From approximately the third century BCE through the thirteenth century CE, the remote mountainous landscape around the glacial sources of the Ganga (Ganges) River in the Central Himalayas in northern India was transformed into a region encoded with deep meaning, one approached by millions of Hindus as a primary locus of pilgrimage.

Nachiket Chanchani's innovative study explores scores of stone edifices and steles that were erected in this landscape. Through their forms, locations, interactions with the natural environment, and sociopolitical context, these lithic ensembles evoked legendary worlds, embedded historical memories in the topography, changed the mountain range's appearance, and shifted its semiotic effect. Mountain Temples and Temple Mountains also alters our understanding of the transmission of architectural knowledge and provides new evidence of how an enduring idea of India emerged in the subcontinent.

Art History Publication Initiative. For more information, visit http://arthistorypi.org/books/mountain-temples-and-temple-mountains

About the Author

Nachiket Chanchani is associate professor in the Department of the History of Art and the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Reviews

"In this beautifully illustrated and carefully researched book, Chanchani offers an innovative breakthrough study of the religion, art, architecture, and culture of the northern Ganga River and central Himalayan area. . . . This study is as pleasurable to read as it is informative. The ideas Chanchani puts forth are provocative and will interest scholars, in various disciplines, who work on the region. Nonspecialists who are curious about the region will also appreciate this work."

* CHOICE *

"[A]n indispensable resource."

* The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians *

"[B]eautifully written, deeply engrossing, and insightfully interdisciplinary book."

* Journal of Asian Studies *

"This delightful, well-illustrated study of Central Himalayan temple architecture and statuary marks a significant addition to the history of Uttarakhand."

* The Indian Economic and Social History Review *

"The author's holistic approach is particularly stimulating; he does not look at temples simply as archaeological monuments inserted into an often-blurry historical context, but as symptoms of larger phenomena that he investigates, combining geographical, ecological, literary, historical, political, social, epigraphical, religious, cultural, stylistic and architectural perspectives."

* Arts Asiatiques *

"An essential text for art historians, central Himalayan scholars, or anyone interested in artifact-based research. It is carefully and incisively written, visually lush with over 100 images...and almost every chapter has a dedicated map focused on that chapter's sites."

* Reading Religion *



Book Information
ISBN 9780295744513
Author Nachiket Chanchani
Format Hardback
Page Count 288
Imprint University of Washington Press
Publisher University of Washington Press
Weight(grams) 567g