Temple as Palimpsest: Icons and Temples in the “Sultanate” Era

Chapter 4: Temple as Palimpsest examines the diachronic historical record left in the “Sultanate Period” through inscriptions on early medieval temples. This period between the Sisodia glory at Chittōr, and the Guhila hegemony from Nāgadā/ Ékaliṅgjī is particularly interesting in a region that was in a triangle of power in Malwa, Delhi, and Gujarat. Protected by the Aravelli Mountains, we find monastic networks, and not dynastic ones, were the most powerful connections leaving their record in stone across the landscape of what is now Southern Rajasthan. A period often ignored by historians in this region, the collection of archaeological sites, paintings, monasteries, and important places begin to tell alternative stories rooted in non-dynastic trade networks, dynastic conflict, and local multi-sectarian patronage of monuments.