Coromandel: A Personal History of South India Paperback – May 14, 2019

Absolutely enlightening and true to the title. The author does a great job of illuminating not just the history of south India, but the state of Indian history. A must read for any intellects even remotely interested in India and story.

awesome read by charles allen. once again!

Here, as in his "In Search of Ashoka", Allen is keen on documenting the smothering and masking influence of Brahmanism on pre-existing Indian cultures. He rides his hobby hard, and convincingly. Readers not attuned to South Indian geography will find the constellations of alien toponyms and hydronyms, many with multiple synonyms or alternate spellings, exhausting and opaque; they may find it worthwhile to maintain the patience required to find interesting things, or not.

When Historians / Spiritualists/ Intellectuals & Tourists seek Indian sub-continent, vast majority of them focus on Northern India. Very few venture beyond Vindhya range and when they do, they are spell bounded by the diversity and awed by its depth in any pursuit of their choosing. However, to my knowledge, no one has written a comprehensive book as this one about South India. The kind of research that went into this book and the narratives that were moulded around recorded facts are a guide for popular history books (another book I recommend is The Story of India by Michael Wood). In general, History writing of India, especially written by Indians (most of the times) are scholarly for sure but lack narratives and human perspectives. Author has done a great service to the people of India in general and South Indians in particular with this book. I am much impressed with the way author, Charles Allen, has concluded the book with his commentary on current happenings in India which only shows his engagement with India beyond academic research.Of course, no single book can chronicle history of a place like South India which is as diverse as the rest of India. However, I highly recommend this book to seekers of South Indian history and heritage as it allows the reader to experience a journey that is out of this world.Disclosure-I am from South India.

Romila Thapar is by far the best Historian of Indian history, and Charles Allen has written the Most Readable Recent version of SOUTH INDIAN HISTORY..Neelakanta Shastri History although detailed is a diffcult read and Allen's book flows well.Recent discoveries and excavations brings the book up to date.A MUST READ for interesed in th SOUTH totally different from the NORTH..

Scholarly and detailed. Well worth your time and effort. However at places his personal biases detract from his undoubted commitment towards objectivity.

I thought from the title that 'personal history' meant his story in South India and there is a bit of that. However, it is a detailed history of the area and the various religions in it. A complex and rich history, but more than I needed. I did finish it and if I ever go to South India it would be a great source of information.

Despite being almost overwhelmed by the wealth of information contained in this book and knowing that I wouldn’t remember even a fraction of what I was reading I thoroughly enjoyed Charles Allen’s personal history of South India and breezed through the more than 400 pages on its civilizations, geography, culture, art, architecture, peoples, languages, etc., etc.In fact, I enjoyed the author’s writing so much that I’ve put several of his books on my want-to-read-list.

A well written book on history of South India. As a Tamil I have read widely on the subject from both from Tamil and English sources. But, this is an outstanding book that shows little bias, chooses its sources from written records of mostly British, but is eqally aware of recent research by Indian historians and archeologists. As a foreigner, he cannot be accused of ‘Tamil nationalism’. I liked his self-declation in the preface when he says, ‘If you that Hanuman and his monkey army helped Rama build the bridge linking Indian mainland to the island of Lanka .......... [ dear reader], please fead no further’. This is a timely warning. Failure to distinguish between historical facts and mythology is one of the weaknesses of many Indians.

A well-documented history of India’s Dravidian, kinder, milder South, full of fascinating detail. And also a philippica against the Hindutva tribalism that threatens to bias and diminish India’s true history, and indeed its secular democracy.