George Michell provides a pioneering and richly illustrated introduction to the architecture, sculpture and painting of Southern India under the Vijayanagara empire and the states that succeeded it. This period, encompassing some four hundred years, from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century, was endowed with an abundance of religious and royal monuments which remain as testimonies to the history and ideology behind their evolution. The author evaluates the legacy of this artistic heritage, describing and illustrating buildings, sculptures and paintings that have never been published before. In a previously neglected area of art history, the author presents an original and much-needed reassessment.

The issue of divinizing in South Asian traditions has not been examined before as a process involving various methods to affect the socio-cultural cognition of the community. It is therefore essential to consider the context of "divinizing" and to analyse what groups, institutions or individuals define the discourse, what are the ideological positions that they represent, and who or what is being divinized. This book deals with the issue of divinizing in South Asian traditions. It aims at studying cultural questions related to the representations and the mythologizing of the divine. It also explores the human relations to the "divine other." It studies the interpretations of the divine in religious texts and the embodiment of the "divine other" in ritual practices. The focus is on studying the phenomenon of divinizing in its religious, cultural, and ideological implications. The book comprises eight chapters that explore the question of divinizing from the 2nd century CE up to present-day in North and South India. The chapters discuss the issue both from insider and outsider perspectives, within the framework of textual study as well as ideological and anthropological analysis. All articles explore various aspects of the cultural phenomenon of being in relation to the divine other, of the process of interpreting and embodying the divine, and of the representation of the divinizing process, as revealed in the literatures and cultures of South Asia. Applying theoretical models of religious and cultural studies to discuss texts written in South Asian languages and engage in critical dialogue with current scholarship, this book is an indispensable study of literary, religious and cultural production in South Asia. It will be of interest to academics in the fields of South Asian studies, Asian Studies, religious and cultural studies as well as comparative religion.

This book investigates how the material culture of South Indian courts was perceived by those who lived there in the pre-colonial period. Howes peels away the standard categories used to study Indian palace space, such as public/private and male/female, and replaces them with indigenous descriptions of space found in court poetry, vastu shastra and painted representations of courtly life. Set against the historical background of the events which led to the formation of the Ramnad Kingdom, the Kingdom's material circumstances are examined, beginning with the innermost region of the palace and moving out to the Kingdom via the palace compound itself and the walled town which surrounded it. An important study for both art historians and South India specialists. The volume is richly illustrated in colour.

A handy guide to every religion practised in India In India, the birthplace of some of the world’s major faiths and home to many more, religion is a way of life, existing as much in temples, mosques, churches and wayside shrines as it does in social laws, cultural practices and the political arena. The Religions of India contains, in a single volume, a comprehensive account of every major faith practised in the country today—Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and the Bahai faith. This meticulously researched work traverses a vast range of topics—from Somnatha Temple and Babri Masjid to Tirthankaras and the Akali Movement; from the Shariat and the Eucharist to Shabuoth and nirvana. It places each religion in its historical context, tracing its evolution from its inception to the present. • Incisive profiles of founders and key patrons, deities, saints, mystics and philosophers • Information on and insights into lesser-known and regional forms of worship, as well as important festivals, customs and rituals • Extensively cross-referenced with suggestions for further reading

This comprehensive guide to Southern India’s varied heritage covers all the major Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and European historical monuments and sites in Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The descriptions vary from forts and palaces, and temple architecture, sculpture and painting, to mosques and tombs, and churches and civic buildings. The guide is divided into travel-friendly itineraries, accompanied by useful location maps. Some of the special features of this travel guide are: (1) The most comprehensive coverage of the region's cities and monuments, museums, and archaeological sites. (2) Includes all the major sites – the great port cities of Mumbai, Chennai and Kochi; the citadels of Golconda, Vijaynagara and Gingee; the rock-cut sanctuaries at Ajanta and Ellora; the temples at Badami, Halebid and Thanjuvar; the mosques of Hyderabad and Bijapur; and the cathedrals at Goa – and hundreds of less well-known places. (3) Detailed up-to-date practical information, with maps and archival photographs.

From the linga of Shiva to ritual lamps, from a Vishnu temple to a heap of stones streaked with sacred vermilion, from illustrations of the epic adventures of Rama to a terracotta goddess figurine, the art Hinduism has inspired over the centuries is as rich and various as the religion itself - and, for most Westerners, as unknown. Hindu Art offers a key to this mystery. A splendid, richly illustrated introduction, the book opens to readers the manifold glories of the religious art of the Indian subcontinent. The narratives that Hindu artists illustrate, the gods they depict, and the forms they observe are the products of thousands of years of tradition and development. In a survey that stretches back to prehistory, T. Richard Blurton discusses religious, cultural and historical influences that figure in Hindu art, as well as those that Hinduism shares with Buddhism and Jainism. Tracing the development of Hindu art, he shows how it has come to embrace the widely varying styles of regions from Nepal to Afghanistan, from Sri Lanka to Bangladesh. Against this historical background, Blurton considers the use of images from the three major cults of Hinduism - the worship of Shiva, Vishnu and the Great Goddess - in painting, sculpture and temple architecture. As fascinating as it is informative, Hindu Art offers invaluable insight into one of the world's great and ancient cultures. It will prove an indispensable resource for anyone with an interest in the art of India.

The rich and diverse cultures of India are represented in exquisite detail in this book, which begins with a simple question: what is Indian art? Each thematically organized chapter delves into such topics as religion and myth, epics, festivals, courtly and village life, and the natural world.