Main entry:

Sears, Tamara I.

Title & Author:

Worldly gurus and spiritual kings : architecture and asceticism in medieval India / Tamara I. Sears.

Publication:

New Haven, Connecticut : Yale University Press, [2014]

Description:

xiii, 284 pages : illustrations, maps ; 29 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
In search of Drunken Peacocks : mapping monastic histories from forest to state -- Inscribing asceticism : epigraphic practices and the materiality of text -- From hermit's hut to guru's mansion : ascetic practice and monastic life at Kadwaha and Ranod -- Expanding arenas of devotion : temple icons and living sages at Terahi and Surwaya -- Constructing the guru : religious networks in the kingdom of the Kalachuris -- Epilogue and aftermath : the legacy of the Drunken Peacocks.
Dust jacket.

Summary:

This pioneering book is the first full-length study of the matha, or Hindu monastery, which developed in India at the turn of the first millennium. Rendered monumentally in stone, the matha represented more than just an architectural innovation: it signaled the institutionalization of asceticism into a formalized monastic practice, as well as the emergence of the guru as an influential public figure. With entirely new primary research, Tamara I. Sears examines the architectural and archaeological histories of six little-known monasteries in Central India and reveals the relationships between political power, religion, and the production of sacred space. This important work of scholarship features scrupulous original measured drawings, providing a vast amount of new material and a much-needed contribution to the fields of Asian art, religious studies, and cultural history. In introducing new categories of architecture, this book illuminates the potential of buildings to reconfigure not only social and ritual relationships but also the fundamental ontology of the world.

ISBN:

9780300198447 (cloth ; alk. paper)
0300198442 (cloth ; alk. paper)

Subject:

Guru
Hindu architecture India.
Hindu monasteries India.
Architecture, Medieval India.
Architecture and society India.
Architecture hindoue Inde.
Monastères hindous Inde.
Architecture médiévale Inde.
Architecture et société Inde.
20.49 Hindu art.
21.60 architecture: general.
15.75 history of Asia.
Architecture and society.
Architecture, Medieval.
Hindu architecture.
Hindu monasteries.
Askese
Hinduismus
Klosteranlage
Macht
Monachisme et ordres religieux hindous Inde.
Architecture Aspect social Inde.
India.
Indien

Holdings:

Location: Library main 286213
Call No.: BIB 226421
Status: Available