The Sapta Sthala Along The Kaveri: Among the Earliest Chola Temples Epigraphy as a Tool

Abstract

In 1985, Rick Asher and G.S. Gai, jointly edited a volume published by the American Institute for Indian Studies that was titled Indian Epigraphy. Its Bearing on the History of Art. The volume carried 50 papers, short, succinct, but truly important for art historians – the result of a conference held at Varanasi in 1979. My review for the Journal of Asian Studies ended with the comment that this was a book that would find itself on the shelf of any library interested in South Asia. My paper today is a tribute to Rick and his unerring sense of areas of significance in the field in which we have all involved ourselves over the years.