The body of God : an emperor's palace for Krishna in eighth-century Kanchipuram

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Bibliographic Information

The body of God : an emperor's palace for Krishna in eighth-century Kanchipuram

D. Dennis Hudson ; edited by Margaret H. Case

Oxford University Press, 2008

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. [615]-640) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

This remarkable book is the crowning achievement of the great scholar of Hinduism, D. Dennis Hudson. Although Hudson died without completing it, the work has been edited and brought to fruition by editor Margaret Case. The book is a finely detailed study of a renowned Tamil Hindu temple, the Vaikuntha Perumal (ca. 770 C.E.). Hudson uses this temple as an illustration of one major current and historical stage in South Indian Vaisnava religion. He offers a sustained reading of the temple as a coherent, organized, minutely conceptualized mandala, whose code can be cracked by close analysis of the temple iconography and structure, in the light of major literary and religious texts. Hudson takes the reader step by step on a tour of the temple, moving from the bottom level up, from one sculpted panel to the next. His primary thesis is that the temple itself constitutes a summa theologica for the Bhagavata tradition centered on Krishna as it had developed through the eighth century-by which time this tradition was already at least a thousand years old and had spread widely across South Asia and into Southeast Asia. He argues that, through its full expression of the theology and religious practices of this tradition, the temple offers a crucial hermeneutical key for understanding other temples and texts of the Bhagavata religion.

Table of Contents

  • Editor's Note: Margaret H. Case
  • List of Illustrations
  • Abbreviations
  • Introduction: The Discovery
  • Part I: The Approach to the Vishnu-house
  • 1. The Significance of the Temple
  • 2. Six Concepts
  • 3. The Poem
  • 4. The Emperor's Career Portrayed on the Prakara Wall
  • Part II The Secret Dimension of the Vishnu-house
  • 5. The Temple Mandala and the Bottom-Floor Sanctum
  • 6. The Middle-Floor Sanctum: The Sculpted Program of the Northern Path
  • 7. Northern Panels of the Northern Path: Transforming Power
  • 8. Northern Panels of the Northern Path: Fortifying Omniscience
  • 9. The Middle-Floor Sanctum: The Sculpted Program of the Southern Path
  • 10. The Southern Panels of the Southern Path: "The Path of the Southern Doctrine"
  • Part III The Public Dimension of the Vishnu-house
  • 11. The Vimana Panels on the Western Side
  • 12. The Panels on the Ardhamandapa or Porch
  • 13. The Vimana Panels on the Northern Side
  • 14. The Vimana Panels on the Eastern Side
  • Appendix 1. Who Are the Bhagavatas?
  • Appendix 2. Vasudeva's Path in the Satvata-samhita
  • Appendix 3. Prithu, the People's Indra
  • Appendix 4. Mantras in the Jayakhya-samhita
  • Appendix 5. Periya Tirumoli 2.9
  • Notes
  • Glossary
  • Bibliography
  • Index

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