Studies on Fortifications in India

Objectives

To bring together several essays on the most prominent fortifications carried out in South India. For each period, he has made a selection of typical and outstanding examples of defensive works which serve to illustrate the development of military architecture. He has thus been able to establish the typology of the structures, to emphasise their special significance and convey a more comprehensive idea of the immense extent and variety of defensive works in India and of their great importance and value to the country.

Partners

Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient

Funding

• French Institute of Pondicherry
• Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient

Team

Dr Jean Deloche, Head of the Project

Outputs

• Studies on fortifications in India

Jean Deloche, IFP/EFEO, Collection Indologie nº 104, 2007, 267 p, y compris 70 p. d’ill., plans
Langue : anglais. 800 Rs (29 €).

Ce livre, fondé principalement sur des enquêtes de terrain menées pendant une vingtaine d’années, présente quelques-unes des fortifications les plus significatives construites à travers les siècles dans le sous-continent indien, notamment dans le Sud de la péninsule.

L’auteur, pour chaque période, analyse les procédés de construction en tenant compte de l’évolution des techniques, en particulier, de l’adaptation des structures aux progrès de l’artillerie, afin d’établir la typologie des ouvrages et de mettre au point une méthodologie pour identifier et dater les innombrables places fortes de cet immense pays.

Cette étude qui met en évidence les caractères de la fortification en Inde devrait satisfaire la curiosité de tous ceux qui, ingénieurs, architectes ou historiens, s’intéressent à l’architecture militaire.

Mots-clefs : Inde du Sud, fortifications, architecture

• Senji (Gingee), A Fortified City in the Tamil Country

Jean Deloche, Collection Indologie n° 101, IFP/EFEO, 2005, 391 pp.

Senji, immortalized by Desing’s ballad, still popular in South India, is a significant place in the Tamil country. Successively occupied by the Hindus of Vijayanagar, the Nayakas, the Muslims of Bijapur, the Marathas, the Mughals and finally by the French in 1750, it was, at the end of the 16th century, one of the biggest cities of the peninsula. This study is not a descriptive monograph of the monuments, but an essay at the junction of several disciplines (archaeology, history and human geography), trying to show the evolution of the defence systems of the stronghold, the development of the urban centre, as well as the different aspects of water and grain storage which are at the root of its surprising growth. The book is abundantly illustrated with 44 line drawings and 334 photographs.

Keyword : Tamilnadu (India), 15th-18th century, Fortifications, Urbanism, Water and Grain Storage.

Articles

• DELOCHE J., 2007. Etudes sur les fortifications de l’Inde, V, La forteresse de Daulatabad au Maharashtra , B.E.F.E.O., 2007.

• DELOCHE J., 2005. Gunpowder Artillery and Military Architecture in South India (15-18th century), Indian Journal of History of Science, vol. 40, No. 4, pp. 573-595.