The ‘In-Betweeners’: Trade, Politics and Patronage on the Western Coast in 1st Century AD

By Dr. Shailendra Bhandare, Ashmolean Museum / St Cross College, University of Oxford

 

Chair: Dr. Peter Skilling

 

The lecture will focus on one particular site on the Western Coast, namely Kuda-Mandad (Dist. Raigad, Maharashtra) and the feudal elites known as the ‘Mahabhojas’ who ruled here in these tumultuous times. Their existence depended on machinations played at a ‘higher’ level by their overlords and as such they were the ‘in-betweeners’ of political world of their times. The patronage extended by the Mahabhojas to the rock-cut cave temple complex at Kuda is well-attested through inscriptional evidence available in situ.   By deploying new numismatic evidence in the narrative, the talk will outline various aspects of Mahabhoja rule at Kuda, such as their contribution to the political and economic/trade history of the region