Inferring Road Networks and Socio-Political Change through Elite Monuments of the Golconda Kingdom

Abstract

In the study of medieval and early modern South Asia, archaeologists, historians, and art historians have studied selected monuments in depth or surveyed regions for monumental ruins and other features, but have less commonly studied their datasets as a group to infer processes of socio-political change. Using the example of the Golconda kingdom of India’s Deccan plateau, this study describes the evidence of the kingdom’s physical presence across a wide area, and shows how by combining the distribution across space with evidence of changes over time, aspects of the kingdom’s socio-political evolution can be inferred, from the development of the capital to the kingdom’s changing relationship with its more distant peripheries. Some overlooked monuments, when placed in this context, critically suggest the early formative stages of central political authority; others point to a growing culture of elite wealth, patronage, and competition during the era of increased international trade.