Devotional Sovereignty

Reviews / Votes

In his brilliant and evocative boook, Devotional Sovereignty: Kingship and Religion in India, Caleb Simmons...importantly centers questions of theology in relation to sovereignty, making Devotional Sovereignty essential reading... * Rajbir Singh Judge, CSU, Long Beach, Religion * Drawing upon a rich range of sources * royal histories, genealogical inscriptions, portraiture and visual narrativesSimmons eloquently argues for the centrality of devotion to the construction and sustenance of sovereignty in Mysore when British colonial authority was established, extended, and consolidated. A compelling and original contribution to studies of Hinduism, kingship, visual and literary culture at a time of political change.Crispin Branfoot, Reader in the History of South Asian Art & Archaeology, SOAS University of London * By mining literary and visual sources respecting two South Indian kings * Mysore's Tipu Sultan and Krishnaraja Wodeyar IIICaleb Simmons shows how the idea of sovereignty was transformed during the dawn and high noon of British colonial rule. Challenging essentialized notions of Hindu or Muslim kingship, the book will prove indispensable for both historians of early modern India and students of religious studies.Richard M. Eaton, author of India in the Persianate Age, 1000-1765 * Devotional Sovereignty bridges several gaps in the scholarship on sacred kingship and religion in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century South India. It is especially commendable that Simmons combines an analysis of narrative sources across a wide range of archives and languages with a close reading of artistic productions and performances in royal and temple spaces. Scholars within and outside the field of South Asian studies will benefit from this erudite work. * A. Azfar Moin, Associate Professor, The University of Texas at Austin * This is a wellcrafted, richly detailed analysis of two kings that should be of great value to anyone with an interest in the idioms of sovereignty in early modern, colonial, and contemporary India. * Robin Rinehart, International Journal of Hindu Studies *