Stones of Sanctity: Art and Architecture of the Jain Temples

Professor M.A. Dhaky, currently Director (Emeritus) at the American Institute of Indian Studies’ Centre for Art and Archaeology, Gurgaon (Haryana), is a historian and researcher of ancient and medieval Indian art and architecture and Sanskrit texts that relate to the architecture of the ancient buildings. Prof. Dhaky had served on deputation at the AIIS’ Varanasi Center from August 1966, first from the Department of Archaeology, Government of Gujarat, and from 1974 from the L.D. Institute of Indology, Ahmedabad, where he was till 1987 posted as the Research Professor of Indian Art and Architecture. Among his publications are the short and long monographs, chapters to the Encyclopaedia of Indian Temple Architecture and research papers in English, Gujarati, and in Hindi, on the history and literature including agamas and hymnology of the Nirgranthadarsana, as also articles involving criticism and interpretation of art and architecture, musicology and horticulture, all together numbering 290. He is recipient of many a awards and honours: the ‘Kumara’ silver medal (Ahmedabad 1974), an award of the Prakrta Jananabharati, Bangalore (1993), the Campbell Memorial Gold Medal of the Asiatic Society of Bombay (1994), the Hemacandracarya Award from Jaswanta Dharmarth Trust, Delhi (1997), and an award and gold medal from “Kalikalasarvjna Sri Hemacandracarya Navam Janma-Satabdi Smriti Samskara Siksana Nidhi” Trust, Ahmedabad (1999).