Indian Temple Traditions

Description

The present book deals with 13 Chapters

1: The Human Need for Shrines.

2: The Folk Approaches.

3: Masks, Mountains and Serpents.

4: Mother – Goddesses and Minor spirts.

5: The Evolution of Temple.

6: The Temple as a structure and enterprise.

7: The Temple : Traditional perspective.

8: The World of Icons.

9: The Value of Icons.

10: Indian Iconography.

11: Icons for worship Rituals.

12 : Worship in Temples.

13: Symbolism worshipping in a temple.

The present book deal with cultural detail of a temple.

There have been books dealing with Art and Architecture of Indian Temples, religious and historical aspects of temples legends and myths concerning them, social significance and economic implication of Temple Organization. Very few Books, however, set out to recognize even the existence of a tradition in relation to building, consecrating and worshipping in a Temple. The present volume is modest attempt to delineate the traditional approach to subject of Temples.

There has been a general tendency to ignore the textual prescriptions and traditional accounts while dealing with the Temples, and concentrate only the existing structures and conditions, that are prevalent. And while treating of individual Temples, the general idea of a Temple as a cultural detail is lost sight of. The present attempt to correct this error.

Pages : 225 with B&W illustrations ; Hardcover ;

About the Author : 

Professor Saligrama Krishna Ramachandra Rao, is a well-known scholar who combines traditional learning with modern research. Well versed in Sanskrit, Pali, Ardhmagadhi and several modern Indian languages and acquainted with Tibetan and some European languages, he has written extensively on Vedanta, Buddhism, Janism, Indian Culture, Art and Literature.

In his professional career, however, he was a Professor of Psychology. He has headed the Department of Clinical Psychology in the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore and the Department of Indian Culture in the Collision College Study Center of the University of the Pacific (U.S.A.) He was the senior associate of National Institute of Advanced Studies (Indian Institute of Science), Bangalore, and Guest Faculty, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and member of the Governing Council of TTD (SVCL Research Center), Tirupati. He has been member of Karnataka State Lalitha Kala Academy and Sangita Nritya Academy and Sangita Nritya Academy; he has served on the Agama Board (Govt. of Karnataka). He is President of Silpa-Kala Pratisthana.

The Govt. of Karnataka has honoured him with the 1986 Rajyotsava Award. He has received awards from Lalita-Kala Academy and Sangita Nritya Academy. He has been Awarded the Veda-Sanman for the year 2000 by the Govt. of India (Ministry of HRD, Sandipani Mahavidhyalaya, Ujjain). He has written more than Sixty Books in Kannada, a Play in Sanskrit, and a Pali Commentary on a Buddhist classic. One of his books on Iconography in Kannada has won the State Sahitya Academy Award, as also another of his Book on the Tirupati Temple.