Michael W. Meister

Maṇḍala and Practice in Nāgara Architecture in North India@@@Mandala and Practice in Nagara Architecture in North India

A field study of Hindu monuments in Northern India shows that the 64-square grid of the Vastupurusamandala prescribed in texts for temple structures was given practical application in developing groundplans for temples in the seventh and eighth centuries. Central and Western India had separate systems for application of this Mandala. Constructional and aesthetic considerations alter the Mandalas utility as the architecture and ornament of the Hindu temple develop in the eighth century. Regional interaction can be traced in the ninth century as Central India adopts and adjusts the Western Indian system. Reference to such a Mandala may be found in the proportions of temples as late as the eleventh century in the moldings of the central Prasada. The ritual grid, however, no longer was itself of use for the temples construction.

De- and Re-constructing the Indian Temple

In a contemporary world where “deconstruction” is an appropriate position for literary criticism and “de-constructivism” an appropriate architectural response to the human environment, I am reminded of one Indian philosophers argument to prove the theorem that any number times zero equals zero: “If the sequence 1 × 1 = 1, 1 × ½ = ½, 1 × ¼ = ¼ …, etc., holds, its logical termination must be 1 × 0 = 0.” If a building has no meaning, is it worth taking apart?

On the Development of a Morphology for a Symbolic Architecture: India

For some years I have been working to decode the system of symbolism built into the architectural morphology of the Hindu temple.1 This symbolism is incorporated into the temple in its plan, elevation, and decorative veneer. The present essay is intended as a prolegomenon for the study of such a symbolic morphology and as a statement that the programme for such a symbolic architecture is integral to its form, not a pastiche.2

Temples of the Indus: Studies in the Hindu Architecture of Ancient Pakistan

Drawing on recent archaeology and scholarship, this book establishes a sequence of temples built between the sixth and tenth centuries in Pakistans northwest that provide a missing chapter in the evolution and origins of the HIndu temple in South Asia.

Crossing Lines: Architecture in Early Islamic South Asia

The architecture of early Islamic South Asia shows in clear material terms multiple layers of reception, local marking, and subversion. That local aspects of construction and ornament were incorporated into early Islamic monuments is an increasingly accepted concept, yet substantive incorporation of local beliefs has hardly been approached. Both Hindu and Muslim monuments from early Islamic Pakistan suggest that such an issue should be raised.1

Mimesis across empires: artworks and networks in India, 1765–1860, by Natasha Eaton, Durham, NC, Duke University Press, 2013, 352 pp., US

Chapter 8 describes the 1857 uprising and its impact on the Muslim communities of Delhi. It is mostly in Chapters 9 through 14 that Pernau develops her argument and provides a detailed analysis of how the new middle classes emerged. In short, the whole first half of her book is dedicated to the historical, social, and cultural background of the time period. While this is certainly interesting (and also well written), it could have been shortened significantly to meet the taste of an Anglo-American readership. The book has also not been updated much since it was published first in 2008. A lot of relevant scholarship has been produced since then, which could have enriched its conclusions. However, these are minor points. In all, this is an interesting study that offers a fresh approach to an under-researched field within Indian history. It is based on extensive research that included many Urdu and some Persian sources in addition to British colonial records. Pernau’s concept of plural identities works wonderfully for this topic, as does the connection to New Imperial History. It is a testament to her scholarship that it can inspire the scholarly debates mentioned earlier and many more. Pernau’s book will fascinate not only scholars of South Asia but also those who are interested in transnational histories and the relationship between modernity and Muslim societies.

29.95 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-8223-5480-2

the book ends with the discussion of contemporary devotional activities at Ellora with a photograph of a path marked by boulders laid by the local Jain community to link the modern Jain temple on top of the hill to Ellora’s ninthand tenth-century caves. As the forty-first volume of Brill’s Indological Library series, which began as an interdisciplinary series dedicated to the studyof India’s vibrant cultural traditions in 1991, this book joins a list of landmark studies in the historyof Indian art and architecture, which includes recent titles like Alka Patel’s Building Communities in Gujarāt: Architecture and Society during the Twelfth through Fourteenth Centuries (volume 22, 2004), Michael Meister’s Temples of the Indus: Studies in the Hindu Architecture of Ancient Pakistan (volume 35, 2010), and Pia Brancaccio, The Buddhist Caves at Aurangabad: Transformations in Art and Religion (volume 34, 2011). One hundred and twenty-one figures accompany the book, which are all reproduced in black and white on glossy paper at the end of the book in a simple but effective layout. The figures include one map, one site plan, and three ground plans. All but four images are the author’s own photographs, with many showing details of the site that have rarely been reproduced. This is not an architectural study, as the author makes it clear from the beginning, and it is understandable that the author decided to reproduce the plans from Fergusson and Burgess’s 1880 report, with the numbering system from Pereira’s 1977 publication on Jain caves at Ellora, instead of producing a new ground plan based on empirical architectural data. However, it would have been beneficial to have an enlarged version of the site plan or a version highlighting the Jain temples within Ellora’s site plan. Perhaps due to the size and the format of the book, the site plan is reproduced in a considerably reduced scale from the original, and it is impossible to read the legends. While Pereira’s numbering system helps to designate various spaces within a larger architectural context, it would also have been useful to have a diagram or plan that illustrates the phenomenological approach to the space as a lived, ritual space that the author labours to demonstrate in Chapter 5. Given the constant use of Sanskrit terms in the book, which perhaps suits the intended specialist readers, a glossary of terms would have been a welcome feature, given that each term is only explained once at the first instance of its appearance in the entire text. Date information is sorely missing in captions and in the list of illustrations, and a chronological table identifying the relationship between all the excavations, not only Jain but also Hindu and Buddhist ones, would have helped the study to reach its ambitious goal of locating Ellora’s Jain monuments within the multireligious context of the site. Aside from my idealist wish list of minor features, the book is informative, clearly written, and presents an insightful and contextualized view of the Jain caves at Ellora

Art and Icon: Essays on Early Indian Art

The question ofchronology is one of the uppermost in the mind ofthe author. The general question one might raise as far as this issue is concerned is that while a comparative exercise of this kind is no doubt very relevant, can it really give us a secure chronological stratification of the text? For instance, how can we be sure that the point when a particular technical term occurs for the first time in an inscription corresponds to the time when it made its way into the Arthasdstra (or round about the same time)? On the other hand, it cannot be denied that a comparative study of this kind can be useful in giving us certain broad indications about the internal chronology ofthe text. Hence, Mishras book carries the debate over the age and authorship of the Arthasdstra further and his conclusions need to be carefully considered and compared with those ofT.R. Trautmann.

The Architectural Heritage of Himachal Pradesh: Origin and Development of Temple Styles

The question of chronology is one of the uppermost in the mind of the author. The general question one might raise as far as this issue is concerned is that while a comparative exercise of this kind is no doubt very relevant, can it really give us a secure chronological stratification of the text? For instance, how can we be sure that the point when a particular technical term occurs for the first time in an inscription corresponds to the time when it made its way into the Arthasastra (or round about the same time)? On the other hand, it cannot be denied that a comparative study of this kind can be useful in giving us certain broad indications about the internal chronology of the text. Hence, Mishras book carries the debate over the age and authorship of the Arthasastra further and his conclusions need to be carefully considered and compared with those ofT.R. Trautmann.

Book Review: The Architectural Heritage of Himachal Pradesh: Origin and Development of Temple StylesThakurLaxman S., The Architectural Heritage of Himachal Pradesh: Origin and Development of Temple Styles (Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 1996). Pp. xx + 180: 132 plates, 48 figures. Rs 750.00.

1- Introduction 2- architecture 3- sculpture 4- the niched images 5- sculptures on the upright posts 6- the pillar medallions and brackets 7- the detached sculptures from the stepwell 8- the date, autorship and style of the Ranki Vav