Indian Temples

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The Indian Temple is a unique institution and its development from almost the fifth century A.D. onwards is a fascinating tale. It furnishes material for reconstructing the religious history of India and also casts a spell on the student of art and architecture. It is in the temple – abode of the God –that the beauty and sublimity of divine experience meet so as to create a feeling of ananda (unalloyed joy). The function of the temple is to facilitate the union between the living being (Jiva) and the universal spiritual ground (Brahman) personified in the anthropomorphic God whose dwelling is in the temple. The temple was the spiritual centre from which religious and social life was regulated.

Styles of temples throughout India have been discussed. Nagara, Vesara and Dravida temples have explained. Temples from Jammu and Kashmir to Kerala have been described. But to appreciate Indian art to the full, one must study the temples that Indian ideas and local genius built in Greater India which was renamed as South-east Asia after the II World War in 1945. Angkor Wat in Cambodia the great Hindu complex of Brambanan in Java (Indonesia,) Ayutthya in Thailand, three groups of temples in Vietnam, Hindu-Buddhist temples in Bali (Indonesia) where Siva and Buddha are considered brothers!, Myanmar having more than 2000 red-brick temples and monuments in the city of Pagan, etc. are the examples of Indian art in Greater India which students of art and architecture should study to understand Indian art to the full.

Contents: Preface. 1. Temples of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs. 2. Elements in the construction of temples. 3. Styles of temples. 4. Temples in Indian states. 5. The Nagara temples (North Indian Temples) plan and elevation. 6. The Vesara temples. 7. The Dravida temples (South Indian Temples). 8. Temples of 1. North India. 2. East India. 3. Central India. 4. West India and 5. South India. 9. Twelve columns of divine light ‘Jyotirlinga’ (Dwadasa Jyotirlinga Sthavam). Appendices. Select bibliography. Index.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Amar Nath Khanna

Shri Amar Nath Khanna was born at Multan in West Punjab in 1936. He holds a Master's degree in History and a Post Graduate Diploma in Archaeology from the School (presently Institute) of Archaeology, Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi. Shri Khanna has had the rare opportunity of visiting and studying monuments and pilgrim shrines scattered all over the Indian Sub-continent, China, Japan, Nepal and Singapore during the last about half a century. He retired as Senior Technical Officer, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi, in 1996 while earlier he had been working as a Senior Officer with the President of India. In 1998, he was invited again by Shri R. Venkataraman, Former President of India, to work with him even after retirement. He had been the Registering Officer for Antiquities in Himachal Pradesh and was associated with Shri Rajeev Sethi, Padma Bhushan, in the Aditi Exhibition curated by him in the Festival of India, U.S.A., and the Basic Human Need Pavilion set up in Germany in 1998. He was associated with Smt. Pupal Jayakar, Adviser to Prime Minister on Heritage and Cultural Resources, in the Festivals of India held in the U.S.A. and Japan and the Year of India in France. He was a Member of the Presidential Delegations which had visited Japan in 1990 and China in 1992. From 1957, he was a member of the Archaeological Survey of India for about two decades. Shri Khanna's book Archaeology of India was published in 1981. Its revised and enlarged edition which covered Pakistan and Bangladesh also was published in 1992 and was highly appreciated among others by the President of India and Dr. Karl Khandalavala. Shri Khanna's research papers have been published in leading journals in India. Currently, Shri Khanna is Secretary, Indo-Tibetan Art& Culture Study Group, New Delhi, and Executive Member, Rasaja Foundation, New Delhi.