Patterns of ritual power, presence, and space are fundamentally connected to, and mirror, the societal and political power structures in which they are enacted.

Introduction: The Archaeology of Ritual in South Asian Contexts Part I: Power 1. Imagining Sacrifice in Ancient India: A Genealogy of Heesterman's 'Broken World' 2. Rituals of Power: Coinage, Court Culture and Kingship under the Great Mughals 3. Ritual as Performed Constitutions-Badagas in the Nilgiris District Part II: Presence 4. Codified Relic Theft and Buddhist Propaganda: (Re)-Dedicating the Buddha's Relics in the Indic Northwest 5. Naming Rituals and Sharing Power in the Time and Space of the Tamil Temple 6. Power, Processions and the Festival Architecture of the Tamil temple Part III: Space 7. Money for Rituals: Ak¿ayanivi and Related Inscriptions from Andhradesa 8 Neither Cave nor Temple: Expressions of Power and Divinity in the Rock-Reliefs at Badami 9. Ritualising Land and Cultivating Distinctions: Medieval Period Donative Practices, and a Political Ecology of the Raichur Doab 10. Sacred Frames: Knowledge, Culture and Ritual Agency in Ancient Talukas of Karnataka (Late 10th-12th centuries)