Rock-Cut Model Shrines in Early Medieval Indian Art

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Rock-cut Model Shrines in Early Medieval Indian Art is the result of Dr R.K.K. Rajarajan’s research in the Tamil University of Thanjavur during 1995-1996. The present publication is rewritten, up-dated and added luminously. Several works on dynastic arts (e.g. Kusana, Gupta, Pallava, and Cola) and art historical centers (e.g. Ellora, Bhuvanesvara, Vijayanagara/ Hampi, the ASI booklets) have come to light during the past 150 years. The present book is a genre of its own that has a thematic delimitation, dealing with the micro-masterpieces of Indian temple architecture, called Model Shrine, the miniature of a mega-temple. Frank art historians would admit that nobody thought of such a lofty theme in a capsule history that the present work is.

The book is in five chapters, dealing with the concept, origin, percolation, progression, typological variation, iconographical/cult value and ritual mysticism of the Model Shrines. The book is well illustrated with plans and photographic samples added to date. It is the outcome of extensive field work all over South India from Udayagiri (MP) in the North to Vilinam in the Far South.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR R K K Rajarajan

Born in 1973, Dr. R.K.K. Rajarajan had his schooling and university education at Madurai and Thanjavur. He did his M. Phil and Ph.D. under the inspiration of his father, Prof. Raju Kalidos. Since a college student, his father trained him in Hindu iconography. The thesis was unanimously â€œHighly Commendedâ€ by a board of experts, including Prof. Maurizio TADDEI. Taking the doctoral degree in 1989, he was conferred the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt post-doctoral fellowship and left for Germany in the same year. He worked for nearly three years in the Institut fur Indische Philologie und Kunstgeschichte, at the Freie Universitat Berlin, Berlin. He has attended several national seminars and an international conference at the University of Hong Kong. He has published a number of articles in international journals from Oxford, Rome, Naples and Berlin. Several more articles stand to his credit at home. Dr. Rajarajan has visited Hong Kong, several places in Germany, England (London) and Italy (Rome). Presently he is teaching history at the Eritrean Institute of Technology, Asmara, Eritrea.