Synopsis
This is the first modern monograph to draw together all the strands of India's architectural history - from the Vedic and native traditions of early India, through Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic and secular architecture, to the eclecticism of the British Raj. An understanding of Indian history and religion is the basis for the understanding of the complex pattern of relationships in the evolution of its architecture. Therefore, the background material covers major invasions, migrations, dynastic conflicts and cultural and commercial connections, the main religious developments and their significance and repercussions, and external architectural precedents. While avoiding the usual misleading division of the subject into "Buddhist and Hindu" and "Islamic" parts the importance of religion, symbolism and myth to the development of characteristic Indian architectural forms is fully explained. Hundred of photographs, engravings, and plans and elevations produced to a set of uniform scales are closely integrated with the text, resulting in a book which expresses the richness and complexity of Indian architecture.
Christopher Tadgell is Senior Lecturer in Architectural History at the Canterbury School of Architecture. Kent Institute of Art and Design. His main research field is French classical architecture, but the present volume is the outcome of a life-long fascination with India. In 1985 he was Morgan Professor of Architectural Design at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, where he taught Indian and French architectural history, and in 1987 a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. He has lectured widely in Britain and America on French and Indian subjects.
