Panorama Of Himalayan Architecture Temples

The Present Study, Divided Into Two Parts, Deals With The Socio-Geographical Mosaic, The Racio-Cultural Background And Discusses The Factors Responsible For The Development Of The Wooden Temple Architecture In The Western Himalayas.

From 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 and Temple Mountains also alters our understanding of the transmission of architectural knowledge and provides new evidence of how an enduring idea of India emerged in the subcontinent. Art History Publication Initiative. For more information, visit http://arthistorypi.org/books/mountain-temples-and-temple-mountains

This volume was first published by Inter-Disciplinary Press in 2015. Storytelling has always played a central role in the formation of cultures and communities. All cultures define themselves and their place in the world through their stories. Similarly, our identities are largely constructed as narratives, and it is with the aid of storytelling that we manage to conceive of ourselves – our selves – as meaningful wholes. Thus, storytelling is not ever absent: it is to be found in literature, social life, in the places we visit and the buildings we live in. This volume presents storytelling in various appearances: from ancient myths and oral history, to transmedia narratives and digital stories. Different forms of narrative are analysed, as is the use of storytelling as a method for e.g. counselling, education and research. Throughout twenty-five chapters, a compelling overview of recent research on the topic is provided, both stressing the omnipresence of storytelling and exploring what storytelling is and isn’t.

Hinduism, as is well known, has taken a multitude of shapes and forms. Some Hindu "little traditions" have remained obscure or understudied to this day due to their regional remoteness. One such offshoot is the influential cult of Mahasu, which has existed since medieval times in a part of the western Himalaya. The deity at the core of the cult takes the form of four primary Mahasus with territorial influence, installed in various far-flung temples. Their geographical center is the village of Hanol, and the larger territory is integrated into the Mahasu politico-religious system by a peripatetic deity with loyal followers across a considerable domain. Mahasu remains influential in the region, its ritual practices having remained quite distinct despite social change. An anthropological survey was conducted in its terrain during British times, but Till Kingdom Come is the first book to offer a detailed framework, a fine-grained history, and an analytically nuanced understanding of one of the rarest branches of Hindu worship.

Study on the folk arts of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Uttaranchal.