Production, Environment, and Society Chingleput, India : Long-term fluctuations from the 18th to 20th century

该项目旨在澄清印度南部的历史变化，特别是印度泰米尔纳德邦一个名为Chingleput的地区。这项研究揭示了许多发现，其中以下几点可能是重要的。从十三世纪到十六世纪，当地社会发生了重大变化。虽然术语nattars或nattavars，意思是那都的人，出现在泰米尔纳德邦的铭文中，但在16世纪之后，泰米尔纳德邦的大部分地区似乎都失去了作为当地法人团体的重要性。在1800年之前的几个世纪里，作为地方社会再生产核心的米拉希制度被新出现的村长所扭曲。泰米尔纳德邦的经济见证了两次世界大战之间农村工业的增长。这一发展部分是由于下层人民消费模式的变化。虽然在泰米尔纳德邦被发现崇拜的神Aiyanar与Karuppu和其他男性神有某些共同的特征，但在几个重要方面，他与这些神有很大的不同。他被赋予了与湿婆、毗湿奴和正统印度教中其他主要巴克提神根本不同的品质。艾亚那神的这种模糊性似乎与这个神的本质上的边缘性有关，它跨越了婆罗门和非婆罗门两个独立的价值体系。

The project has aimed at clarifying historical changes in South India with special reference to a district called Chingleput, Tamil Nadu State, India. The research has revealed many findings, among which the following may be important.1. The period from thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries withessed an important change in the local society. Though the term nattars or nattavars, meaning the people of nadu, appears in Tamil inscriptions through out the period, their importance as the local corporate bodies seems to have been lost in most parts of Tamilnadu after the sixteenth century.2. The mirasi system, which had functioned as the core system in reproducing the local society, was deformed in the centuries before 1800 by the newly emerging village leaders.3. The Tamilnadu economy witnessed the growth of rural industries in the period between the two world wars. The development was partly underpinned by changes in consumption pattern among the lower classes of people.4. While the god Aiyanar, which is found to be worshiped in Tamilnadu, shares certain features in common with Karuppu and other male deities, in several important respects he exhibits major differences from these gods. He is endowed with qualities fundamentally different from Siva, Visnu and other major bhakti gods in orthodox Hindu religion. This ambiguity of the god Aiyanar seems to be connected to the essentially marginal character of this deity, bestraddling the two separate value systems of Brahmans and non-Brahmans.