''Mountain Temples and Temple Mountains: Architecture, Religion, and Nature in the Central Himalayas'' is a 2019 book by art historian Nachiket Chanchani, associate professor at

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, that provides a complete historical survey of temple architecture in the Indian state of

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...

(also known as ''Devabhumi'',

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

for "Land of the Gods"), and explores how the Central Himalaya region, home to many pilgrimage sites, came to acquire immense religious significance for

Hindus Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

. It is the first complete art historical and architectural survey of the under-studied region.

Synopsis

Between the third century BCE and 13th century CE, the region that is modern-day

acquired immense religious significance and became home to many pilgrimage sites, most notably the

Char Dham The Char Dham (meaning: ''four abodes'') is a set of four pilgrimage sites in India. It is believed that visiting these sites helps achieve moksha (salvation). The four Dhams are, Badrinath, Dwarka, Puri and Rameswaram. It is believed that ev ...

, considered to be among the holiest pilgrimage sites for

. Chanchani's book studies the many stone edifices and

steles A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...

that were erected across the region, many in remote areas, during that period. The book charts the architectural history of the structures and temples, the sociopolitical context in which they arose, and their effects on the surrounding landscape, including the

natural environment The natural environment or natural world encompasses all life, living and non-living things occurring nature, naturally, meaning in this case not Artificiality, artificial. The term is most often applied to the Earth or some parts of Earth. Th ...

Reception

The book was well-received and noted for being the first exhaustive survey of an under-studied region. Tamara Sears, associate professor of art history at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

, praised the book in her review in the ''

Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians The ''Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians'' () is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the University of California Press on behalf of the Society of Architectural Historians. It was established in 1941 as the '' ...

'': "What makes Nachiket Chanchani's new book Mountain Temples and Temple Mountains such a monumental achievement, however, is not merely the fact that it brings to light a remarkable range of unknown monuments but also that it so convincingly asserts their centrality within the broader history of temple architecture on the Indian subcontinent." She goes on to acknowledge Chanchani's "rigorous fieldwork" and "close visual analysis with theoretical sophistication". In ''

The Journal of Asian Studies ''The Journal of Asian Studies'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Asian Studies, covering Asian studies, ranging from history, the arts, social sciences, to phil ...

'', anthropologist

Joseph Alter Joseph S. Alter is an American medical anthropologist known for his research into the modern practice of yoga as exercise, his 2004 book ''Yoga in Modern India'', and the physical and medical culture of South Asia. Biography Joseph S. Alter wa ...

wrote: "Although the region is of tremendous importance in the landscape of South Asian pilgrimage and ascetic world renunciation, there has not been a comprehensive study of this sacred geography's cultural history until the publication of this beautifully written, deeply engrossing and insightfully interdisciplinary book."

References

External links

Official page - University of Washington Press
{{Authority control University of Washington Press books Art history books Hindu temple architecture Books about India 2019 non-fiction books English-language books Culture of Uttarakhand History of Uttarakhand

Synopsis

Reception

See also

References

External links