Anirudh Kanisetti is among the new crop of historians who are breaking the staid boring world of Indian history. Using podcasts, articles in newspapers and interviews, Kanisetti, who has a degree in engineering, has carved a niche as a public historian. He made his mark with Lords of the Deccan, and we sat down for a chat as he is set to launch a new book. Edited excerpts from the interview.
Your last book spanned six centuries of medieval south Indian history and it brought alive a south Indian kingdom. What are you working on now?
I’ve completed work on a new history of the Chola Empire where I am trying to understand the dynasty at a deeper level than has been done in English language writing for decades.
The idea is to understand who the Cholas were and how they shaped history, not just of South India, but of the world at large. In a way, the Chola empire was actually made by its queens. There’s this truly extraordinary woman in the late 10th century called Sembiyan Mahadevi and she picks up the icon of the god Nataraja, and she integrates him into temples and builds a dozen temples during her lifetime.
The Cholas represent this astonishing situation where a coastal South Indian kingdom was the dominant power of the subcontinent. Its influence was not restricted primarily to the Tamil region; it also shaped the history of southern Karnataka and of coastal Andhra as well, as well as the broader Indian Ocean region. I bring out all these threads in my new book.
A mural of the Chola period on the walls of the Brihadeeswara temple in Thanjavur. | Photo Credit: Getty Images/istock
Is there a resurgence of interest in Indian history now? And South Indian history?
There isn’t enough understanding of South India’s diversity. When we say South India, we tend to think of Tamil Nadu, which is an important part of South India, but Tamil Nadu, for most of its history, has also been defined by its interactions with Karnataka, with Andhra. I find this multi-regional character of South India tremendously fascinating and enjoy exploring it and bringing it to life for new audiences, not just in South India, but also in North India.
Prasadam being prepared on a temple premises in Vijayawada. | Photo Credit: G.N. Rao
Is there a difference between medieval south Indian food and medieval north Indian food and prasadam?
Yes. The idea of this very organised daily prasadam that happens at a particular time of day, and a seasonal prasadam, of festival prasadam and so on are all Tamil innovations.
In the 12th century, it is no longer just the Chola family, but the various generals and magnates in the countryside who are doing patronage and you begin to see the immense diversity in Tamil temple food offerings. A lot of these are recognisable to us today. The brinjal curry that is offered in Chidambaram was actually the recipe of a wealthy woman who gave money to the Chidambaram temple.
So you have this interesting situation where Hinduism in Tamil Nadu in the 12th and 13th centuries is becoming very congregational. The patronage and the food that’s offered in temples is actually reflecting a very diverse group of patrons, but this isn’t the case in North India at the time. You can see that the patrons in North Indian temples tend to be restricted to the royal court rather than the countryside.
The Brihadeeswara Temple in Thanjavur. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
Why do we end up seeing our history in binaries?
I think it’s an outcome of the way that social media engineers us to think. Social media encourages engagement over retention. Social media is interested in what kind of narratives are going to get the most reaction and invariably what gives the most reaction out of people is binaries. It’s Aryan versus Dravidian, North vs South, Tamil versus Sanskrit. Why should history fit the simplistic world view of a social media algorithm?
Do you feel historians have vacated the space which is now being occupied by social media and WhatsApp messages?
I would not say vacated so much as they have been actively purged out of this space. So obviously, the folks who have profited most are those who were able to create material that did not require much research and that was easily digestible. Then in India’s case, it turned out to be political parties and cultural parties that had the first mover’s advantage.
The incentive of the politician is to discourage thinking and to prevent more reflective thought.
The job of the historian in the 21st century is going to be to bring back this ability to reflect on evidence; to really talk about how history is written, what can we know and not know, and who were the people who lived in the past and how were they like us or not like us.
What are you reading currently?
I’ve been enjoying A.R. Venkatachalapathy’s Swadeshi Steam; I also thoroughly enjoyed William Dalrymple’s The Golden Road and I am also reading a bunch of graphic novels that I haven’t had the time for, including an adaptation of the famous Japanese story of the 47 Ronin. Then there’s Empire of the Summer Moon, which is a history of the native American wars against white settlers by S.C. Gwynne and also Tales Things Tell by Finbarr Barry Flood and Beate Fricke.
serish.n@thehindu.co.in
Anirudh Kanisetti’s session on ‘The Mighty Cholas’ is on January 19 at The Hindu Lit for Life in Chennai.Click here to register.
Published – January 03, 2025 09:03 am IST
