Lennart Bes
Lennart Bes studied Indology at the Kern Institute of Leiden University. Subsequently, he was employed at the Netherlands National Archives, where he worked with the records of the Dutch East India Company or VOC. He inventoried or otherwise improved the accessibility of VOC documents in India, London, and the Netherlands. Besides, he co-authored three archival guides in the series 'Dutch Sources on South Asia c. 1600-1825' (2001-15), which describe early-modern Dutch source materials worldwide on India and Ceylon.
In 2011, he joined the Eurasian Empires programme to write a dissertation at the Radboud University in Nijmegen concerning the south Indian Vijayanagara successor states, defended in 2018. Since 2012, he has been teaching at the Institute for History of Leiden University on subjects ranging from Asian history and European expansion to Dutch archival practices and palaeography -- besides short research and teaching stints at the University of Tokyo and Universitas Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta.
Further, he has published a monograph on court politics in early modern south India (2022) and articles about south Indian political culture and the VOC archives in journals like 'Modern Asian Studies', 'Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient', and 'Itinerario', and in an edited volume titled 'A Companion to Global Queenship' (2018). He is presently working on the kingdoms of early modern Kerala.
Address: Amsterdam, the Netherlands
In 2011, he joined the Eurasian Empires programme to write a dissertation at the Radboud University in Nijmegen concerning the south Indian Vijayanagara successor states, defended in 2018. Since 2012, he has been teaching at the Institute for History of Leiden University on subjects ranging from Asian history and European expansion to Dutch archival practices and palaeography -- besides short research and teaching stints at the University of Tokyo and Universitas Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta.
Further, he has published a monograph on court politics in early modern south India (2022) and articles about south Indian political culture and the VOC archives in journals like 'Modern Asian Studies', 'Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient', and 'Itinerario', and in an edited volume titled 'A Companion to Global Queenship' (2018). He is presently working on the kingdoms of early modern Kerala.
Address: Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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Books by Lennart Bes
In great detail, this monograph provides both new facts and fresh insights that contest existing scholarship. By highlighting their competitive, fluid, and dynamic nature, it undermines the historiography viewing these courts as harmonic, hierarchic, and static. Far from being remote, ritualised figures, we find kings and Brahmins contesting with other courtiers for power. At the same time, by stressing continuities with the past, this study questions recent scholarship that perceives a fundamentally new form of Nayaka kingship. Thus, this research has important repercussions for the way we perceive both these kingdoms and their ‘medieval’ precursors.
Pdf version provided by the Netherlands National Archives
Papers by Lennart Bes
In great detail, this monograph provides both new facts and fresh insights that contest existing scholarship. By highlighting their competitive, fluid, and dynamic nature, it undermines the historiography viewing these courts as harmonic, hierarchic, and static. Far from being remote, ritualised figures, we find kings and Brahmins contesting with other courtiers for power. At the same time, by stressing continuities with the past, this study questions recent scholarship that perceives a fundamentally new form of Nayaka kingship. Thus, this research has important repercussions for the way we perceive both these kingdoms and their ‘medieval’ precursors.
Pdf version provided by the Netherlands National Archives
This presentation addresses the following issues: What were the manifestations and functions of court protocol and diplomatic insult at these courts? How did protocol and insult mirror or shape other facets of court politics? To what extent was Indo-Dutch diplomacy based on south Indian conventions? And did these courts and the Dutch actually understand each other when it came to protocol and insult?
From Vijayanagara’s fragmentation in the sixteenth century, new Hindu-ruled kingdoms arose. We may wonder to what extent those succeeding polities continued practices adopted from Islamic courts. With that question in mind, this paper discusses royal titles and dress in four Vijayanagara successor states, based both on south Indian texts and works of art, and on records of the Dutch East India Company.
It appears that these kings used other titles than their predecessors did and could wear several clothing styles at audiences. Influences now came from multiple backgrounds, comprising various Islamic as well as non-Islamic elements. Further, not all successor states followed the same conventions on titles and dress since earlier notions were modified in different ways, depending on varying political developments.
This presentation consists of two sections. The first part briefly describes the presence of the Dutch East India Company in India during the 17th and 18th centuries and next considers the vast number of Dutch sources that were consequently created. It deals with the various branches of the Company that produced records relevant for Indian history, where these materials are presently kept, and how they are accessible.
The second part of the presentation addresses the question what can be found in the Dutch sources with respect to India. Serving as an illustration of the often surprising contents of these records, the focus lies here with court politics in the Vijayanagara successor states, ruled by Nayaka dynasties. Since the Dutch maintained close and long-lasting relations with these states, the Company archives contain numerous references to matters like succession struggles, the powers of courtiers, and court ritual. For each of these aspects, examples are discussed that show how Dutch sources contribute to our knowledge of India’s past.
As south Indian texts are often silent on how protocol actually proceeded, this study is largely based on the experiences recorded by Dutch East India Company servants who regularly visited the courts of Ikkeri, Tanjavur, Madurai, Ramnad, and (during its last phase) Vijayanagara itself. This research—still very much work in progress—addresses the following issues: What were the functions and manifestations of protocol and diplomatic insult at these courts? To which extent did these states resemble one another and Vijayanagara with respect to protocol? What was the influence of protocol and insult on political developments in these states? What is the value of south Indian and Dutch sources for the study of protocol at these courts?
From Vijayanagara’s fragmentation in the sixteenth century new Hindu-ruled kingdoms arose. We may wonder to which extent those succeeding polities continued practices adopted from Islamic courts. With that question in mind, this paper discusses royal dress at court audiences in four Vijayanagara successor states, chiefly on the basis of embassy reports of the Dutch East India Company and south Indian works of art. It appears that kings could wear several clothing styles at audiences and that influences on these styles now came from multiple backgrounds, comprising various Islamic as well as local elements. Further, not all successor states followed the same dress codes as their dynasties modified earlier conventions in different ways, depending on varying political developments.
Sep - Dec 2016 (in English)
This course provides a long-term history of South and Southeast Asia from 3500 BCE to 1850 CE. After a historiographical (sources & concepts) and geopolitical (la longue durée) introduction the lectures engage (in chronological sequence) with themes that connect the various regions of South and Southeast Asia.
We will compare the most prominent regional developments of settlement, state-formation and cultural developments and connect them through various trans-regional processes of migration, trade and conquest.
The course will also reflect on the unity and diversity of the SSEA region as a whole by discussing three regional varieties of globalization: Indianization, Islamization and Colonization.
Feb - May 2018, Feb - May 2020 (in English), together with David Henley
This course provides a broad overview of the histories of South and Southeast Asia, with an emphasis on the period since 1945. It sketches the shared precolonial heritage and the effects of European domination and Western capitalism, exploring how peoples and communities both resisted and accommodated these forces. The partition of India, and the decolonization of Indonesia and Indochina, are analyzed as foundational moments for the new political orders emerging in the mid twentieth century.
The course addresses the dynamics of economic development in South and Southeast Asia during the subsequent decades, together with the myriad social and political problems - ranging from governmental abuse of human rights, to violent anti-government insurgencies - that have accompanied the growing prosperity enjoyed in many countries. We conclude by assessing how ideals of democracy, plurality and secularism are currently being reinterpreted and renegotiated in South and Southeast Asia.
Feb - May 2018, Feb - May 2019, Feb - May 2020 (in Dutch)
In dit college staan de bronnen centraal die voortgekomen zijn uit de Nederlandse overzeese expansie en vragen we ons af op welke wijze deze bronnen gebruikt kunnen worden voor de lokale geschiedschrijving van de verschillende regio’s in Afrika, Amerika en Azië. Aan bod komen formele bronnen zoals de administraties van de VOC en WIC in de vroegmoderne tijd of het ministerie van koloniën uit de negentiende eeuw, maar we kijken bijvoorbeeld ook naar reisverslagen, wetenschappelijke expedities en missie- en zendingsarchieven. Hoe beschrijft bijvoorbeeld VOC admiraal Matelieff zijn eerste ontmoetingen met de verschillende vorsten in de Molukken in 1607 en wat leren we daaruit over de lokale politieke geschiedenis? Het gaat hier om bronnen die sterk tot de verbeelding spreken, maar die ook een zeer kritische benadering behoeven. Dit college combineert daarom praktijkervaring met primaire Nederlandstalige bronnen over Azië, Afrika en Amerika, met een theoretische benadering van deze bronnen.
Sep - Dec 2014, Sep - Dec 2015, Sep - Dec 2018, Sep - Dec 2019 (in Dutch)
In de 17de en 18de eeuw bezochten honderden VOC-dienaren tientallen Aziatische hoven, van India tot de Molukken, van Japan tot de Malediven, en van Perzië tot Thailand. Wat die gezanten daar beleefden en observeerden, kunnen we lezen in de vele bewaard gebleven verslagen van deze ambassades.
Deze collegereeks inventariseert, analyseert en vergelijkt de diplomatieke missies van de VOC naar hoven in West-, Zuid-, Zuidoost-, en Oost- Azië in de periode 1600-1800. Het college richt zich met name op de verschillen tussen deze missies en hoven, waarbij het zwaartepunt ligt op zulke aspecten als hofprotocol, geschenken, toegang tot heersers, onderhandelingspraktijken, diplomatieke schoffering en de rol van tussenpersonen, als ook op de belangen van de VOC, Eurocentrische opvattingen en de waarde van observaties van VOC-gezanten.
Elke student kiest tenminste twee hoven, focust op tenminste twee missies, en bestudeert en vergelijkt genoemde elementen op basis van zowel een onuitgegeven ambassadeverslag in het VOC-archief als secundaire literatuur. Iedereen presenteert zijn of haar bevindingen in een referaat en een afsluitend werkstuk.
Feb - May 2017, Sep - Dec 2018, Sep - Dec 2019 (in English)
This Research Seminar focuses on the archives of the VOC or Dutch East India Company. It partly serves as a practical and more specific counterpart of the Literature Seminar. It addresses archival issues in the context of a 17th- and 18th-century Dutch-Asian commercial enterprise. While the VOC records formally comprised business administration, in practice they also functioned as a giant repository of valuable and secret information on all sorts of events in early-modern Asia.
The remaining VOC records comprise various archives and collections, consisting of many different types or even "genres" of documents, including, for example, memoirs, reports of embassies, and maps. Further, they partly overlap with materials that fall outside the confines of these records, but are closely related to them, such as private papers, missionary records, travel accounts, and even works of art. These diverse materials were produced with different purposes, are composed and organised in different ways, and present information from different perspectives.
This course considers and compares all these sources from both an archival and a historiographical point of view. The central question is: was there a specific “archival VOC mentality” with regard to the way records were created and information was processed? Therefore, this seminar looks for similarities and differences between, on the one hand, the VOC archives and, on the other hand, archives of contemporaneous Dutch institutions as well as other European overseas trading companies. Students who cannot read (old) Dutch may work with such other European records, for example those of the English, French, or Scandinavian East India Companies.
Sep - Dec 2016 (in Dutch)
Dit college biedt een Nederlands venster op de recente wereldgeschiedenis (1500 tot heden) over het algemeen en die van de Europese expansie in Afrika, Azië en Amerika in het bijzonder. De geschiedenis van de Nederlandse overzeese expansie staat weliswaar centraal maar zal in de collegereeks steeds in een veel bredere mondiale context besproken worden. Zo zullen vergelijkingen met andere expansieprocessen worden gemaakt, zowel vanuit Europa (Spanje, Portugal, Engeland, Frankrijk en Rusland) als daarbuiten (Japan, China, Amerika). Ook zal een serieuze poging worden ondernomen om de Nederlandse expansie vanuit de almaar weer andere en veranderende dynamiek van de overzeese gebieden te verstaan. Hierdoor ontstaat niet alleen een uniek Nederlands blikveld op allerlei regionale ontwikkelingen, maar wordt ook de Nederlandse expansie opgenomen in de geschiedenis van Afrika, Azië en Amerika.
Ligt in het eerste deel van het college de nadruk op het optreden van de Europese compagnieën, in het tweede deel zal de territoriale kolonisatie van de wereld de meeste aandacht krijgen. Ligt het accent op de politiek-militaire en economische (monopolies, plantages en slavernij) vormen van expansie en kolonisatie, ook de culturele wisselwerking (bv in schilderkunst en wetenschap) tussen Nederland en de overzeese gebiedsdelen zal de nodige aandacht krijgen. Zoals we zullen zien leverde de Nederlandse expansie een belangrijke bijdrage aan de toenemende economische én culturele globalisering van de wereld. Ten slotte zullen we stilstaan bij de wijze waarop de overzeese expansie terugsloeg op de eigen samenleving (bijvoorbeeld in literatuur, architectuur, tuinen) en stellen we ons de vraag in hoeverre Nederland eigenlijk veranderde dankzij de intensieve wisselwerking met de overzeese gebieden.
Sep 2017 (in English)
Two introductory courses of six classes each, respectively about research in the archives of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the palaeography of the Company's documents -- taught to BA and MA students respectively.
2013-16 (in English and Dutch)
Annual single-class course.
2015-20 (in Dutch)
Occasional single- or multi-class courses, on demand.