Study of the contributions of the queens of a medieval South Indian dynasty to the development of temple architecture, art, and sculpture.

The rule of the Chola dynasty in South India between the ninth and thirteenth centuries was a period of unparalleled creativity in Indian art. Known as the Golden Age of Tamil Culture, the Chola period produced dynamic royal personalities who shaped the artistic activity of theirtimes. Art of the Imperial Cholas examines the dynasty's architectural and sculptural achievements, which stand among the masterpieces of India.

This book offers an interpretive history of bhakti, an influential religious perspective in Hinduism. Prentiss argues that although bhakti is mentioned in every contemporary sourcebook on Indian religions, it still lacks an agreed-upon definition. "Devotion" is found to be the most commonly used synonym. Prentiss seeks a new perspective on this elusive concept. Her analysis of Tamil (south Indian) materials leads her to suggest that bhakti be understood as a doctrine of embodiment. Bhakti, she says, urges people towards active engagement in the worship of God. She proposes that the term "devotion" be replaced by "participation," emphasizing bhakti's call for engagement in worship and the necessity of embodiment to fulfill that obligation.

In this interpretive history of bhakti, both chronicle and comparison are used to identify and analyze bhakti as understood by various Tamil Siva-bhakti authors and authorities."--BOOK JACKET.

An extensive study of self-sacrificial images in Indian art, this book examines concepts such as head-offering, human sacrifice, blood, suicide, valour, self-immolation, and self-giving in the context of religion and politics to explore why these images were produced and how they became paradigms of heroism.