Sri Varadarajaswami Temple, Kanchi: A Study of Its History, Art and Architecture

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Kanchi, the ancient capital city of the South, teems with historic temples of great beauty and grandeur. The magnificent temple of Lord Varadaraja, situated in Vishnu-Kanchi, has played a remarkable part in fostering the growth of Sri-Vaishnavism and has justly been ranked with the famous temples of Srirangam and Tirupati as the holiest of the holies. This is the first comprehensive and illustrated treatise on this hoary temple, focusing attention of the various aspects like the origin and the growth of the temple, critical review of the temple traditions, the role of the temple in the growth of Sri-Vaishnavism, the association of the acharyas like Ramanuja with the temple, besides the pivotal role the temple has played in the social and cultural life of the community. The vast literature that has grown round the temple and the five hundred and odd inscriptions that crowd the wall-spaces of the shrines provide a sumptuous source material for this study. One of the largest temple complexes of South India, the temple presents interesting variety of architectural and sculptural styles of different schools. The temple is particularly rich in Vaishnava iconography. The book provides a detailed study and interpretation of these features with the help of hitherto unpublished photographs and drawings. The book also brings to light the presence of fine paintings of the Vijayanagar times that are found in the dark cloister around the sanctum. The book is a distinct contribution to the field of historical and architectural studies of ancient Indian temples.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR K.V. Raman

Prof. K.V. Raman is one of the senior and distinguished scholars whose valuable contributions to the field of archaeology, history and art and publications such as The Early History of the Madras Region (1957), Some Aspects of Pandyan History (1972), Sri Varadaraja Swami Temple, Kanchi (1975), Sculptural Art of Tirumala Tirupati (1997), Excavations in Uraiyur (ed.) (1988), besides many other books and research papers and endowment lectures. He was formerly Superintending Archaeologist in the Archaeological Survey of India and later became Professor of ancient History and Archaeology, University of Madras from 1976 to 1995. He is the recipient of many honours from India and abroad like the UNESCO Regional Educational Award for 1972, Fullbright Fellow of the Association of Commonwealth Universities in U.K. in 1989. He visited South-East Asian countries from1992-1995 as a member of the Indo-Japanese team headed by Prof. Noboru Karashima to study the historical and cultural relations and was Visiting Professor of ART History in the University of Georgia, Athens, U.S.A. (1998). He was the President of the Indian History Congress in Amritsar (Ancient History section) in 1985; President of the Numismatic Society of India at Shantiniketan in 1989; General President South Indian Numismatic Society in 1996; President of the South Indian History Congress in 1997. He received the Dr. V.S. Wakankar Award for excellence in Field Archaeology for the year 2002 from the Indian Archaeological Society, New Delhi.