BASAS HARDBACK PUBLICATIONS
MONOGRAPHS
Gods on the Move: Architecture and Ritual in the South Indian Temple.
Crispin Branfoot
SOAS
ISBN 978 0 9553924 1 2
2007
Review
The "late" period of religious architecture and art of South India, especially of Tamilnadu, has until recently been a much neglected subject. While there is no shortage of studies on Pallava and Chola temples and sculptures (sixth-thirteenth centuries), for example, the Vijayanagara and Nāyaka eras (fourteenth-seventeenth centuries) have not attracted serious attention from art historians. The appearance of this volume signals a major change in focus, since it is for the most part concerned with the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As the author argues, it was only from the middle of the sixteenth century, once Tamilnadu had achieved autonomy from the Vijayanagara emperors who had dominated the region from the end of the fourteenth century, that artistic production once again resumed on a major scale. The revival of temple building in the second half of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries may be judged from the large number of splendidly appointed and grandiosely scaled religious monuments that date from this time. Though this period was marked by political instability there was nonetheless a sustained investment in Hindu architecture, sculpture and the related arts on the part of the Nāyaka rulers of the Gingee, Tanjavur (Tanjore) and Madurai kingdoms, as well as their successors. The temples that were substantially expanded or newly founded by these figures are the principal focus of the work under review here. Illustrated by a generous selection of photographs and measured architectural plans, many of which are published here for the first time, the author’s discussions constitute a welcome contribution to the subject that should be of particular interest for scholars, students and even travellers to Tamilnadu.
George Michell, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
Contents
Acknowledgements, List of illustrations, Maps, Colour illustrations
- Approaching the Tamil temple
- From Vijayanagara to Nāyaka: patronage and the South Indian temple
- Gateways to God: the development of the temple city in Tamilnadu
- Sacred architecture, sacred sites: continuity and change in the Tamil temple tradition
- Gods on the move: festival architecture and ritual
- Expanding from: architectural sculpture in the Tamil temple
- The royal presence and portraiture in the Tamil temple
- Conclusion
Glossary; Bibliography; Index.
Buddhist landscapes in Central India: Sanchi hill and archaeologies of religious and social change, c. Third Century BC to Fifth Century AD
Julia Shaw
University College London
ISBN 978-0-9553924-4-3
2007
Contents
Preface; List of figures; List of tables; List of plates; Abbreviations; Select glossary; Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Buddhism, urbanisation and the states
- Physical geography and the archaeology of central India
- Sanchi study area: the physical environment
- Political history of the Sanchi area
- Religious history and religious change in the Sanchi area
- Theory and method of landscape archaeology
- The Sanchi survey project: research design and field methodology
- Archaeology of Vidisha and Sanchi Hill
- The Sanchi survey project: chronology
- Buddhist sites and ‘Buddhist landscapes’
- Non-Buddhist ritual sites
- Habitational settlement sites
- Irrigation systems
- Conclusion: towards an integrated model of religious change
Notes; Appendices; Bibliography; Index
OCCASIONAL PAPERS
Religion and Art: New Issues in Indian Iconography and Iconology
Volume I of the proceedings of the 18th conference of the European Association of South Asian Archaeologists, London, 2005
Claudine Bautze-Picron (editor)
Free University of Brussels
ISBN 978-0-9553924-2-9
2008
Contents
Foreword
- Martina Stoye. The deva with the swaddling cloth, on the Western origins of Gandharan birth iconography and their implications for the textual and art history of the Buddhist saviour's nativity
- Nakao Odani. The banquet scene on the base of a seated Buddha in Gandhara
- Katsumi Tanabe. Not the Buddha but Hercules on the gold token from Tillya-Tepe: a review of the relevant legends and images
- Anna Filigenzi. Late Buddhist art in archaeological context, some reflections on the sanctuary of Tapa Sardar
- Harry Falk. Another reliquary vase from Wardak and consecrating fire rites in Gandhara
- Hans Bakker. A funerary monument to Prabhavatigupta?
- Doris Srinivasan. Samkarsana/Balarama and the mountain: a new attribute
- Anne Casile. A recumbent effigy of devi from Badoh - its sculptural tradition and archaeological context
- Gerd J.R. Mevissen. A solitary Visnu sculpture from Bihar in the National Museum of Nepal, Kathmandu
- Gouriswar Bhattacharya. Ganesa with a dagger
- Eva Allinger. An early Nepalese Gandavyuhasutra manuscript, an attempt to discover connections between text and illuminations
- Claudine Bautze-Picron. Buddhist book-covers from Eastern India, the book-covers of the manuscript SL68 at the Collège de France, Paris
- Vincent Lefèvre. The 'portraits' of the Cola king Rajaraja I (985 - 1014)
- Archana Verma. Heroic discourse in Indian iconography
The Temple in South Asia
Volume II of the proceedings of the 18th conference of the European Association of South Asian Archaeologists, London, 2005
Adam Hardy (editor)
Univesity of Wales
ISBN: 978-0-9553924-3-6
2007
Contents
- Michael W. Meister. Early architecture and its transformations: new evidence for vernacular origins for the Indian temple
- Luca Colliva. The Apsidal temple of Taxila: traditional hypothesis and possible new interpretations
- Anne Casile. The archaeological remains of Ramgarh Hill: a report
- Gerard Foekema. Architectural features of the medieval temples surviving in Maharashtra
- Adam Hardy. Parts and wholes: the story of the Gavaksa
- Leslie C Orr. Cholas, pandyas, and ‘Imperial Temple Culture’ in Medieval Tamilnadu
- Crispin Branfoot. Regional pasts, imperial present: architecture and memory in Vijayanagara-period Karnataka
- Jean-Yves Breuil and Sandrine Gill. New Research on Paharpur Buddhist Monastery (North Bengal)
- Helmet F Neumann and Heidi Neumann. Defining the sacred space: painted ceilings in Dung Dkar and Tsaparang in western Tibet
- Christiane Papa-Kalantari. From textile dress to vault of heavens: some observations on the function and symbolism of ceiling decorations in the western Himalayan Buddhist temples of Nako, Himachal Pradesh, India
- Julia A B Hegewald. Domes, tombs and minarets: Islamic influence in Jain architecture
- Shikha Jain. Vaishnava Havelis in Rajasthan: origin and continuity of a temple type