Mountain Temples & Temple Mountains: Architecture, Religion, And Nature in the Central Himalayas

‘Arguing for parallels in temple architecture and evolving places of pilgrimage in both the Central Himalayas and more distant places such as Gujarat, NachiketChanchani introduces hitherto less explored aspects of potential connections to enrich studies of early medieval India. A fine example of the dialogue between history and art history.’ — Romila Thapar, Historian & author of Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300From approximately the third century BCE through the thirteenth century CE, the remote mountainous landscape around the glacial sources of the Ganga (Ganges) River in the Central Himalayas in northern India was transformed into a region encoded with deep meaning, one approached by millions of Hindus as a primary locus of pilgrimage. Nachiket Chanchani’s innovative study explores scores of stone edifices and steles that were erected in this landscape.

Through their forms, locations, interactions with the natural environment, and sociopolitical context, these lithic ensembles evoked legendary worlds, embedded historical memories in the topography, changed the mountain range’s appearance, and shifted its semiotic effect. Mountain Temples & Temple Mountains alters our understanding of the transmission of architectural knowledge and provides new evidence of how an enduring idea of India emerged in the subcontinent.

Nachiket Chanchani

Nachiket Chanchani is an associate professor in the Department of the History of Art and the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.