The Nolambas - A Political and Cultural Study: C. 750 to 1050 A.D. (An Old and Rare Book)

Born in the year 1945. Educated in Mysore at the Yuvaraja's and Maha raja's Colleges. Took his B.A. degree in Indology and Sanskrit in the year 1965 and M.A. in Indology in the year 1967. He joined the post-gradua te department of Ancient History and Archaeology of the Mysore University as a Research Fellow and subsequent ly as Antiquity Assistant. At present he is a lecturer there. He was awarded the Ph.D. degree by the Mysore Uni versity in the year 1976. Besides this he also possesses a post-graduate dip loma in Epigraphy. He has many research papers to his credit publi shed in various reputed journals on different aspects of Indian History and Archaeology. He is one of the editors of the Journal "Arch aeological Studies", being published by the department.

I have great pleasure in introducing to the world of historians Dr. M. S. Krishna Murthy and his highly commendable work on the history of the Nolambas. The history of this important, though minor, dynasty bristles with many problems and the author, though young in age, displays much maturity in his attempts to tackle them and provide answers The Nolambas were contemporaries of such predominent dynasties as the Chalukyas of Vatapi, the Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta, the Pallavas of Kanchipuram. the Chalukyas of Kalyana, the Cholas of Tanjavur and the Gangas of Talakadu and had contacts, friendly or inimical, with all of them. A cogent narration of their history thus demands a knowledge of the history of all these families as well as familiarity with many kinds of source materials and Dr. Krishna Murthy has proved equal to the task. It cannot be gainsaid that we already possess, thanks to the exertions of earlier savants, a fairly reliable outline of South Indian history. However, this outline is anything but even, because it suffers from regional imbalances resulting largely from undur stress laid on the study of imperial domains and dynasties to the sad, if not total, neglect of lesser and more compact historical regions and minor dynasties. The little work that has already been done in this sphere has gone to show that, when more and more such specialised studies as the present one are completed, the general outline itself is bound to become more and more settled and even The importance of Dr. Krishna Murthy's venture cannot, therefore, be overstated. Similar works on: other hitherto neglected regions and minor dynasties will be most welcome.