The Valkhā kingdom ( c. 357–487 ad ) that figures as a peripheral polity in Gupta historiography is the main focus of study in this article, which studies this polity in its own terms by shifting the focus to the area of Bāgh-Māhiṣmatī in central India, where the Valkhā rulers ruled for about 130 years. The Valkhās accepted the Gupta authority to keep in check the threat from the Vākāṭakas and the Śaka-Kṣatrapas, and an analysis of their copper-plate inscriptions shows that they consolidated their hold over their territory by patronising different Hindu and folk cults (Nārāyaṇa, Mātṛkās, Kārttikeya and Bappapiśācadeva) as well as varied religious groups (Pāśupatas, Brahmanas and Buddhists) in the hilly terrain along the Narmada River.
This article contends that religion remained central to understanding ‘nationalism’ in Britain and India in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This proposition will be demonstrated in concrete form through reading, and cross - reading, three interpretations of the Revolt of 1857: John Kaye’s A History of the Sepoy War in India 1857–58 (1880), Jyotirao Phule’s Slavery (1873) and Cultivator’s Whipcord (1883) and V.D. Savarkar’s The Indian War of Independence 1857 (1909). The interpretations of the rebellion as both religious and national enable one to focus the analysis of these categories, and their stakes, through a study of their institutional and social contexts. A critique is thereby established of an extant historiography which separates the global emergence of nationalism from questions of religious identity and abstracts religion from questions of material authority.
The article traces the development of mother and child imagery from prehistoric figurines symbolising nurturing motherhood to distinct representations: The divine mother (worshipped as goddesses, such as Mātṛkās) and mātrimūrti, which forms the primary focus of the article. The latter embody ideals of care, play, emotional connection and beauty. Artworks from Mathurā, Sāṅghol and later periods, broadly termed mātrimūrtis, were seen in the context of architectural motifs such as yakṣīs and ālasā kanyās. Here, the emphasis extends beyond the voluptuous and sensuous appeal of yakṣīs to the gendered role of motherhood, highlighting the affectionate bond between woman and child, which differs from depictions of goddess figures by omitting symbols of divinity. The analysis suggests that these images reflect both the emotional and social aspects of the mother–child relationship, serving as recurring motifs in art that convey religious and social values, while also representing themes of procreation, childcare, power and idealised motherhood.
Munis D. Faruqui, Aurangzeb ‘Alamgir and the Mughal Empire: A History Retold , 1st Indian ed. (New Delhi: Juggernaut Books), 2026, xl + 478 pp., ₹899, ISBN: 978-9353456789 (Hb).
