INDIAN TEMPLE SCULPTURE
by
JOHN GUY

£35.00 Hardback ISBN-13 9781851775095
192pp, 150 colour plates,
50 black and white illustrations, 1 map
Published June 2007
From V&A Publications

This innovative new book is themed around Indian temple
arts as instruments of worship – devotional sculptures
which embody, through the combined authority of the
aesthetic and the symbolic, powerful religious experiences.
It examines Indian religious sculpture in the temple
context – its cosmological meaning, its function within the
architectural schema and its dynamic interactive
role in worship. Accessible and multidisciplinary in
its approach, Indian Temple Sculpture reveals the vivid
traditions still in practice today, and opens up a world of
understanding about Indian devotional art.

The origins of sculptural imagery and the emergence of a
formalised pantheon of deities which paralleled the growth
of temple building are explored, along with the later
codification of art-making as reflected in the medieval
artists’manuals (sastras). These guides dictated not only
form but also rasa, the emotional authority of a work
of art. The temple setting is presented and the place of
sculpture in it examined through the eyes of the devotee.
The principal deities are presented through their myths
and manifestations.

Illustrated throughout with the V&A’s unrivalled collection
of South Asian sculpture, this book introduces the reader
to the principal iconographic forms in the three ancient
religions of the Indian subcontinent, Hinduism, Jainism
and Buddhism, conveying a picture of the richness of India’s
religious imagery and providing keys to its understanding.
The sculptures are contextualised with selected archival
images and contemporary photographs of Indian temple
festivals and worship.

AVAILABLE FROM JUNE 2007

V&A Publications
Victoria and Albert Museum
www.vam.ac.uk

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