"This book investigates how the material culture of south Indian courts was perceived by those who lived there in the pre-colonial period. Howes peels away the standard categories used to study Indian palace space, such as public/private and male/female, and replaces them with indigenous descriptions of space found in court poetry, vastu shastra and painted representations of courtly life. Set against the historical background of the events which led to the formation of the Ramnad kingdom, the kingdom's material circumstances are examined, beginning with the innermost region of the palace, then moving through the palace compound, into the town surrounding the palace, and outwards to the kingdom's farthest reaches."--Jacket.