Note publique d'information : This book brings together essays on some prominent defensive works which have been
constructed over many centuries across the Indian subcontinent, particularly South
India. The first chapter, on the Harappan period and Early Historic Indian sites,
is based mainly on archaeological reports; all the other chapters, covering South
India from the 3rd to the 18th century A.D., draw on the available historical material,
both documentary and epigraphic, as well as on intense field work and personal investigations
carried out by the author over the past twenty years in numerous hill forts and fortified
towns in India. Much of the information has been already published piecemeal in a
range of articles written in French. Here, the findings of this body of work are freshly
presented with an attempt at synthesis. 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 analysis, which
draws attention to the considerable skills and ingenuities of Indian fort builders,
has something to engage the interest of all those concerned with India military monuments,
be they engineers, archaeologists or historians. 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.