The Temple Architecture of India

摘要

Adam Hardy is one of the most original and prolific current writers on Indian temples. His new book offers the most thought-provoking thesis on the principles of temple architecture since Stella Kramrisch's enduringly famous study, The Hindu Temple (1946). Specialists in the field might suspect this compliment of being double-edged, for while Kramrisch's book has always justly been held in high esteem, many readers have ultimately found her portrayal of Indian design processes unconvincing, or incomplete. Some have questioned her claim to have approached the subject from a perspective derived from the temple builders' own shastras (or technical literature) rather than from within a western art-historical system.