The volume of thirty-one essays by the author, coming close on heels of the earlier volume, under the same main title and covering therin topics on History and Archaeology, is a round-up of some of the significant contributions on the entire gamut of architecture, art and allied religion. The first five essays deal with the formative stages of temples plan, its articulations and interactions under Buddhism and Brahmanism, covering the regions extending from Rajasthan through Gujarat and Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh to Karnataka and Andhra. The next six papers allow us to feel and imbibe the specific regional trends in architecture, variously under the Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas, early Pallavas and Hoysalas, along with a dissertation on Jainism in Tamil Nadu. The subsequent twelve essays delve deep into the kaleidoscopic cult-play on Brahmanical Hinduism, expounding some cardinal concepts such as linga placement in Vishnum Siva-Nataraja iconic tradition, literature as a mirror of art, the Devi cult and the Krishna manifestation. The book’s further six essays discerningly analyse variously the Manipravala tradition in the southern religious literature, the South Asian echo of the epic and Puranic lore and art, and three major Bhakti offerings from southern Vaishnavism and, the comprehensive and basic character of the Sapta-dvipa tradition and its cult derivations.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR K.V. Soundara Rajan
K.V. Soundara Rajan (b. 1952) who additionaol Director General, Archaeological Survey of India, needs no introduction to scholars and academics in art, archaeology and architecture, in India and outside. His contributions to Indian Culture have the mark of secular values, being related to not only Hinduism and its allied facets of Buddhism and Jainism but also to the creative art productions of Islam in architecture. Trained by Mortimer Wheeler and F.E. Zeuner in field archaeology and Prehistoric studies, in which career he has excavated several sites of varying nature in different parts of India, from the Harappan, through the Megalithic to Indo-Roman centres, it is his primary grounding in Sanskrit and its ancient legacy that made him a legitimatae and effective practitioner in interpretative thrusts in both archaeological and traditional studies in an integrative manner. He has a score of books and hundreds of research articles in his name and had, besides being an alumnus of Allahabad University, been the chairperson of several learned societies traveled in the Old world and the New, having lectured and studied their monuments and museums and is respected for his fluent exposition of our cultural heritage. His ‘Essence of Hinduism’ with its succedding Dictionary Volumes of Hindu usages, is perhaps the creation closest to his heart as the quintessential presentation of our cultural legacy. His abiding interests include also Classical music and the Stage.
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