Description
Manohar Encyclopaedia of Indian Temple Architecture South India Sri Dravida Devalaya-Vastu Paribhasa Prajnapti (vol-1 Part 5) by M A Dhaky
After the appearance in print of the Encyclopaedia of Indian Temple Architecture (EITA), South India, Volume I, Part 4, logically and as planned, Part 5 was slated to appear. This most complex and difficult of the volumes, which presents an annotated and illustrated glossary of Southern Indian architectural terms, is now published. In each of the preceding publications (Parts 1-4), a glossary was appended, but detailed discussion of the terms, and the logic of their interconnections, was reserved for the final Part, namely this publication. The essay Parts 1-4 were contemplated for updating the information on regional and period styles and, to an extent, for demonstrating how the terms are to be used in describing the temples. This publication provides photographic images and drawings of architectural components that demonstrate the variations in configuration (and decorative detail wherever available). The glossary is arranged according to the logic of temple construction and ordering of the parts of the sacred building. The glossary begins with a description of the procedure for examining the building site, followed by an exposition of terminology relevant to the floor plan, the kinds of measuring tools, units and measurements involved. These preliminaries are followed by a detailed discussion of the morphology of the sanctuary-building and the order of horizontal components, from the foundation to the finial. After listing the terminology of the structure of the sanctum, this volume elucidates the terminology for understanding the kit of parts that make up other structures in South Indian temple complexes, including halls, subsidiary shrines, ancillary buildings, the cloister, and finally the temple-compound walls and their gateways. About the Author Professor M. A. Dhaky (1927-2016), a recipient of the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian award, is an internationally renowned historian of temple art and architecture.