Now available from Ashgate Publishing…
Temple Imagery from Early Mediaeval Peninsular India Archana Verma ‘Temple Imagery from Early Mediaeval Peninsular India is well researched, thorough, written in an interesting and readable style, and makes a contribution to knowledge about Hindu art and architecture in relationship to kingship in southern India.’ – Susan L. Huntington, Ohio State University, USA
Analyzing the ways in which ideas of heroic discourse and the socio-
Contents: Introduction; Changing perceptions of divine power: the
religious and political needs of the period moulded iconography,
evolution of religious idiom in peninsular India; Puranic pantheons
this book explores the evolution of the iconography of the early
and their iconography (AD 600–1200); Heroic discourse: concepts
mediaeval Hindu temples of the Indian peninsula, over the course of
and images in literature and iconography (early historical and
the sixth-twelfth centuries C.E.
early medieval periods) Imaging royal power in visual and verbal narratives; Pantheons of power – the iconographic programme in
In order to study the socio-religious and political atmosphere in
royal temples; Reflections; Glossary; Bibliography; Index.
which the early mediaeval temple iconography grew and developed
Includes 135 b&w illustrations
its specific forms, the author makes use of the inscriptions, archaeological and the literary materials ranging from the fourth centuries B.C.E. to the thirteenth century C.E., as these give an idea of the continuities and discontinuities in the ideas of heroic and political discourses which lie at the back of the visual art forms that they created. Of particular interest are the royal charters, issued in Sanskrit and Tamil, the religious narratives from the Sanskrit epics and the Puranas, iconographic canons that form a part of the religious texts known as the Agamas, written in Sanskrit, the court literature of the early mediaeval period and the early historical Sangam Tamil literature, apart from the archaeological material from the Indian peninsula. The author focuses particularly on exploring the ideas of power current in the society that created the narrative iconography of the period and the region studied.
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February 2012 312 pages Hardback 978-1-4094-3029-2 £65.00 www.ashgate.com/ isbn/9781409430292
