Constructing Kanchi

City of Infinite Temples

Emma Natalya Stein (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

300 Seiten

2025
Routledge (Verlag)
9781041177432 (ISBN)

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Constructing Kanchi: City of Infinite Temples traces the emergence of the South Indian city of Kanchi as a major royal capital and multireligious pilgrimage destination during the era of the Pallava and Chola dynasties (ca. seventh through thirteenth centuries). The book presents the first-ever comprehensive picture of historical Kanchi, locating the city and its more than 100 spectacular Hindu temples at the heart of commercial and artistic exchange that spanned India, Southeast Asia, and China. The author demonstrates that Kanchi was structured with a hidden urban plan, which determined the placement and orientation of temples around a central thoroughfare that was also a burgeoning pilgrimage route. Moving outwards from the city, she shows how the transportation networks, river systems, residential enclaves, and agrarian estates all contributed to the vibrancy of Kanchi’s temple life. The construction and ongoing renovation of temples in and around the city, she concludes, has enabled Kanchi to thrive continuously from at least the eighth century, through the colonial period, and up until the present.

Emma Natalya Stein (PhD, Yale) is Assistant Curator of South and Southeast Asian Art at the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art. Her research investigates the relationships among sacred architecture, urban space, and tropical landscapes. Dr. Stein has conducted fieldwork throughout South and Southeast Asia.

Acknowledgements, List of Illustrations, Note on Transliteration, Translation, and Illustrations, Introduction: All Streets Lead to Temples, An Ancient City, Layers of Time, Kanchi Known and Unknown, 1 Sandstone and the City: Building Pallava-Kanchi (ca. seventh through ninth century), 2 Realignment: Kanchi in the Chola Era (ca. tenth through thirteenth century), 3 The City and its Ports, 4 Kanchi Under Colonialism: What Happened in Kanchi while those Towering Gateways Arose?, Conclusion: Plastered Pasts, Epilogue: The Living Temple, Bibliography, Index

Erscheinungsdatum	03.12.2025
Reihe/Serie	Asian Cities
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Gewicht	560 g
Themenwelt	Kunst / Musik / Theater
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Hilfswissenschaften
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
ISBN-13	9781041177432 / 9781041177432
Zustand	Neuware