The new cultural study looks at intersection of Hellenistic and Egyptian-Lycian art forms in the religious sphere of dynastic India that was ushered by Buddhist Cult during the early Christian era. While specifying uniqueness of Indian culture it looks for external parallels and attempts to define the archaeological and cultural affiliation observed in terms of history of art forms in their cultural context. A discussion of artistic change, cultural identity, and religious belief foregrounds the most] important monuments that typify the concept of Kailasa, abode of gods on the j sacred peak of Himalayan Mountain. The 8th century Kailasanatha Temple at Ellora in the Deccan and at Kanchipuram in South India are both architectural. Marvels defining the Dravidian style; one is a sculptured monolith and the other earliest structural temple. Moth are modeled after rock cut Dharmaraja Ratha at Mahabalipuram at tangent with the Gupta temple in North India, which set the stage for fundamental change in the design of religious monument that never the less derives its form from Buddhist art and architecture.
Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- Iconic Architecture
- Aesthetic Hybridity
- Replicating Kailash
- Kanchi Kailasanatha Temple
- Iconography of Kanchi Kailasanatha
- Etched Images: Kanchi Kailasanatha
- Cult of Devaraja and Devadasi.
About the Author:
Arputha Rani Sengupta is Professor in History of Art at the National Museum Institute (Deemed University), New Delhi, India. She specialises in ancient art of Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Buddhist art of India synchronal to the Roman Empire. In her writings the study of signs and symbols in material culture as a system of visual communication is devoted to the reciprocal knowledge in an aesthetic object and its connectedness to a collective consciousness. Her research publications are on cult and cultural synthesis in the Art of Terracotta and Jewellery from Buddha Zone, a prelude to Buddha Art Symbols in Substitutes. Edited volumes with contributory essays include Cult of the Goddess in Indian Art and Culture, a sequel to God & King : Devaraja Cult in South Asian Art and Architecture. She examines pictorial semiotics with wide range of meaning in her essays such as "Cultural Synthesis in the Buddhist Art of China" (IGNCA 1998), "Naqada Traced in Indus Valley Culture" (ICOM-CC 2007) and "In Search of Simurgh" (BHU2009). Her primary concern is to study the ways in which transcultural non-linguistic phenomena connected to art history can generate meaning and provide information on the role of culture in knowledge production.
Born in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, Arputha Rani studied History of Fine Arts at Stella Maris College in the University of Madras and received her Doctoral degree from Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, India. Teaching experience prior to her present position include a period-at Stella Maris College at Chennai in south India and at Teachers' Training College and College of Technology in Nigeria.
|