Temples et expansion d'un centre religieux en Inde centrale : lectures du paysage archéologique de Badoh-Pathari du 5e au 10ème siècle

Abstract

Based on new data acquired from fieldwork, this Ph.D. dissertation is devoted to the archaeological study of temples and their place in the expansion of an important site in Central India, Badoh-Pathari (Vidisa district, Madhya Pradesh), between the 5th and the 10th century AD. This empirical research covers a geographic area of about 80 km², in which a large number of sites and remains from temples and hydraulic structures were discovered and examined. As historic artefacts organized in space and time and within various ecological and anthropogenic contexts, the remains of these temples and hydraulic structures testify of several interrelated socioeconomic processes in the formation of a centre in early medieval time. This work deals not only with the material of these artefacts and the structural configuration of the sites, but also with the landscape in which they are kept and distributed, reflecting how the dynamic rela! tionship between man and environment were forged. It is crucial to integrate the study of both material sources and landscape in a historical context in order to address the question about the role of religious institutions in the economic, political and religious development of a centre in early medieval time. The purpose of this work is: (1) to examine in detail the remains and their archaeological context, as well as the spatial and chronological distribution of sites, (2) to explore the landscape features in which they are kept, the functions of hydraulic structures and their spatial relation to cult sites, (3) to develop an integrated analysis of various data in the framework of a geographic information system (GIS).