Andhra is dotted with the remains of dozens of Buddhist stupas and monasteries starting from the early centuries BCE. The fertile plains of Krishna and Godavari deltas provided the rich agrarian hinterlands for these Buddhist sites, located along the coast as well as in the interior hinterlands.
What were the social and economic linkages that sustained these early sites? And what were the interactions between the sites themselves? How did these centres influence the regions on the other side of the Bay of Bengal?
In her online Talk, "From Amaravati to Salihundam and Beyond: The Buddhist Patronage Networks of Early Historic Andhra", Dr Suchandra Ghosh will utilise the numerous donative records at Amaravati to give us a glimpse of the lives and times of the people of that period as viewed through the lens of the Gahapatis who were wealthy agricultural notables of the era. She will also explore the relationships between the various Buddhist sites in the region.
About The Speaker:
Dr Suchandra Ghosh is Professor of Ancient Indian History in the department of History, University of Hyderabad. Her interests include Politico-Cultural History of Indo-Iranian Borderlands, Linkages between South and South-East Asia, Indian Ocean Buddhist and Trade Network and the history of Everyday Life.
She is a recipient of the Charles Wallace Visiting Fellowship, Nehru Trust UK Travel Award, ENITAS Scholarship, Chulalongkarn University, Bangkok, Lowick Memorial Grant, Royal Numismatic Society, London, Director de Etudes Associe fellowship from Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’homme, Paris (2018).
She was awarded the Savitri Chandra Shobha Memorial Prize of Indian History Congress, for the book From the Oxus to the Indus: A Political and Cultural Study in 2017. She has co-edited several books and published numerous essays and papers in international journals.
