Suchandra Ghosh is Professor and Head, the department of History, University of Hyderabad. Earlier she taught in the University of Calcutta. She specializes in Epigraphy and her area of research is Politico-Cultural History of North-West India, Indian Ocean Buddhist and Trade Networks and the History of Everyday Life.
She is the author of From the Oxus to the Indus: A Political and Cultural Study (2017) for which she received the Savitri Chandra Shobha Memorial Prize of Indian History Congress. She was the Sectional President, Ancient India for the 80th session of Indian History Congress in 2019 and other regional History Congresses. Apart from being a recipient of many international fellowships, she also received visiting Professorship in Paris in the Indo-French Exchange programme and in the Directeur des études, Associé programme from the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’homme, Paris in 2018.
She has published extensively in peer reviewed, national and international journals and edited volumes. Among her recent co-edited volumes are Inscriptions and Agrarian Issues in Indian History Essays in Memory of D.C.Sircar (Primus, 2017), Indian Ocean Ports –of-Trade From Early Historic Times to Late Colonialism (Primus, 2017), Early Indian History and Beyond: Essays in honour of B.D.Chattopadhyaya (Primus, 2019), Cross Cultural Networking in the Eastern Indian Ocean Realm,C.100-1800 CE(2019) , Exploring South Asian Urbanity, (Routledge, 2021) and The Economic History of India: Historiographical Issues and Perspectives-Essays in Honour of Professor Ranabir Chakravarti (Bloomsbury, 2023).
Abstract of the lecture
Ways of Seeing: A Buddhist Ritual Object as Voyaging objectSuchandra Ghosh
The effective power of objects to create networks of affinity across the Indian ocean is well known. Objects were carried around the Indian Ocean by religious travellers, merchants, artisans and could be ordinary people. With a brief introduction to Bay of Bengal networks, this essay wishes to explore a category of Buddhist ritual objects, the so called ‘votive tablets’ (moulded clay tablets), which were sailing across the eastern Indian Ocean. Here I want to argue that along with the ritual connotation, it is possible to understand the functionality of these objects by connecting them to protection from shipwreck. I invoke the depiction of Avalokiteśvara and Tārā on these tablets discovered largely from Peninsular Thailand and Eastern India (including Bangladesh). I argue that through the port of Samandar(Chittagong) few of such tablets found its place as pilgrim’s memento or as amulets in places in Peninsular Thailand. The social nearness between both sides of the Bay of Bengal helped in the process of adoption and emulation.
Suggested Readings
Peter Skilling. 2011.“Buddhism and the Circulation of Ritual in Early Peninsular Southeast Asia”, in Pierre-Yves Manguin, A.Mani and Geoff Wade ed. Early Interactions Between South and Southeast Asia, Reflections on Cross-Cultural Exchange, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies & Manohar: Singapore, Delhi: 371-384.
Suchandra Ghosh. 2017. “Buddhist Moulded Clay Tablets from Dvaravati: Understanding Their Regional Variations and Indian Linkages,” in Lipi Ghosh ed. India-Thailand Cultural Interactions: A Study of Shared Cultural Markers. Springer :Singapore : 35-51
Suchandra Ghosh. 2023. “Mapping Connections: Early Trade and Cultural Contacts Between India and Southeast Asia’ in Parul Pandya Dhar” ed. Connected Histories of India and Southeast Asia, Icons, Narratives, and Monuments, Sage Spectrum: Delhi: 23-34.