Suchandra Ghosh

Higher environmental temperature-induced increase in body temperature: involvement of serotonin in GABA mediated interaction of opioidergic system.

Exposure (2 h) of adult male albino rats to higher environmental temperature (HET, 40°C) significantly increased body temperature (BT). Administration of (a) 5-HTP (5 mg/kg, i.p.) or morphine (1 mg/kg, i.p.) or physostigmine (0.2 mg/kg, i.p.) alone significantly increased and (b) methysergide (1 mg/kg, i.p.) or naloxone (1 mg/kg, i.p.) or atropine (5 mg/kg, i.p.) reduced the BT of both normal and HET exposed rats. Further, it was observed that morphine prevented the methysergide-induced hypothermia and 5-HTP potentiated the morphine-induced hyperthermia in both normal and HET exposed conditions. Biochemical study also indicates that serotonin metabolism was increased but GABA utilization was reduced following exposure to HET. 5-HTP or bicuculline-induced hyperthermia in control and HET exposed rat was potentiated with the coadministration of bicuculline and 5-HTP. The cotreatment of bicuculline with methysergide prevented the methysergide-induced attenuation of BT of heat exposed rat, rather BT was significantly enhanced indicating that inhibition of GABA system under heat exposed condition may activate the serotonergic activity. Further (a) enhancement of (i) morphine-induced hyperthermia with physostigmine (ii) physostigmine- or morphine + physostigmine-induced increase of BT with 5-HTP and (b) reduction of (i) morphine- or morphine + 5-HTP-induced hyperthermia with atropine and (ii) atropine-induced hypothermia with 5-HTP in both normal and HET exposed conditions suggest that HET exposure activates the cholinergic system through the activation of opioidergic and serotonergic system and hence increased the BT. Thus, it may be concluded that there is an involvement of serotonergic regulation in the opioidergic-cholinergic interaction via GABA system in HET-induced increase in BT.

Higher environmental temperature-induced increase of body temperature: Involvement of central opioidergic-GABAergic interaction

Exposure (2 h) of male albino rats to higher environmental temperature (HET, 40 degrees C) significantly increased the body temperature (BT). Administration of bicuculline (1 mg/kg, i.p.), physostigmine (0.2 mg/kg, i.p.), or their combination significantly raised the BT of normal rats (kept at 28 degrees C) or of HET-exposed rats. Atropine (5 mg/kg, i.p.) abolished the hyperthermic effect of bicuculline in normal and HET-exposed rats. The BT of normal and HET-exposed rat was increased with morphine (1 mg/kg, i.p.) and was reduced with naloxone (1 mg/kg, i.p.). Bicuculline or physostigmine-induced rise in BT of HET-exposed rats was potentiated following cotreatment of physostigmine with morphine. Atropine-induced hypothermia was abolished due to the cotreatment of atropine with morphine with physostigmine but was attenuated with atropine. In normal rats (kept at 28 degrees C), only atropine attenuated (morphine + bicuculline)-induced hyperthermia. L-Dopa + carbidopa or haloperidol did not significantly affect the BT of rats under similar conditions. These results suggest that short-term (2 h) exposure to HET activates the opioidergic neuron, which activates cholinergic activity through the inhibition of GABAergic system and, thus, enhances the BT.

Understanding Boundary Representations in the Copper-plate Charters of Early Kāmarūpa

Taking cue from B.D. Chatopadhyaya’s seminal study on boundary markers to understand the spatial characteristics of rural settlements, a study on the boundary representations of copper-plate charters issued by three dynasties of Assam was undertaken. A close reading of the charters indicates that there was a significant variation in the pattern of delineating the boundaries. While limited boundary specifications could be seen in the copperplates of the Varmans, the Śālasthambhas initially set a pattern of describing eight boundaries of their donated lands by categorically mentioning the number eight but gradually this was overlooked. The Pālas of Kāmarūpa, on the other hand, were inclined to give much more detailed boundary specifications in their charters. These boundary denominations may be seen as an attempt by the state at gradually organising the donated lands in such a way that there remained no chance for encroachment of any other plot by the donee. The essay would also highlight the dominance of different types of water bodies in the physical landscape of Kāmarūpa thereby adhering to the consistent trend of regarding surface sources of water as landmarks isolating one rural space from another. An idea of the composition of the rural society could also be gleaned from the boundary representations of these charters. The elaborate markers help us to somewhat reconstruct the landscape of the rural settlements described in the charters and show how the boundary markers of the area can indicate a wide social cross section of people inhabiting a particular space.

Coastal Andhra and the Bay of Bengal Trade Network

L’A. etudie l’importance de la cote de l’Andhra au sein du reseau de commerce maritime du Golfe du Bengale. Il s’appuie, d’une part, sur les temoignages epigraphiques telle l’inscription de Ghantasala, avec une attention particuliere portee au terme « Mahānāvika » (capitaine de navire); d’autre part, sur les complements apportes par la numismatique et les sources litteraires (notamment en ce qui concerne le contexte et la prosperite de l’arriere pays pour assurer la richesse des ports).

A Hoard of Copper Plates: Patronage and the Early Valkhā State

The horizontal spread of the state society accompanying the institution of land grants leading to the formation of a monarchical state polity is frequently witnessed during c. 300–600 CE. Among the many new and small kingdoms which surfaced during the time of the Guptas was the kingdom of Valkhā in Central India located on the banks of the Narmada. The kingdom, as it appears from their land grants, was situated on both sides of the Narmada river, at the southern periphery of the important Gupta strongholds in central India (Airikiṇa, Eran) and beyond the northern frontier of the Vākāṭakas kingdom to the south. In case of the Valkhā kingdom, it appears that in the process of transition from a pre-state to a state, it can be placed in a category where, with the formation of the kingdom around the mid-fourth century CE, Valkhā has just transcended the pre-state stage and could be placed in the genre of an early state. We seek to understand the early character of the Valkhā state through the lens of twenty-seven copper plates found together in a hoard and five others published in a scattered manner. It goes to the credit of K.V. Ramesh and S.P. Tewari who edited the plates in 1990 and revealed the names of the rulers of Valkhā. Through a reading of these charters we seek to understand the emergence and growth of the Valkhā state. Due to the donations, the donee assumes a significant position and so the nature of patronage of the Valkhā rulers becomes central to our study.

State, power and religion in the Indo-Iranian borderlands and North-west India, c. 200 bc–ad 200:

The Greek tradition of coinage was maintained by the Bactrians, Indo-Greeks, Śakas and Kushanas, ruling successively in the North-west from the second century bc to second century ad. On their coins, apart from the rulers themselves, appear the figures and names of several deities. These were Greek deities in the beginning, to whom Iranian and Indian deities went on being added. The paper traces this process in detail and examines how the rulers first seem to address, through their coins, only an elite Greek or Hellenised aristocracy and then the wider Iranic and Indian populations, through the medium of deities figured on their coins. There was simultaneously the objective of legitimation and glorification of the rulers themselves by the same means. Curiously, Buddhism so important in Gandhara sculpture has only a rare presence on these coins even under the Kushanas.

Buddhist Moulded Clay Tablets from Dvaravatī: Understanding Their Regional Variations and Indian Linkages

The regional variations of the Dvaravati Buddhist clay tablets are the subject of this essay. The act of making tablets as a part of meditation practice, religious exercise or merit making was itself the main reason for the production of these tablets. The essay further probes into the possible adoption or adaptation from India as the practice of making these tablets is of Indian origin and numerous equivalents in the shape of plaques dating from seventh to eleventh centuries have been uncovered in abundance on different Buddhist sites of India. The essay argues that moulded clay tablets, albeit, a minor object in the vast repertoire of artistic or religious expressions are also to be taken into account as an element for understanding shared cultural practices across Asia.

Tracing ‘inequality’: An examination of the ārāmikas and the concept of kamma in Buddhist sources

While acknowledging the humanitarian outlook of early Buddhism, this article enquires into how far the Buddhist monastic order, the Saṅgha, was itself based on egalitarian principles. It is argued that in time, if not from the beginning, the Saṅgha could not avoid the creation of a hierarchy among monks, and in time the presence of a numerous class of servants or attendants, called ārāmikas, became a part of Buddhist monastic life.

Book Review: Upinder Singh ed., Rethinking Early Medieval India.

Indian Historical Review, 40, 1 (2013): 145–179 of the land-grants bestowed on them. Any generalisation based on the latter without factoring in the former risks the danger of being ahistorical. And this being true of the Tamil south with thousands of land grant inscriptions will have a bearing on the other regions with far fewer such land transaction records. The chapters on maritime trade and merchants at Barus in Sumatra are important because they unambiguously bring out the relationship between Ayyavole500, Anjuvannam/Hanjamana and Manigramam, all of which were trading groups. Anjuvannam on the Malabar and Coromandal coasts or its variant in the Konkan coast comprised West Asian traders, constituting of Jews, Arabs, Muslims, Christians and Parsees. Though the early references to these bodies go back to the ninth century, the Arabs particularly, began to be more conspicuous from the eleventh century onwards. Besides unveiling aspects of long distance and maritime trade in the Indian Ocean; these kinds of evidence also unravel the contemporary social dynamics and the perception of the ‘other’ in Indian society. The concluding chapters engage with the Chola state, which is an extension of the author’s earlier ideas on the subject. The state is studied in relation to concomitant processes of social and economic changes. Consequently, it has been possible to delineate stages in the history of the state spread over almost 400 years. The expansion and consolidation of the state is seen to be reflected in high-sounding royal titles, broadening of the political apparatus, administrative reorganisation and enhancement of the financial foundations of the Cholas. Importantly, these developments are shown to have converged with growth in the agrarian and non-agrarian sectors, as well as symmetrical changes in society. There is some discussion of the familiar conceptual categories of the state, but all of them are seen to be problematic for characterising the Chola state. Curiously however, the Integrative model of state formation has not been in the range of consideration, despite its close correspondence with the author’s approach. Notwithstanding the bewildering richness in the recent past of studies on south Indian history, this book, given its thoroughness with the sources and ability to rise above the obvious quite tellingly, will easily remain a convenient reference point for much of Chola history for years to come.

Understanding Transitions at the Crossroads of Asia c. Mid Second Century B.C.E. to c. Third Century C.E.

The expression ‘Crossroads of Asia’ has been borrowed from a publication by Elizabeth Errington and Joe Cribb. It seemed to be the most befitting expression to underline the wide geographical horizon extending from Afghanistan to north-west India, which this paper intends to dwell upon. In earlier historiography this period, generally known as the post-Mauryan period, was often seen as one of ‘foreign invasions’. The paper would seek to examine how far this notion was guided by the representation of these ‘foreigners’, their social standings in the contemporary texts. The paper will also bring in certain images that were markers of Hellenism. People of the north-west were themselves of varying cultures, and the region displayed networks of wide ranging territorial and inter-civilizational contacts. A synthesis of the archaeological materials found in this region indicates multi-prong linkages of which the Central Asian connection played a significant role in the shaping of the culture of the region.