Ideally a Reader is intended to showcase a selection of iconic essays which have contributed directly to the configuration of a particular thematic. This is not easy when the subject at hand is as broad as a cultural history of early modern South Asia and especially so at a time when the idea of cultural history itself has gone through several modifications and mutations. It is therefore, entirely to Kaul’s credit that she has introduced a volume that takes up both a quick guided tour through the messy domain of culture, (as aesthetic expression and as lived experience) as well as presents essays that augment the larger formulations of the introduction and do much more than that.
December 2014, volume 38, No 12