2017/05/01 by Samira Sheikh · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Ancient history #Anthropological Studies and Insights #Archaeology #Art #Capital (architecture) #Fifteenth #Geography #Hinduism #History #Indian and Buddhist Studies #Law #Literature #Narrative #Peninsula #Period (music) #Philosophy #Political science #Religious studies #Ruler #South Asian Studies and Conflicts #Sovereignty
paper · doi:10.1093/jhs/hix004
openalex publication_date 2017/05/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
From the early modern period to the present, Dvārakā has had a vital role in making Gujarat Vaiṣṇava. The history of Dvārakā, a peninsular region and town in northwestern Gujarat strongly associated with Kṛṣṇa, from the fifteenth to the mid-twentieth century, offers clues to the layered sovereignty of Hindu religious sites. Dvārakā’s temple complexes have attracted pilgrims and generated revenue for centuries, a fact that has caused them to be regulated by successive rulers desiring to appropriate their association with Kṛṣṇa and control the region’s trade and piracy. The first half of the article describes Dvārakā during sultanate, Mughal, and Navanagar rule, and the second, the period between 1817 and 1947 when the Dvārakā region became a non-contiguous part of the territories of the Gāekvāḍs of Baroda who maintained an expensive but tenuous and locally resisted control over the peninsula. The article argues that the varied stakeholders in Dvārakā’s history have prevented any single ruler or sect from exerting stable control over it or appropriating it to a singular narrative.