Banaras Reconstructed : Architecture and Sacred Space in a Hindu Holy City (Global South Asia)

Desai, Madhuri

University of Washington Press（2017/06発売）

• 製本 Hardcover:ハードカバー版／ページ数 304 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9780295741604
• DDC分類 720.954

Full Description

Between the late sixteenth and early twentieth centuries, Banaras, the iconic Hindu center in northern India that is often described as the oldest living city in the world, was reconstructed materially as well as imaginatively, and embellished with temples, monasteries, mansions, and ghats (riverfront fortress-palaces). Banaras's refurbished sacred landscape became the subject of pilgrimage maps and its spectacular riverfront was depicted in panoramas and described in travelogues.

In Banaras Reconstructed, Madhuri Desai examines the confluences, as well as the tensions, that have shaped this complex and remarkable city. In so doing, she raises issues central to historical as well as contemporary Indian identity and delves into larger questions about religious urban environments in South Asia.

Contents

Introduction | The Paradox of Banaras

1. Authenticity and Pilgrimage

2. Palimpsests and Authority

3. Expansion and Invention

4. Spectacle and Ritual

5. Order and Antiquity

6. Visions and Embellishments

Conclusion | Banaras Revisited