The coveted mount : the horse in South Asian history / edited by Pratyay Nath, Ranabir Chakravarti

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Nath, Pratyay, editor.

Chakravarti, Ranabir, 1953- editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Horses--Symbolic aspects--South Asia.

Horses.

Horses--Social aspects--South Asia--History.

Horses--South Asia--History.

Human-animal relationships--South Asia--History.

Human-animal relationships.

Horses--Symbolic aspects.

Horses--Social aspects.

South Asia.

Genre:

History

Physical Description:

1 online resource : illustrations

black and white

illustration

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2026

Summary:

"From the Asvamedha sacrifice to the mounted police, modernist paintings to medieval cavalry, oceanic trade to urban transport – horses have occupied a prominent position in almost every sphere of human history in South Asia. The Coveted Mount offers a holistic analysis of this compelling human–nonhuman relationship from prehistory to the twenty-first century. The chapters of this book unravel the role of the horse across modern art, religious belief, gift exchanges, colonial cities, military campaigns, astrological knowledge, veterinary sciences, and oceanic commerce. By interpreting a wide range of textual, visual, and material sources, the authors reveal South Asia’s historical connections with the wider world, including Central and West Asia, Africa, Europe, and China. Overall, this richly illustrated book shows how, when, and why the horse became the coveted mount of South Asian societies"-- Cambridge Core

Contents:

Introduction : A brief history of the horse in South Asia from prehistory to the present / Pratyay Nath and Ranabir Chakravarti

Galloping towards Brahmanization : The horse and kingship in the Mahabharata and the Ramaya?a / Kanad Sinha

South Asia’s early interactions and experiences with the equine world / Ranabir Chakravarti

Situating horses in the trade and politics of peninsular India, c. 600–1500 / Suchandra Ghosh

Between faith and fate : The horse across Islamicate West Asia and South Asia / Kashshaf Ghani

The logistics of equine maritime transportation : Containing, watering, and feeding horses in medieval Indian Ocean trade / Elizabeth Lambourn

The pony paradox : Equestrian economy and courtly culture in the Mughal Empire / Pratyay Nath

Colours and whorls : The Salihotra tradition of horse treatises in Persian / Eva Orthmann

Horses in unlikely places : Equine histories from early modern Assam / Nandita Goswami

The horse of myth and the horse of history in a mid-eighteenth-century chhatri in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan / Saumya Agarwal

From the Marathas to the British : The waning of horse warriors in eighteenth-century India / Kaushik Roy

Breeding equine animals in colonial India : Abolition of the ‘Bengal Studs’ and its aftermath, c. 1870s–1920s / Aritri Chakrabarti

Paths of ponies : Labour, logistics, and the state in modern Kashmir / Inayatullah Din

Run, pull, stop : Harnessing horse power in colonial Calcutta / Kaustubh Mani Sengupta

Cantering through the canvas : The horse in modern Indian art / Ella Datta

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Online resource; title from PDF title page (Cambridge Core , viewed August 13, 2026)

Other Format:

Print version: Coveted mount

ISBN:

9781009700672

1009700677

OCLC:

1568742215

Publisher Number:

CIPO000324980

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license