Indian Temple Architecture: Form and Transformation, the Karnata Dravida Tradition, 7th to 13th Centuries

Abstract

Transformation of forms of indian temples takes place through a dual process-time as well as space. This 2 patterns of transformation, through time and in space reflect one another closely. One of the richest traditions of temple building that India has produced took shape in the 7th century A.D,centred in what is now the state of Karanataka, and lasted until the 13th century. This was one of the 2 main branches of Dravida or southern temple architecture, giving rise to such famous temples as the Virupaksha, Pattadakal, the Kailasa, Ellora. The present volume shows how to look at this great monuments, and make their complex architecture accessible. It shows how the formal structure of a temple makes concrete the idea of manifestation of the eternal and infinite into the shifting multiplicity of existence and the limitless unity from which they have come.