Temple Architecture and Imagery of South and Southeast Asia

by Gerd J.R. Mevissen, Parul Pandya Dhar

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This volume is a tribute to Professor M.A. Dhaky’s profound and influential scholarship by an international community of well-known scholars in the field of South and Southeast Asian temple art and architecture. The thirty-two essays that make this book unfold many layers of the temples’ imagery, taking a broad view and traversing religious, cultural, and temporal boundaries. While a majority of these are rooted in India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tibet, Nepal, Cambodia, and Vietnam also figure prominently.

Preceded by valuable insights into M.A. Dhaky’s encyclopaedic writings, the volume is configured along six sub-themes inspired by his contributions to the discipline. These include the architectonics of temples, their varied materials and milieus, stylistics, patronage and transregional connections; studies of architectural elements in culture-specific contexts; inter-relationships between sculpture and architecture in the temple’s larger narrative; the embodiment of cult icons; other non-cultic manifestations on the temple; ritual observances and performance traditions. Several of the essays move in and out of M.A. Dhaky’s writings, building upon themes addressed by him, extending his methods to newer materials, regions, and time-frames, and charting fresh paths that extend the orbit of temple studies.

Scholars and interested readers will find in this volume a thoughtful and cohesive collection of the most recent and insightful research on art historical aspects of South and Southeast Asian temples by the finest minds engaged in the field.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Gerd J.R. Mevissen

Gerd J.R. Mevissen, born 1953, studied Modern Architecture and Ancient Indian Art History at Berlin Universities.He worked from 1990 to 1995 as Lecturer of Indian Art History in the Institute of Indian Philology and Art History at the Free University Berlin, and from 2000 to 2002 as Assistant Curator at the Museum of Indian Art, Belin. He is editor of the journals Berliner Indologische Studien and Indo-Asiatische Zeitschrift, both published annually from Berlin, and has edited also a number of books and felicition volumes dealing with Indological subjects. He has published more than forty research papers on different aspects of Indian Art, Architecture and Iconography (Hindu, Buddhist, Jain).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Parul Pandya Dhar

Parul Pandya Dhar, presently Assistant Professor, History of Art, at National Museum Institute, New Delhi, is also a noted Indian classical dance exponent. Well acquainted with classical Indian languages and literature, her core research interests center on Indian temple art & architecture. Recipient of prestigious fellowships and grants, she is currently working on Toranas in Indian Architecture: with comparative reference to southeast Asia. Her lecture-performing arts of India as also her work on the interpretation and adaptation of Sanskrit poetry to the language of dance have been well received by artists and art historians within India and abroad.