The innovative book is themed around Indian temple arts as instruments of worship – devotional sculptures which embody, through the combined authority of the aesthetic and the symbolic, powerful religious experiences. It examines Indian religious sculpture in the temple context – its cosmological meaning, its function within the architectural schema and its dynamic interactive role in worship. Accessible and multidisciplinary in its approach, Indian Temple Sculpture reveals the vivid traditions still in practice today, and opens up a world of understanding about Indian devotional art. The origins of sculptural imagery and the emergence of a formalised pantheon of deities which paralleled the growth of temple building are explored, along with the later codification of art-making as reflected in the medieval artists’ manuals (sastras). These guides dictated not only form but also rasa, the emotional authority of a work of art. The temple setting is presented and the place of sculpture in it examined through the eyes of the devotee. The principal deities are presented through their myths and manifestations. Illustrated through the V&A’s unrivalled collection of South Asian sculpture, this book introduces the reader to the principal iconographic forms in the three ancient religions of the Indian subcontinent, Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, conveying a picture of the richness of India’s religious imagery and providing keys to its understanding. The sculptures are contextualised with selected archival images and contemporary photographs of Indian temple festivals and worship.
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