sloka:

Aho! Katham Yetad Mayaa Krutam,

And to the generations who have shaped the world  before us.

The book in three parts starts from Winter, 618 CE to Winter, 1054 CE:

Part One:  Dawn –  The Rise of the Chalukyas

Part Two:  Apogee – The World of the Rashtrakutas

Part Three: Twilight – The Kalyana Chalukyas and the Chola Empire.

The periodical Indian maps indicating the core territories occupied and ruled and the temples built with artistic Gods images and architecture photos in innumerable numbers enhanced the value of the book for its preservation in public libraries as well as by history interested book-lovers.

Another interesting fact recorded how Kannada language  has grown over this period though Sanskrit had its firm place.

It is recorded by the author in his introduction thus:

One Arab merchant, visiting this medieval superpower in the ninth-tenth centuries, mentioned the Lord of the Deccan in the same breath as the Abbasid Caliph, the Emperor of China, and the Byzantine Emperor. Another visited the glittering capital of the Deccan, Manyakheta, and left us with an account of its wonders:

…in that city there are for the ordinary people one million elephants which carry the merchandise… In this temple there are about twenty thousand idols made of a variety of precious metals and carved stones mounted with artistically-worked precious jewels…There is an idol whose height is twelve cubits and is placed on a throne of gold in the centre of a golden cupola, the whole of which is set with jewels like white pearl, ruby, sapphire, blue and emerald stone.

Both of these accounts —even allowing for some exaggeration — leave no doubt that in the eyes of the medieval world, the Deccan was the wealthiest and most powerful of all the kingdoms of the Indian subcontinent.

This book is a story about this time when the Deccan ruled India:  An epic journey through five hundred years of a history that has long been forgotten. The writer modestly tells that he does not claim that his narrative is definitive or the last word on the subject: this is, first and foremost, a work of popular history.

But, look at his dramatic commencement of the stormy story of the history:

“A terrible battle is about to unfold, and we must witness it. In our ears are the faint echoes of trumpets, horns and the roar of armies. Our time here in the twenty-first century is drawing to a close. Let us rush to medieval India, a world that is in some ways forgotten, but in many more ways a world that is all around us.”

Now, let us listen how Anirudh Kanisetti, the writer  concludes the telling of the history from Winter, 618 CE to Winter 1054 CE:

“This book has tried to tell it in a way that reveals something of the complicated individuals they were and allows a glimpse of the teeming, forgotten peoples — our distant ancestors — whom they ruled over. But all this is only one story, one narrative, one region, one period, one group of elite families. The immensity of medieval South India still looms over us, demanding that we continue to tell its stories and learn from its horrors and glories.

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