BOOK REVIEW: Lords of the Deccan: Anirudh Kanisetti (2022)
Anirudh Kanisetti writes a great book on a pertinent topic and with finesse, albeit with some regressive bias from the old schools of thought.
The book talks about the Great Chalukyas, their rise from local tribals to full fledged kings, how different houses had different polities, how their empire affected the creation of modern Kannada and Telugu both (a story I had heard from a friend before but got context for now), the stories of the average man, etc.
The best part of the novel are the fantastical elements; things that could easily be in an Indian iteration of the Witcher Games, for example. Stories of how the Drunk Buddhist stole the begging skull of Nagasadhus, or how a slouch Kubja king calls himself "Kamadev" etc, are hilarious to read.
The book falls short and fails on translation and religion.
While I get Kanisetti's attempt to "challenge Dharmic narratives" of Kings. To do so a dharmic reality has to be established properly first. Without establishment of it, how can we "break it down" for what it really was? The aspiration vs reality conflict goes missing when we make facetious and perverted translations of our texts. This is where people like Bibek Debroy etc can be better sources and can help bridge the gap between the left and the right.
Same with the translations of the titles of the kings; they're more for enjoyment, capturing the feeling more than the meaning (same way I call Sikhi Panth "Path of the Student of the Eternal Religion" sometimes). It's fun to read but "literal meanings" could be given in the notes as well. It enhances the reading experiences, for me at least. It would bring our culture to the same level as Japanese anime names, capturing the pride and history of the same.
Finally, his views on the cultural appropriation by the Bijapur Sultans totally misses the history of the colonization of Zoroastrian Persia. The realisation that appropriating Zoroastrian culture worked better than the sword was being mirrored here. The learning came in handy. The colonizer chose cultural appropriation.
Overall, the book lacks perspective (an admittance the author made openly in the intro, along with his inability to read several languages, and hence kudos to him) but it makes up for it with interesting anecdotes and stories and a wealth of information, as well as a list of sites that need excavation. The parts are greater than the sum, and the Yuva Puruskar this book won is well deserved regardless of the conservative lens it dons on to tell the whole.
It is worth checking out, but I'd definitely like to see Kanisetti experiment more with the decolonial perspectives in the future.
8/10
