How do states and empires dominate regions, sometimes for centuries? Are questions of resource exploitation and resource sharing only about dominance and subservience? What does built and natural spaces, especially sacred spaces, say about human interactions with each other, their environment, and the past(s)? These are some broad questions that interest me in archaeology.

Archaeological landscapes are culturally meaningful locations that are continually constituted. Our research seeks to understand conceptions of landscapes in medieval India, and how archaeology shapes understandings of both the past and the present.

I bring a broad conception of politics to the study of the past: a behavioral imperative that seeks to secure interests and resources for a few in relation to others. Such relations could be hostile, negotiated co-existence in the form of sharing, affiliation, and other myriad forms ranging from dominance to subservience. My recent work locates agro-pastoralists in early medieval Karnataka and engages with these themes.

As an anthropological archaeologist, my research takes into account various lines of evidence, the use of mixed methods and a broad understanding of social theory. As a field archaeologist, I am interested in advances in archaeological techniques such as surveys, excavations and laboratory analyses.