Settlements, Sacrality, and Urbanity: Querying the ‘Urban’ in Early Medieval South India

The urban process in early medieval South India, especially in the Tamil region from the seventh to the fourteenth century, produced an urban landscape dominated by a single temple or multi-temple complexes. The present paper will discuss the interstice between economic processes, religious ideology, and administrative functioning emphasizing that often the rural influenced the urban, redefining urban settlement patterns and at times transforming elements of urbanity. Such an analysis takes into account movements and migrations, especially of artisanal and peasant groups within the networks of urban and rural geographies, and their assertion of the ‘right to the city’ in the urban centres. In this connection, the case of Śrīraṅgam in the Tamil region will be highlighted where the town was spread over an area divided by seven walls that were concentrically built with the temple in the centre. Based on epigraphical data and select texts, the paper will discuss the complex relationship between the city and its hinterland that influenced ideas of power, social hierarchies, and political legitimation in early medieval South India.