Early Buddhist Architecture in Context
Early Buddhist Architecture in Context

Author: Akira Shimada

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2012-11-09

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 9004232834

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The book provides an updated chronology of the Amar?vat? st?pa and argues its close link with the long-term development of urbanization of this region between ca. 200 BCE-250 CE based on the latest archaeological, art-historical and epigraphic evidence.

Amaravati
Amaravati

Author: Jas Elsner

Publisher: Reaktion Books

Published: 2024-07-06

Total Pages: 718

ISBN-13: 1789149088

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A visual exploration of the Buddhist stupa or reliquary mounds at one of ancient India’s most remarkable monuments at Amarāvatī. In this book, Jaś Elsner presents a fresh perspective on the rich visual culture of ancient South Asia, connecting the stupa’s artistic innovations with advancements in Buddhist philosophy and practice. He offers new insights into early Buddhist art in South India, as well as a new understanding of the relationship between early Buddhism and its material culture. The photographs collected here, particularly those featuring objects from the British Museum in London, reveal in detail how the stupa communicated Buddhist teachings and practices to its followers, making this book an invaluable resource for students and scholars alike.

Comprehensive History and Culture of Andhra Pradesh: Pre- and protohistoric Andhra Pradesh up to 500 BC
Comprehensive History and Culture of Andhra Pradesh: Pre- and protohistoric Andhra Pradesh up to 500 BC

Author: M. L. K. Murty

Publisher: Orient Blackswan

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 9788125024750

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This volume traces archaeological research undertaken in Andhra Pradesh going back to the nineteenth century when the cultures of the region were explored and documented. In the 1950s, scholars conducted culture-historic research across the physiographical regions of Andhra Pradesh, following trends in India and Old World. 1970s saw a shift from the historic approach to the development of models for the contextual study of sites, and the explanation of the archaeological record in terms of the adaptive behaviour of past societies.

Early Medieval Andhra Pradesh, AD 624-1000
Early Medieval Andhra Pradesh, AD 624-1000

Author: B. Rajendra Prasad

Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 359

ISBN-13: 9788189487546

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This third volume in the Comprehensive History and Culture of Andhra Pradesh series spans the Early Medieval period, from AD 624 to 1000. This period was one of distributive economics and regional cultures, and marked a transition in the political, economic, social and cultural spheres. Identity and status were provided to Telugu, the language of the land, and also to various communities in the varna structure. The role of landed intermediaries and of religious sects - Pasupata, Kalamukha, Kapalika, Siddha, Jaina - was significant. The year ad 624 saw the establishment of the Vatapi/Badami Chalukyas over Andhra Desa and an independent collateral power in Vengi that rose to prominence in the geopolitics of southern India. The patrimonial states of the Banas, Renadu Cholas and Nolambas, and Gangas of Kalinga held their respective regions, acknowledging Chalukyan overlordship. With the fall of the Chalukyas of Badami, the Chalukyan lineages of Vemulawada and Mudigonda in Telangana and Elamanchili in Vengi Desa became prominent. In matters of religion, Sriparvata (Srisailam) was a renowned holy centre. By the tenth century the concept of Pancharama Kshetras emerged - the nucleus being Draksharama. Srikalahasti was a prominent Saiva shrine, and Tirumala and Ahobilam were well known among the Vaishnava holy centres. Temple-building activity witnessed an intrusive north Indian style which later eclipsed, giving way to the indigenous upper Dravida Desa style. Alampur evolved into a prominent school of art and architectural styles in the Andhra-Karnataka region, while Hemavathi nurtured by the Nolambas influenced southern Karnataka and Andhra Desa, and Mukhalingam flourished as the dominant school of Kalinga. The economy was primarily agrarian in nature, and in the Telangana region agriculture was expanded through tank irrigation. Thus a process of economic integration began and the temple as the centre of the economy grew to its heights in the period after AD 1000.

The Routledge Handbook of the State in Premodern India
The Routledge Handbook of the State in Premodern India

Author: Hermann Kulke

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-01-13

Total Pages: 594

ISBN-13: 1000485145

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This handbook presents a multilayered and multidimensional history of state formation in premodern India. It explores dense and rich local and subregional historiography from the mid-first millennium BC to the eighteenth century in South Asia. Shifting the focus away from economic and political factors, this handbook revises the conventional understanding of states and empires and locates them in their quotidian conduct and activity on socio-cultural and concomitant factors. Comprehensive in scope, this handbook addresses a range of themes connected with the idea of state formation in the subcontinent. It includes discussions and debates on ritual practices and the Brahmanical order in early India; the Delhi Sultanate and role of Sultans among the Hindu kings; the cosmopolitan ‘Islamicate’ cultural influences on Puranic Hinduism; cultural background of the Mughal state. The handbook examines new questions and ideologies of state formation, such as: · facets of violence and resistance; · the significance of the autonomous spaces and forests; · regional elites, including ‘Little kings’; tribal background of some famous cults; · trade and maritime commerce; · royal patronage, courtly manners, lineage formation; · imperial architecture, monuments, and temple, among others. Featuring case studies from different part of the India subcontinent, and with contributions by renowned historians, this authoritative handbook will be an indispensable reading for teachers, scholars, and students of early India, medieval India, premodern India, South Asian history, Asian history, historiography, economic history, historical sociology, and South Asia studies.

Text and Tradition in South India
Text and Tradition in South India

Author: Velcheru Narayana Rao

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2017-06-01

Total Pages: 508

ISBN-13: 143846777X

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Velcheru Narayana Rao's contribution to understanding Indian cultural history, literary production, and intellectual life—specifically from the vantage of the Andhra region—has few parallels. He is one of the very rare scholars to be able to reflect magisterially on the precolonial and colonial periods. He moves easily between Sanskrit and the vernacular traditions, and between the worlds of orality and script. This is because of his mastery of the "classical" Telugu tradition. As Sanjay Subrahmanyam puts it in his Introduction, "To command nearly a thousand years of a literary tradition is no small feat, but more important still is VNR's ability constantly to offer fresh readings and provocative frameworks for interpretation." The essays and reflections in Text and Tradition in South India bring together the diverse and foundational contributions made by Narayana Rao to the rewriting of India's cultural and literary history. The book is for anyone interested in the history of Indian ideas, the social and cultural history of South India, and the massive intellectual traditions of the subcontinent.