BRAHMANICAL IDEOLOGY, REGIONAL IDENTITIES 17 34. See B. Pun, "Ideology and Religion in the Kushana Epoch", in B.G. Gafurov et al., (eds), Central Asia in the Kushan Period, 11, Moscow, 1975, pp. 183-90. 35. Even in Gupta and post-Gupta times royal patronage was broad based. The compulsions of political power mostly made it necessary to recognise and address the rich socio-rehgious ground reality. For the Kushana state see R.S. Sharma, Aspects of Political Ideas..., op. cit., pp. 291-309; A.K. Narain, 'The Kushana State: A Preliminary Study", m H.J.M. Qaessen and P. Skalmk (eds). The Study of the State, The Hague, 1981,pp.251-73. 36. R.S. Sharma, Urban Decay in India, op. cit., p 168. 37. For details of the argument see B.P. Sahu, "The State in Early India: An Overview", PIHC, Ahgarh Session, 1994, pp. 94-95. 38. B.D. Chattopadhyaya, The Making of Early Medieval India, op. cit., Introduction. 39. See B.P. Sahu, "Agrarian Changes and the Peasantry in Early Medieval Onssa (c. AD 400-1100)", in V.K. Thakur and A. Aounshuman (eds), Peasants in Indian History, Patna, 1996, pp. 283-311. 40. B.P. Sahu, "The Past as a Mirror of the Present: The Case of Onya Society", Social Science Probings, 9(1-4), 1992, pp. 8-23. 41. For the Madala Panji see H. Kuike, Kings and Cults, op. cit., pp. 137-191. Regional historiographies elsewhere also seem to have served similar functions. See in the same volume essay nos. 11 and 12. 42. Research on these documents is in progress. H. Kuike, G.N. Dash and S.K. Panda of Berhampur University are working on these records. 43. See Cynthia Talbot, "Inscribing the Other, Inscribing the Self: Hindu-Muslim Identities in Pre-Colomal India", Comparative Studies in Society and History, 37(4), 1995, especially pp. 710-19. 44. See B.P. Sahu (ed), Land System and Rural Society in Early India, op. cit., Introduction. 45. See Romila Thapar, "The Scope and Significance of Regional History", Presidential Address, Punjab History Conference, 1976, reprinted in Idem, Ancient Indian Social History - Some Interpretations, New Delhi, 1987 (reprint), pp. 364-67 46. See B.D. Chattopadhyaya, "Autonomous Spaces and the Authority of the State- The Contradiction and its Resolution in Theory and Practice in Early India", in Bernhard Kolver et al (eds), The State, the Law and Administration in Classical India, Munchen, 1997, pp. 1-14. 47. Supra n. 1; also Kuike, "The Integrative Model of State Formation...", op. cit. 48. For the equation of the idea of the Kali Age with a systemic crisis see B.N.S. Yadava, "The Accounts of the Kali Age and the Social Transition from Antiquity to the Middle Ages", IHR, 5(1-2), 1978-79, pp. 31-63; R.S. Sharma, "The Kali Age: A period of Social Crisis", in S.N. Mukherjee (ed), India: History and Thought, 1982, pp. 186-203. 49 See B.P. Sahu, "Conception of the Kali Age in Early India: A Regional Perspective", Trends in Social Science Research, 4(1), 1997, pp. 27-36. 50. See H. Kuike, "Some Observations on the Political Functions of Copper- Plate Grants in Early Medieval India", Bernhard Kolver, et al. (eds), The State, the Law..., op. cit, pp. 237-43.