Mapping New Sovereignty

Abstract

This chapter begins with a pilgrimage undertaken by a Mysore priest named Subbarayadasa under the patronage of Krishnaraja Wodeyar III; it argues that this pilgrimage was a ritual that articulated a new form of sovereignty through the demarcation of domain. The pilgrimage is discussed within the context of Vedic and Puranic imperial rituals that served to constitute sovereignty and structured territory through similar movements through space. In the early colonial period in Mysore, the radical alteration in political structure necessitated a change in the understanding of sovereignty and territory in which Indian sovereignty became grounded in the sacred landscape of India. This can be seen in the details of Subbarayadasa’s pilgrimage and in a collection of murals that commemorate the journey. This process resulted in the construction of a sovereign “geo-flesh” of India and laid the groundwork for nationalist political ideology and theory in modern and contemporary India