Adam Hardy: Temple, Template, Text

If you are in or around Cambridge, the Cambridge Asian Archaeology Group has an upcoming talk.

Professor Adam Hardy (Cardiff University) will be giving a talk entitled

Temple, Template, Text: Making temples in medieval India

Abstract: At Bhojpur in central India where a gigantic temple attributed to the renowned Paramara king Bhoja was left unfinished in the mid-eleventh century. Quarries and incomplete architectural parts are scattered around the temple, and engraved on the rocks are numerous architectural drawings which have been documented for the first time. Ascribed to the same monarch is the Samaranganasutradhara, a Sanskrit treatise on architecture. For the first time its prescriptions are being translated into architectural drawings, a necessary first step for discussing the relationship between a canonical text and the practice of architecture. The talk will discuss how medieval Indian temples were designed, bringing together the drawings, the text, and the evidence provided by buildings themselves.

4.00-5.00pm, South Lecture Room, Division of Archaeology, Downing Site

Open to all.

Image: Bhojpur Mandir. Taken from Wikipedia/Wikimedia Commons and can be freely distributed.

Linguistic Archaeology and Sanskrit Manuscripts

A new project has "has set out to complete a comprehensive survey of Cambridge University Library’s South Asian manuscript collection, which includes the oldest dated and illustrated Sanskrit manuscript known worldwide.

Written on now-fragile birch bark, palm leaf and paper, the 2,000 manuscripts in the collection express centuries-old South Asian thinking on religion, philosophy, astronomy, grammar, law and poetry."

Click the link to read more.

Exhibition: Jain Manuscripts

There's currently a free exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London on Jain Manuscripts.

Created to accompany the launch of JAINpedia - an ambitious project digitising Jain manuscripts in the UK - this small display shows finely illustrated Jain manuscript pages from the 15th to 19th centuries. Manuscripts were preserved in temple libraries, however the V&A's collection includes examples in a range of styles, some never displayed before.

Until 31st December 2012, in South Asia Room 41.
Planning a visit?

Image: Rules of conduct for monks, page from an Uttaradhyayanasutra manuscript, Gujarat, India about 1450. Copyright V&A Museum