Early Regional Urbanization in the Central-Southern Deccan Plateau of the Indian Subcontinent

Deepak Pal

The study of urbanization in India has been widely based on a two-phase model development: the first is urbanisation in the Indus Valley (3300 to 1900 BCE), and the second is in the Gangetic plains (from 600 BCE onwards). They are standardised models of rapid urbanization driven by high political developments, and the debate on urbanization in the south has accordingly been framed to fit the model to the socio-political developments during the Pallava and later periods. The regional foundations of urbanization need to be addressed on a smaller scale in the central-southern Deccan region, within the framework of regional factors such as the development of Early Buddhism and the presence of Ashokan rock edicts. However, the arrival of the Ashokan rock edicts in Deccan in 258 BCE overshadowed the regional factors. Along with this, the Satavahanas provided greater stability and enabled social, political, and cultural activities; however, the extent to which this was achieved in the central and southern portions of the Deccan needs to be reimagined. This paper aims to understand the foundations of early urbanization in the central-southern Deccan Plateau during the fifth century BCE and the first century CE (the emergence of the Satavahana) with collaborative, synchronized data from archaeological sites, literary sources, and Ashokan rock edicts. The foundational factors are examined to explain the antiquity and nature of early urbanization.