Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. Hardcover. English. See images for condition.

About the book >.>.> The red sandstone temple of Govindadeva built in the sixteenth century stands on a hill in the midst of the holy city of Vrindaban. It is the largest temple ever built to have been designed as a single structure and immediately impresses a visitor with the strength of its massive exterior and the flying vaulted spaces of its interior. It could in fact be called a “Mughal temple” for it was built with Akbar’s patronage by Mana Simha one of the highest Mughal officials and its red sandstone construction stamped it with the hallmark of Mughal imperial style. But it was designed to serve the purposes of the new devotional Vaisnavism being spread by the followers of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. This volume for the first time presents a detailed study of Govindadeva’s design and iconography richly illustrated with photographs and drawings. Other chapters discuss the history of its construction and desecration under Aurangzeb and describe the temples built along the way for the image of Sri Govindadeva when he travelled to his present home in Jaipur. Documentation from manuscript archives brings alive the lineage of priests serving the temple and the ritual life of the temple is reconstructed from manuscript sources. The authors are noted Indian American and European scholars. The editor Margaret H. Case lives in Vrindaban and Lawrenceville New Jersey; she has edited a number of volumes most recently Heinrich Zimmer: Coming into His Own (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1994). (MP)