A01=Valérie Gillet
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Author_Valérie Gillet
automatic-update
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HBJF
Category=HBLC
Category=HRAM2
Category=HRAX
Category=HRE
Category=NHF
Category=QRAM2
Category=QRAX
Category=QRF
COP=United States
Delivery_Pre-order
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=0
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Language_English
PA=Not yet available
Price_€50 to €100
PS=Active
softlaunch
Product details
- ISBN 9780197757710
- Weight: 712g
- Dimensions: 163 x 237mm
- Publication Date: 10 Feb 2025
- Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
Minor Majesties studies the small ancient kingdom of Paluvūr, a town located on the northern bank of the Kāvēri river, about 30 kilometers north of Tanjavur. Between the ninth and the eleventh centuries C.E., Paluvūr was the capital of the dynasty of the Paluvēṭṭaraiyars, a minor dynasty of "little kings" who swore allegiance to the Cōla dynasty. Today, Paluvūr is divided in two distinct villages, Kīlappaluvūr and Mēlappaluvūr, and four temples dedicated to the god Śiva built during the reign of the little kings remain standing. In Minor Majesties, author Valérie Gillet surveys, translates, and analyzes 136 Tamil transcriptions spread across these temples, scrutinizing in depth each one's materiality, location, and epigraphy for the first time.
Through these analyses, Gillet brings forth a better understanding of the functioning of the minor dynasty of the Paluvēṭṭaraiyars whose little kings often appear in the inscriptions of the temples, as well as the interactions between the temples and their patronizing communities. The small size of Paluvūr with its hub of still-standing monuments permits an exceptionally clear overview of the possible relations between distinct temples, allowing readers to unpick complexities related to temple sponsorship, organisation, and functioning. The study of Paluvūr also reveals how these religious monuments-accruing wealth but, in exchange, enabling donors to accrue merit and power-became a place for the fabrication of political discourses and powers, specific social configurations, and religious practices.
Valérie Gillet is a specialist on South India. In 2007, she joined the École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO); she was posted in the Pondicherry Centre of the EFEO between 2007 and 2016, and has been based in Paris since 2017. Gillet works primarily with material culture and Tamil epigraphy of the first millennium found on the territories of Pāṇḍya and Pallava dynasties, covering almost the entire Tamil-speaking South.
