ABSTRACT
The intersections of religion and urbanism are perhaps no more evident anywhere in the world than on the Deccan plateau of southern India, where during the Medieval Period, multiple political capitals were founded, planned, and rebuilt with clear attention to cosmological principles and canons. The production of a variety of urban relationships at sites such as Maski was not simply an outcome of medieval political or economic activities on the Deccan, nor the result of deliberate city planning or cosmographic design. Writing about a region where archaeologists have long questioned the utility of distinctions between “profane” and “sacred” or “prosaic” and “ritual” in characterizing interpretations of past social practices and cultural spaces, it seems hardly appropriate to frame a chapter around the role of religion in processes of urbanization. There are multiple instances where the production of urban environments on the medieval Deccan can be linked with religious ideologies and canons.
