Ce livre, fondé principalement sur des enquêtes de terrain menées pendant une vingtaine d’années, présente quelques-unes des fortifications les plus significatives construites à travers les siècles dans le sous-continent indien, notamment dans le Sud de la péninsule. L’auteur, pour chaque période, analyse les procédés de construction en tenant compte de l’évolution des techniques, en particulier, de l’adaptation des structures aux progrès de l’artillerie, afin d’établir la typologie des ouvrages et de mettre au point une méthodologie pour identifier et dater les innombrables places fortes de cet immense pays. Cette étude qui met en évidence les caractères de la fortification en Inde devrait satisfaire la curiosité de tous ceux qui, ingénieurs, architectes ou historiens, s’intéressent à l’architecture militaire. This book, based mainly on intense fieldwork and personal investigations carried out by the author over the past twenty years, brings together essays on some prominent defensive works which have been constructed over many centuries across the Indian subcontinent, particularly South India. For each period a selection has been made of outstanding examples of fortification in order to analyse the building techniques, considering the evolution of military technology, particularly the development of artillery, to establish the typology of the structures and to bring into focus a reliable method for identifying and dating defensive works in India. This study, with draws attention to the considerable skills and ingenuities of Indian fort builders, has something to engage the interest of all those concerned with Indian military monuments, be they engineers, archaeologists or historians.
This book, based mainly on intense fieldwork and personal investigations carried out by the author over the past twenty years, brings together essays on some prominent defensive works which have been constructed over many centuries across the Indian subcontinent, particularly South India. For each period a selection has been made of outstanding examples of fortification in order to analyse the building techniques, considering the evolution of military technology, particularly the development of artillery, to establish the typology of the structures and to bring into focus a reliable method for identifying and dating defensive works in India. This study, with draws attention to the considerable skills and ingenuities of Indian fort builders, has something to engage the interest of all those concerned with Indian military monuments, be they engineers, archaeologists or historians.