Himanshu Prabha Ray | Jawaharlal Nehru University (original) (raw)
Videos by Himanshu Prabha Ray
Book Talk - Himanshu Prabha Ray, Coastal Shrines and Transnational Maritime Heritage, Routledge, ... more Book Talk - Himanshu Prabha Ray, Coastal Shrines and Transnational Maritime Heritage, Routledge, 2021.
https://www.routledge.com/Coastal-Shrines-and-Transnational-Maritime-Networks-across-India-and-Southeast/Ray/p/book/9781138365674
By focusing on nautical histories, architecture and archaeology, and the mapping and remapping of maritime conceptions of space across two millennia, this book will reorient the reader from the conventional linear imperial construct of maritime history as domination, conflict and control to looking at the reality of constant cultural transfer and transmission within the domain of the Indian Ocean world.
371 views
Papers by Himanshu Prabha Ray
Acta Via Serica, 2024
The paper addresses trans-oceanic connectivity in the period from the 3rd century BCE to the 6th ... more The paper addresses trans-oceanic connectivity in the period from the 3rd century BCE to the 6th century CE, through the perspective of multi-religious networks across the Indian Ocean and underscores differences between the western Indian Ocean and those that spread across the Bay of Bengal. Though there is evidence for the circulation of Buddhism from Egypt in the west to Vietnam in the east, Christianity is by and large limited to the western Indian Ocean. Across the Bay of Bengal, Buddhism was coterminous with Hinduism. These long-distance networks coexisted with local and regional cults indicating plurality in the religious landscape of the Indian Ocean world.
European Journal of Archaeology, 2010
This volume discusses larger issues relating to the practice and institutionalization of the disc... more This volume discusses larger issues relating to the practice and institutionalization of the discipline of archaeology under British rule and assesses the extent to which colonial intervention shaped the nascent discipline of archaeology in South Asia, especially with reference to the study ...
Rajatarangini Recent Researches in Archaeology and History, 2024
Underwater archaeology studies the past through submerged remains, such as shipwrecks, but also i... more Underwater archaeology studies the past through submerged remains, such as shipwrecks, but also includes analysis of changes in sea-levels resulting from seismic activity or global warming and climate change. In India, underwater archaeology has yet to develop as an independent field of study despite UNESCO’s 2001 Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage, which has been signed by sixty-one countries.
There has been a phenomenal increase in the numbers of shipwreck sites that have been discovered elsewhere in the world, but especially across the Bay of Bengal with many countries of Southeast Asia investing in establishing centres for the development of underwater archaeology. While only two sites were documented prior to 1974 in Southeast Asian waters, more than a hundred have been reported since then, with an average number of four or five sites being discovered every year. How does this compare with shipwreck finds in Indian waters? Unfortunately, the answer to this question presents a dismal picture of neglect and apathy of an important area of study.
The oldest shipwreck in the Indian Ocean region dates to first century BCE – first century CE and lies off the fishing village of Godavaya on the south coast of Sri Lanka. The ship was transporting a cargo of raw materials from India, including what appear to be ingots of iron and others of glass, as well as finished stone querns (hand-operated mills) and ceramic bowls, when it sank some time before the first century CE. A second example is the Kadakkarapally boat found in a coconut grove in Kerala with no associated finds, which was radiocarbon dated to the eleventh and twelfth century CE and represents a cargo-carrying sailing craft best suited for the backwaters and large rivers of Kerala.
This paper addresses the primary issue: how do finds of shipwreck sites impact not only an understanding of maritime history, but more importantly have a bearing on the present?
The Asian review of world histories, Feb 7, 2024
Routledge eBooks, Oct 4, 2022
The International Journal of Maritime History, 2004
International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, Feb 16, 2016
Two volumes of the journal Eurasian Prehistory have been devoted to publishing the proceedings of... more Two volumes of the journal Eurasian Prehistory have been devoted to publishing the proceedings of a Wenner-Gren Workshop held at Reggio Calabria, 19-21 October 2012, on the subject of 'Island Archaeology and the origins of Seafaring in the Eastern Mediterranean'. The workshop was the brainchild of Albert Ammerman and it is he who has brought together this remarkable publication. The core of the work is made up of 17 specialist papers grouped into two parts, 'Placing island archaeology and early voyaging in context' and 'Case Studies', the latter being divided into sections covering Cyprus, the Aegean, and the Central and Western Mediterranean. This is rich material indeed-a series of specialist studies dealing with chronologies, individual sites, material culture, faunal studies and folk movements within the temporal bracket from the middle Palaeolithic to the early Neolithic. Together these papers present the raw material and the interpretive frameworks needed to address the central theme of the workshop. It is a daunting array of high-quality scholarship presented by those at the cutting edge of research, and to bind it all together it is bookended by two papers by Ammerman. His 'Introduction', which sets out in detail the broad intellectual context for the workshop, and a tail piece 'Setting our sights on the distant horizon', which offers a masterly summary of what has been learnt and lays out the questions still needing to be addressed. These two papers are a significant academic contribution in their own right-a state-of-the-art overview and a research design for the future. In short the publication is a model of its kind; closely focused, packed with new data, and deeply challenging. So, what is it all about? Quite simply, we know that about 50,000 years ago early modern humans made the sea crossing from the Indonesian islands to Australia. It was a remarkable feat of daring and an even more remarkable achievement. What then can be said of the origins of seafaring in the Mediterranean, where for so long there has been the implied assumption that seafaring was one of the arts that was developed much later by complex societies? That this was a false assumption was shown some years ago when, in excavating stratified deposits in Franchthi Cave, overlooking the bay of Argos on the Greek mainland, archaeologists found tools made of obsidian, a black volcanic glass brought from the island of Melos, 120 km away, in layers dating to 11,000 BC. Clearly towards the end of the Upper Palaeolithic period people were making overseas journeys. It was this discovery that prompted archaeologists to begin to rethink the origins of seafaring in the Eastern Mediterranean inspiring the research presented in this work. The Mediterranean is a good place to address the question of early seafaring because of the controls offered by its array of islands. In his 'Introduction' Ammerman lays out the basis of the proper procedure to be adopted. The first step is to know when an island became an island given that significant changes in sea-level have been recorded in the Mediterranean. With sea-levels falling to c.120-130 m below its present levels some 20,000 years ago, many of what are now islands would have been joined to the mainland and therefore could have been reached on foot. The second step is to make sure that no one was on the island at the time when the first seafarers reached it. Islands like Lemnos and Gökçeada in the North Aegean were part of the mainland until the end of the Pleistocene and therefore the Palaeolithic material found on them cannot be used to imply seafaring at this time (papers by Efstatiou, and Ozbek and Burçin). Similarly, the possibility that Sicily may have been attached to the mainland in the Late Glacial Maximum could account for the earliest undisputed evidence for Homo Sapiens on the island around 15,500 BC (paper by Mannino). The third step is to explore the inferences of the earliest archaeological remains found on the island, both the cultural implications (where from and when?) and the faunal implications (what animals did they bring with them and how?). These are crucial issues to which we shall return. The fourth step is the simple check that there is no other way to explain the human presence other than by seafaring. This is the Sherlock Holmes test: 'When you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.' The nice scientific logic of all this is self-evident but in reality it may not be that simple. The old adage that all wise archaeologists chant to themselves incessantly-'absence of evidence is not evidence of absence'-is crucial to take into account. The fact that no evidence of Mesolithic activity has been found on a particular island does not mean
This paper draws on my work on the maritime history of early South and Southeast Asia and the use... more This paper draws on my work on the maritime history of early South and Southeast Asia and the use of sea-lanes of the Indian Ocean by pilgrims for visits to sites associated with the life of the Buddha. A second perspective is provided by the rediscovery of Buddhism in Europe coinciding with the development of new disciplines, including archaeology. These disciplines were introduced into India with the government-sponsored Archaeological Survey of India, founded in 1871. Alexander Cunningham, the first Director-General, brought Buddhism to the forefront and established its study as a separate subdiscipline. This had far-reaching implications for the demarcation and archaeological investigation of many of the monuments linked to Buddhism, especially Bodh Gaya and Sanchi. This paper addresses the issue of the manifestation of a Buddhist identity in colonial India. It is often suggested that this identity owed its origins to the formation of the Mahabodhi Society and the emergence of nationalism in Sri Lanka. This paper examines political developments in India in the context of the Navayana or the Neo-Buddhist path, forged by B.R. Ambedkar on the 2500 th anniversary of Buddha's parinirvana, or demise, in 1956. To what extent did this newly formed identity become interlinked with the identification and control of archaeological sites in India and their redefinition? How did the renegotiation of Buddhist identity affect India's relationship with Thailand? "We have embarked on this pilgrimage to see the signs of the history of India's entry into the universal." Thus wrote Rabindranath Tagore as he embarked on a sea voyage on 15 July 1927 on the French ship Amboise to Java and other countries of Southeast Asia. 2 It was an 1 Himanshu Prabha Ray is Associate Professor in the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She researches seafaring in the Indian Ocean and the history of archaeology and its influence religion. She is currently working on digital mapping of ancient Indian religious sites.
Decolonising Heritage in South Asia, 2018
Political boundaries demarcated on geopolitical considerations often split a continuous cultural ... more Political boundaries demarcated on geopolitical considerations often split a continuous cultural region, separating places of faith from their followers and traditional cultural landmarks from the communities that used them. The passage of time hardens these man-made partitions, and the memory associated with these once familiar sites is often lost with successive generations. Thus trans-boundary shared cultural heritage sites and zones in spite of their merit share an uphill task in terms of their identification as trans-national nominations for UNESCO World Heritage status. This is even more challenging in the context of maritime heritage.
Within the narrative of terrestrial histories of nation states, accounts of maritime heritage often become an extension of land-based concerns. A paradigm shift to understanding the history of the sea destabilizes linear mapping of time and chronologies of political dynasties and empires. The fluidity of seascapes, trans-national narratives and migrations challenge the sanctity of borders and of terrestrial accounts of the past. The focus shifts from rootedness in the soil to routes and intertwined histories of overlapping spaces. How is this fluidity of seascapes to be balanced against the rigidity of maritime boundaries and zones?
Decolonizing Heritage in South Asia: The Global, the National and the Transnational, Routledge, , 2018
Political boundaries demarcated on geopolitical considerations often split a continuous cultural ... more Political boundaries demarcated on geopolitical considerations often split a continuous cultural region, separating places of faith from their followers and traditional cultural landmarks from the communities that used them. The passage of time hardens these man-made partitions, and the memory associated with these once familiar sites is often lost with successive generations. Thus trans-boundary shared cultural heritage sites and zones in spite of their merit share an uphill task in terms of their identification as trans-national nominations for UNESCO World Heritage status. This is even more challenging in the context of maritime heritage.
Within the narrative of terrestrial histories of nation states, accounts of maritime heritage often become an extension of land-based concerns. A paradigm shift to understanding the history of the sea destabilizes linear mapping of time and chronologies of political dynasties and empires. The fluidity of seascapes, trans-national narratives and migrations challenge the sanctity of borders and of terrestrial accounts of the past. The focus shifts from rootedness in the soil to routes and intertwined histories of overlapping spaces. How is this fluidity of seascapes to be balanced against the rigidity of maritime boundaries and zones?
Abstract The Buddhist site of Kanheri on the west coast of India continued to receive patronage f... more Abstract The Buddhist site of Kanheri on the west coast of India continued to receive patronage from the first to the tenth centuries AD. This was in the form of money and land donations in the early centuries of the Christian era, whereas, in the early medieval period, the pilgrims built votive stupas of brick. Enshrined within these stupas were relic caskets and copper plates or stone tablets bearing the Buddhist creed. Many of these stone tablets have been found at early centres in Southeast Asia, together with sealings of unbaked clay and small votive stupas, and no doubt provide archaeological evidence of the pilgrim traffic by sea between South and Southeast Asia.
Travelling Relics, 2024
Buddha dhamma was one of the ascetic movements that rose in the middle of the first millennium BC... more Buddha dhamma was one of the ascetic movements that rose in the middle of the first millennium BCE. How did Buddhism spread across the subcontinent and the world? Relic and image worship were important features in this expansion. Stupas were built to enshrine the relics in reliquaries and caskets which were kept inside specially made chambers. With the development of archaeology in the 19th century, many of the stupa sites were ‘excavated’ and reported about extensively, creating widespread interest.
This exhibition narrates the story both of the enshrinement of relics in stupas from the 3rd century BCE onwards, and the search for relics in the 19th and 20th centuries through the practice of archaeology. Relic diplomacy in the colonial period added to the gifting of the Buddha’s relics to countries and museums outside India, leading to protests from within the country. Finally, the Ashokan pillar capital excavated at Sarnath in the early 20th century and the dharmacakra were accepted as the national symbols of independent India.
Aryan Books International, 2010
Preface v Contributors ix List of Illustrations x I. Introduction 1 - Himanshu Prabha Ray II. Sea... more Preface v Contributors ix List of Illustrations x I. Introduction 1 - Himanshu Prabha Ray II. Searching for Alexander and Buddha: A History of the 20 Exploration and Archaeology of the Early Historic Period in Punjab to 1900 - Daniel Michon III. Of Cities and Trade Networks: The Archaeology of Punjab in 46 the First Half of the Twentieth Century - Himanshu Prabha Ray IV. The Excavations at Sanghol in Context 69 - Daniel Michon V. Planning and Development of the Kushan Settlement at 106 Sanghol - C. Margabandhu VI. Defining 'Kushan' Pottery 128 - Himanshu Prabha Ray and Hema Achyuthan VII. Celestial Women in a Ring around the Buddhist Stupa: 143 The Case of Sanghol - Sandrine Gill VIII. Coins, Seals and Sealings at Sanghol 166 - Himanshu Prabha Ray IX. Sanghol: Coinage System and Trade Networks 184 - Devendra Handa X. Water Management and Archaeology of the Haryana-Punjab 198 Plains - Himanshu Prabha Ray XI. The Museum: Partition and Post-Independence Punjab 216 - Himanshu Prabha Ray References 237 Index 253
Topoi. Orient-Occident, 1996
Ray Himanshu Prabha. Piety and power : pilgrimage in the old world . In: Topoi, volume 6/1, 1996.... more Ray Himanshu Prabha. Piety and power : pilgrimage in the old world . In: Topoi, volume 6/1, 1996. pp. 429-434
Routledge eBooks, Dec 28, 2020
Book Talk - Himanshu Prabha Ray, Coastal Shrines and Transnational Maritime Heritage, Routledge, ... more Book Talk - Himanshu Prabha Ray, Coastal Shrines and Transnational Maritime Heritage, Routledge, 2021.
https://www.routledge.com/Coastal-Shrines-and-Transnational-Maritime-Networks-across-India-and-Southeast/Ray/p/book/9781138365674
By focusing on nautical histories, architecture and archaeology, and the mapping and remapping of maritime conceptions of space across two millennia, this book will reorient the reader from the conventional linear imperial construct of maritime history as domination, conflict and control to looking at the reality of constant cultural transfer and transmission within the domain of the Indian Ocean world.
371 views
Acta Via Serica, 2024
The paper addresses trans-oceanic connectivity in the period from the 3rd century BCE to the 6th ... more The paper addresses trans-oceanic connectivity in the period from the 3rd century BCE to the 6th century CE, through the perspective of multi-religious networks across the Indian Ocean and underscores differences between the western Indian Ocean and those that spread across the Bay of Bengal. Though there is evidence for the circulation of Buddhism from Egypt in the west to Vietnam in the east, Christianity is by and large limited to the western Indian Ocean. Across the Bay of Bengal, Buddhism was coterminous with Hinduism. These long-distance networks coexisted with local and regional cults indicating plurality in the religious landscape of the Indian Ocean world.
European Journal of Archaeology, 2010
This volume discusses larger issues relating to the practice and institutionalization of the disc... more This volume discusses larger issues relating to the practice and institutionalization of the discipline of archaeology under British rule and assesses the extent to which colonial intervention shaped the nascent discipline of archaeology in South Asia, especially with reference to the study ...
Rajatarangini Recent Researches in Archaeology and History, 2024
Underwater archaeology studies the past through submerged remains, such as shipwrecks, but also i... more Underwater archaeology studies the past through submerged remains, such as shipwrecks, but also includes analysis of changes in sea-levels resulting from seismic activity or global warming and climate change. In India, underwater archaeology has yet to develop as an independent field of study despite UNESCO’s 2001 Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage, which has been signed by sixty-one countries.
There has been a phenomenal increase in the numbers of shipwreck sites that have been discovered elsewhere in the world, but especially across the Bay of Bengal with many countries of Southeast Asia investing in establishing centres for the development of underwater archaeology. While only two sites were documented prior to 1974 in Southeast Asian waters, more than a hundred have been reported since then, with an average number of four or five sites being discovered every year. How does this compare with shipwreck finds in Indian waters? Unfortunately, the answer to this question presents a dismal picture of neglect and apathy of an important area of study.
The oldest shipwreck in the Indian Ocean region dates to first century BCE – first century CE and lies off the fishing village of Godavaya on the south coast of Sri Lanka. The ship was transporting a cargo of raw materials from India, including what appear to be ingots of iron and others of glass, as well as finished stone querns (hand-operated mills) and ceramic bowls, when it sank some time before the first century CE. A second example is the Kadakkarapally boat found in a coconut grove in Kerala with no associated finds, which was radiocarbon dated to the eleventh and twelfth century CE and represents a cargo-carrying sailing craft best suited for the backwaters and large rivers of Kerala.
This paper addresses the primary issue: how do finds of shipwreck sites impact not only an understanding of maritime history, but more importantly have a bearing on the present?
The Asian review of world histories, Feb 7, 2024
Routledge eBooks, Oct 4, 2022
The International Journal of Maritime History, 2004
International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, Feb 16, 2016
Two volumes of the journal Eurasian Prehistory have been devoted to publishing the proceedings of... more Two volumes of the journal Eurasian Prehistory have been devoted to publishing the proceedings of a Wenner-Gren Workshop held at Reggio Calabria, 19-21 October 2012, on the subject of 'Island Archaeology and the origins of Seafaring in the Eastern Mediterranean'. The workshop was the brainchild of Albert Ammerman and it is he who has brought together this remarkable publication. The core of the work is made up of 17 specialist papers grouped into two parts, 'Placing island archaeology and early voyaging in context' and 'Case Studies', the latter being divided into sections covering Cyprus, the Aegean, and the Central and Western Mediterranean. This is rich material indeed-a series of specialist studies dealing with chronologies, individual sites, material culture, faunal studies and folk movements within the temporal bracket from the middle Palaeolithic to the early Neolithic. Together these papers present the raw material and the interpretive frameworks needed to address the central theme of the workshop. It is a daunting array of high-quality scholarship presented by those at the cutting edge of research, and to bind it all together it is bookended by two papers by Ammerman. His 'Introduction', which sets out in detail the broad intellectual context for the workshop, and a tail piece 'Setting our sights on the distant horizon', which offers a masterly summary of what has been learnt and lays out the questions still needing to be addressed. These two papers are a significant academic contribution in their own right-a state-of-the-art overview and a research design for the future. In short the publication is a model of its kind; closely focused, packed with new data, and deeply challenging. So, what is it all about? Quite simply, we know that about 50,000 years ago early modern humans made the sea crossing from the Indonesian islands to Australia. It was a remarkable feat of daring and an even more remarkable achievement. What then can be said of the origins of seafaring in the Mediterranean, where for so long there has been the implied assumption that seafaring was one of the arts that was developed much later by complex societies? That this was a false assumption was shown some years ago when, in excavating stratified deposits in Franchthi Cave, overlooking the bay of Argos on the Greek mainland, archaeologists found tools made of obsidian, a black volcanic glass brought from the island of Melos, 120 km away, in layers dating to 11,000 BC. Clearly towards the end of the Upper Palaeolithic period people were making overseas journeys. It was this discovery that prompted archaeologists to begin to rethink the origins of seafaring in the Eastern Mediterranean inspiring the research presented in this work. The Mediterranean is a good place to address the question of early seafaring because of the controls offered by its array of islands. In his 'Introduction' Ammerman lays out the basis of the proper procedure to be adopted. The first step is to know when an island became an island given that significant changes in sea-level have been recorded in the Mediterranean. With sea-levels falling to c.120-130 m below its present levels some 20,000 years ago, many of what are now islands would have been joined to the mainland and therefore could have been reached on foot. The second step is to make sure that no one was on the island at the time when the first seafarers reached it. Islands like Lemnos and Gökçeada in the North Aegean were part of the mainland until the end of the Pleistocene and therefore the Palaeolithic material found on them cannot be used to imply seafaring at this time (papers by Efstatiou, and Ozbek and Burçin). Similarly, the possibility that Sicily may have been attached to the mainland in the Late Glacial Maximum could account for the earliest undisputed evidence for Homo Sapiens on the island around 15,500 BC (paper by Mannino). The third step is to explore the inferences of the earliest archaeological remains found on the island, both the cultural implications (where from and when?) and the faunal implications (what animals did they bring with them and how?). These are crucial issues to which we shall return. The fourth step is the simple check that there is no other way to explain the human presence other than by seafaring. This is the Sherlock Holmes test: 'When you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.' The nice scientific logic of all this is self-evident but in reality it may not be that simple. The old adage that all wise archaeologists chant to themselves incessantly-'absence of evidence is not evidence of absence'-is crucial to take into account. The fact that no evidence of Mesolithic activity has been found on a particular island does not mean
This paper draws on my work on the maritime history of early South and Southeast Asia and the use... more This paper draws on my work on the maritime history of early South and Southeast Asia and the use of sea-lanes of the Indian Ocean by pilgrims for visits to sites associated with the life of the Buddha. A second perspective is provided by the rediscovery of Buddhism in Europe coinciding with the development of new disciplines, including archaeology. These disciplines were introduced into India with the government-sponsored Archaeological Survey of India, founded in 1871. Alexander Cunningham, the first Director-General, brought Buddhism to the forefront and established its study as a separate subdiscipline. This had far-reaching implications for the demarcation and archaeological investigation of many of the monuments linked to Buddhism, especially Bodh Gaya and Sanchi. This paper addresses the issue of the manifestation of a Buddhist identity in colonial India. It is often suggested that this identity owed its origins to the formation of the Mahabodhi Society and the emergence of nationalism in Sri Lanka. This paper examines political developments in India in the context of the Navayana or the Neo-Buddhist path, forged by B.R. Ambedkar on the 2500 th anniversary of Buddha's parinirvana, or demise, in 1956. To what extent did this newly formed identity become interlinked with the identification and control of archaeological sites in India and their redefinition? How did the renegotiation of Buddhist identity affect India's relationship with Thailand? "We have embarked on this pilgrimage to see the signs of the history of India's entry into the universal." Thus wrote Rabindranath Tagore as he embarked on a sea voyage on 15 July 1927 on the French ship Amboise to Java and other countries of Southeast Asia. 2 It was an 1 Himanshu Prabha Ray is Associate Professor in the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She researches seafaring in the Indian Ocean and the history of archaeology and its influence religion. She is currently working on digital mapping of ancient Indian religious sites.
Decolonising Heritage in South Asia, 2018
Political boundaries demarcated on geopolitical considerations often split a continuous cultural ... more Political boundaries demarcated on geopolitical considerations often split a continuous cultural region, separating places of faith from their followers and traditional cultural landmarks from the communities that used them. The passage of time hardens these man-made partitions, and the memory associated with these once familiar sites is often lost with successive generations. Thus trans-boundary shared cultural heritage sites and zones in spite of their merit share an uphill task in terms of their identification as trans-national nominations for UNESCO World Heritage status. This is even more challenging in the context of maritime heritage.
Within the narrative of terrestrial histories of nation states, accounts of maritime heritage often become an extension of land-based concerns. A paradigm shift to understanding the history of the sea destabilizes linear mapping of time and chronologies of political dynasties and empires. The fluidity of seascapes, trans-national narratives and migrations challenge the sanctity of borders and of terrestrial accounts of the past. The focus shifts from rootedness in the soil to routes and intertwined histories of overlapping spaces. How is this fluidity of seascapes to be balanced against the rigidity of maritime boundaries and zones?
Decolonizing Heritage in South Asia: The Global, the National and the Transnational, Routledge, , 2018
Political boundaries demarcated on geopolitical considerations often split a continuous cultural ... more Political boundaries demarcated on geopolitical considerations often split a continuous cultural region, separating places of faith from their followers and traditional cultural landmarks from the communities that used them. The passage of time hardens these man-made partitions, and the memory associated with these once familiar sites is often lost with successive generations. Thus trans-boundary shared cultural heritage sites and zones in spite of their merit share an uphill task in terms of their identification as trans-national nominations for UNESCO World Heritage status. This is even more challenging in the context of maritime heritage.
Within the narrative of terrestrial histories of nation states, accounts of maritime heritage often become an extension of land-based concerns. A paradigm shift to understanding the history of the sea destabilizes linear mapping of time and chronologies of political dynasties and empires. The fluidity of seascapes, trans-national narratives and migrations challenge the sanctity of borders and of terrestrial accounts of the past. The focus shifts from rootedness in the soil to routes and intertwined histories of overlapping spaces. How is this fluidity of seascapes to be balanced against the rigidity of maritime boundaries and zones?
Abstract The Buddhist site of Kanheri on the west coast of India continued to receive patronage f... more Abstract The Buddhist site of Kanheri on the west coast of India continued to receive patronage from the first to the tenth centuries AD. This was in the form of money and land donations in the early centuries of the Christian era, whereas, in the early medieval period, the pilgrims built votive stupas of brick. Enshrined within these stupas were relic caskets and copper plates or stone tablets bearing the Buddhist creed. Many of these stone tablets have been found at early centres in Southeast Asia, together with sealings of unbaked clay and small votive stupas, and no doubt provide archaeological evidence of the pilgrim traffic by sea between South and Southeast Asia.
Travelling Relics, 2024
Buddha dhamma was one of the ascetic movements that rose in the middle of the first millennium BC... more Buddha dhamma was one of the ascetic movements that rose in the middle of the first millennium BCE. How did Buddhism spread across the subcontinent and the world? Relic and image worship were important features in this expansion. Stupas were built to enshrine the relics in reliquaries and caskets which were kept inside specially made chambers. With the development of archaeology in the 19th century, many of the stupa sites were ‘excavated’ and reported about extensively, creating widespread interest.
This exhibition narrates the story both of the enshrinement of relics in stupas from the 3rd century BCE onwards, and the search for relics in the 19th and 20th centuries through the practice of archaeology. Relic diplomacy in the colonial period added to the gifting of the Buddha’s relics to countries and museums outside India, leading to protests from within the country. Finally, the Ashokan pillar capital excavated at Sarnath in the early 20th century and the dharmacakra were accepted as the national symbols of independent India.
Aryan Books International, 2010
Preface v Contributors ix List of Illustrations x I. Introduction 1 - Himanshu Prabha Ray II. Sea... more Preface v Contributors ix List of Illustrations x I. Introduction 1 - Himanshu Prabha Ray II. Searching for Alexander and Buddha: A History of the 20 Exploration and Archaeology of the Early Historic Period in Punjab to 1900 - Daniel Michon III. Of Cities and Trade Networks: The Archaeology of Punjab in 46 the First Half of the Twentieth Century - Himanshu Prabha Ray IV. The Excavations at Sanghol in Context 69 - Daniel Michon V. Planning and Development of the Kushan Settlement at 106 Sanghol - C. Margabandhu VI. Defining 'Kushan' Pottery 128 - Himanshu Prabha Ray and Hema Achyuthan VII. Celestial Women in a Ring around the Buddhist Stupa: 143 The Case of Sanghol - Sandrine Gill VIII. Coins, Seals and Sealings at Sanghol 166 - Himanshu Prabha Ray IX. Sanghol: Coinage System and Trade Networks 184 - Devendra Handa X. Water Management and Archaeology of the Haryana-Punjab 198 Plains - Himanshu Prabha Ray XI. The Museum: Partition and Post-Independence Punjab 216 - Himanshu Prabha Ray References 237 Index 253
Topoi. Orient-Occident, 1996
Ray Himanshu Prabha. Piety and power : pilgrimage in the old world . In: Topoi, volume 6/1, 1996.... more Ray Himanshu Prabha. Piety and power : pilgrimage in the old world . In: Topoi, volume 6/1, 1996. pp. 429-434
Routledge eBooks, Dec 28, 2020
List of figures List of tables Contributors Foreword Acknowledgements Introduction [Himanshu Prab... more List of figures List of tables Contributors Foreword Acknowledgements Introduction [Himanshu Prabha Ray] 1. Greek or Indian? The Questions of Menander and Onomastic Patterns in Early Gandhara [Stefan Baums] 2. "Tis All Here. A Treasure Locked.": Unlocking the Wonder House of the Chinese Buddhist Travelogues [Max Deeg] 3. Numismatics of 'The Other': Investigating Coinage and 'Greekness' at Taxila [Shailendra Bhandare] 4. Region through Text: Representation of Gandhara in the Mahabharata [Tanni Moitra] 5. Charles Masson: A Footloose Antiquarian in Afghanistan and Building up of Numismatic Collections in the Museums in India and England [Sanjay Garg] 6. The Collection of Gandharan Art in the Residence of the Malakand Political Agent, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan [Pia Brancaccio] 7. Vajirasthana/ Bazira and Beyond: Foundation and Current Status of the Archaeological Work in Swat [Luca M. Olivieri] 8. The Beginning and Development of Gandharan Collections in German Public Museums [Britta Schneider] 9. Decoding Gandharan Art: Making of Museum Collections in India [Himanshu Prabha Ray] Index
Recentering Southeast Asia, 2025
This book assesses the impact of European colonization in the late 19th and early 20th century in... more This book assesses the impact of European colonization in the late 19th and early 20th century in 'restructuring' the shared past of India and Southeast Asia. It provides case studies that transcend colonial constructs and adopt newer approaches to understanding the shared past. The authors explore these developments through the lens of political figures like Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) and reexamine themes such as the Greater India Society (1926-1959) established in Calcutta, and the role of Buddhism in post-World War II connections, as the repatriation of the mortal remains of Japanese soldiers killed in Burma (Myanmar) acquired urgency. Drawing on a diverse range of sources including archaeology, Buddhist texts, the afterlives of the Hindu temples, maritime networks, and inscriptions from Vietnam and central India, the book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of history, Buddhism, archaeology, heritage studies, cultural studies, and political history as well as South and Southeast Asian history.
From the Bay of Bengal to the South China Sea, 2012
The focus of the book is the wide stretch of water- and sea-ways connecting the coasts of Bengal ... more The focus of the book is the wide stretch of water- and sea-ways connecting the coasts of Bengal and Sri Lanka to the coast of Vietnam. The authors address three broad issues through an interdisciplinary perspective. The first relates to boat-building traditions and the communities who traversed these waters. The challenge is to use the ethnographic ‘present’ and mobility of the fishing and sailing groups for an understanding of the history of the sea and the extent to which knowledge of the waters was vital to the construction of identity of a maritime society. Linked to this movement across the waters, are the narratives of trans-locality inherent in memories of groups in the region. Long-distance pilgrimage and devotional networks have been consistent features of the cultural life of South and Southeast Asia.
A third issue relates to European intervention, starting with the Portuguese and the Dutch. The engagement of the English East India Company with the countries of the Bay of Bengal was of a different order from that of its predecessors, as the Company sought to establish a maritime empire. The eighteenth century thus, raised a different set of issues with the colonization of large parts of South and Southeast Asia. How did notions of a maritime empire impact the study of the region’s past? It is these themes that we address in the volume thereby shifting the focus from chronological markers and national histories to communities who crossed the waters and the changes that these underwent in time.
Mausam: Maritime Cultural Landscapes across the Indian Ocean, 2014
The papers in this book examine the development of coastal settlements and architectural remains ... more The papers in this book examine the development of coastal settlements and architectural remains from the third millennium BCE Bronze Age to almost the present across a large part of the Indian Ocean extending from Arabia to Vietnam. A second objective of the book is to relate this understanding of the past with that of the present and to highlight the extent to which indicators of historical cultural networks provide building blocks for contemporary societies, as they work towards universal values and trans-border groupings – both of which underwrite UNESCO’s 1972 World Heritage Convention. The Convention encourages the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity, thereby focussing on the universal, rather than the local or regional. The book will appeal to readers of maritime history, as well as those involved in heritage studies.
The Return of the Buddha: Ancient Symbols for a New Nation, 2014
The Return of the Buddha traces the development of Buddhist archaeology in colonial India, examin... more The Return of the Buddha traces the development of Buddhist archaeology in colonial India, examines its impact on the reconstruction of India’s Buddhist past, and the making of a public and academic discourse around these archaeological discoveries.
The book discusses the role of the state and modern Buddhist institutions in the reconstitution of national heritage through promulgation of laws for the protection of Buddhist monuments, acquiring of land around the sites, restoration of edifices, and organization of the display and dissemination of relics. It also highlights the engagement of prominent Indian figures, such as Nehru, Gandhi, Ambedkar, and Tagore, with Buddhist themes in their writings.
Stressing upon the lasting legacy of Buddhism in independent India, the author explores the use of Buddhist symbols and imagery in nation-building and the making of the constitution, as also the recent efforts to resurrect Buddhist centers of learning such as Nalanda. With rich archival sources, the book will immensely interest scholars, researchers and students of modern Indian history, culture, archaeology, Buddhist studies, and heritage management.
Values We Share: World Heritage Sites in the India- ASEAN Region, 2019
World Heritage sites inscribed by UNESCO are important markers of Nation Statesí portrayal of the... more World Heritage sites inscribed by UNESCO are important markers of Nation Statesí portrayal of their unique cultural heritage in the sphere of global diplomacy. World Heritage sites provide critical insights into vexed issues of contemporary representations of the past and cultural identity. This book addresses this vital theme from the point of view of connectivity and shared cultural spaces in India and the ASEAN region. The book is a pioneering attempt at placing World Heritage monuments and archaeological sites on a global trans-national platform. It will be of interest not only to the general reader and the history buff but will also offer insights for students of international relations, history and cultural studies.
This volume cross-examines the stability of heritage as a concept. It interrogates the past which... more This volume cross-examines the stability of heritage as a concept. It interrogates the past which materialises through multi-layered narratives on monuments and other objects that sustain cultural diversity. It seeks to understand how interpretations of " monuments " as " texts " are affected at the local level of experience, even as institutions such as UNESCO work to globalise and fi x constructs of stable and universal heritage. Shifting away from a largely Eurocentric concept associated with architecture and monumental archaeology, this book reassesses how local and regional heritage needs to be balanced with the global and transnational. It argues that material objects and monuments are not static embodiments of culture but are, rather, a medium through which identity, power and society are produced and reproduced. This is especially relevant in South and Southeast Asian contexts, where debates over heritage often have local, regional and national political implications and consequences. Reevaluating traditional valuation of monuments and cultural landscapes could help aid sustainability and long-term preservation of the heritage, this book will be useful for scholars and researchers of history, South and Southeast Asian history, heritage studies, archaeology, cultural studies, tourism studies and political history as well.
Gandhara is a name central to Buddhist heritage and iconography. It is the ancient name of a regi... more Gandhara is a name central to Buddhist heritage and iconography. It is the ancient name of a region in present-day Pakistan, bounded on the west by the Hindu Kush mountain range and to the north by the foothills of the Himalayas. 'Gandhara' is also the term given to this region's sculptural and architectural features between the first and sixth centuries CE. This book reexamines the archaeological material excavated in the region in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and traces the link between archaeological work, histories of museum collections and related interpretations by art historians. The essays in the volume underscore the diverse cultural traditions of Gandhara — from a variety of sources and perspectives on language, ethnicity and material culture (including classical accounts, Chinese writings, coins and Sanskrit epics) — as well as interrogate the grand narrative of Hellenism of which Gandhara has been a part. The book explores the making of collections of what came to be described as Gandhara art and reviews the Buddhist artistic tradition through notions of mobility and dynamic networks of transmission. Wide ranging and rigorous, this volume will appeal to scholars and researchers of early South Asian history, archaeology, religion (especially Buddhist studies), art history and museums. Himanshu Prabha Ray is affiliated to
This book traces the archaeological trajectory of the expansion of Buddhism and its regional vari... more This book traces the archaeological trajectory of the expansion of Buddhism and its regional variations in South Asia. Focusing on the multi-religious context of the subcontinent in the first millennium BCE, the volume breaks from conventional studies that pose Buddhism as a counter to the Vedic tradition to understanding the religion more integrally in terms of dhamma, dana and its engagement with the written word. The work underlines that relic and image worship were important features in the spread of Buddhism in the region and were instrumental in bringing the monastics and the laity together. Further, the author examines the significance of the histories of monastic complexes (viharas, stupas, caityas) as also religious travel and pilgrimage that provided connections across the subcontinent and the seas.
An interdisciplinary study, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars in South Asian studies, religion, especially Buddhist studies, history and archaeology.
This book traces the archaeological trajectory of the expansion of Buddhism and its regional vari... more This book traces the archaeological trajectory of the expansion of Buddhism and its regional variations in South Asia. Focusing on the multi-religious context of the subcontinent in the first millennium BCE, the volume breaks from conventional studies that pose Buddhism as a counter to the Vedic tradition to understanding the religion more integrally in terms of dhamma, dana and its engagement with the written word. The work underlines that relic and image worship were important features in the spread of Buddhism in the region and were instrumental in bringing the monastics and the laity together. Further, the author examines the significance of the histories of monastic complexes (viharas, stupas, caityas) as also religious travel and pilgrimage that provided connections across the subcontinent and the seas.
An interdisciplinary study, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars in South Asian studies, religion, especially Buddhist studies, history and archaeology.
What is a temple? Who built or patronized such structures and why? Temples have always formed a c... more What is a temple? Who built or patronized such structures and why? Temples have always formed a crucial element of the cultural landscape of South Asia. Combining textual analysis, archaeology, and archival research with contemporary anthropology, Archaeology and Text provides a stimulating appraisal of religious life in the past.
This book on World Heritage sites in India has two objectives: one, to highlight the archaeologic... more This book on World Heritage sites in India has two objectives: one, to highlight the archaeological context and cultural landscapes relating to monuments inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage list; and second, to draw attention to urban pressures that impact the conservation and preservation of many of these sites and the need for comprehensive management strategies to ensure their continued survival. While six are natural properties, the Archaeological Survey of India has twenty of the twenty-four World Heritage cultural sites in India under its administrative control. These may be categorized into: caves, churches and convents, forts, monastic complexes, mosques, palaces, rock-shelters, temples, and tombs. This list, by and large focuses on either single monument or groups of monuments, bereft of cultural moorings. It is important that archaeological and historical inputs regarding the wider cultural milieu of World Heritage sites be introduced through site management plans, interpretation centres and heritage bye-laws to aid in holistic appreciation of the ‘monument’ or ‘group of monuments’. Clearly there is an urgent need for change in our understanding and appreciation of not only World Heritage sites, but also policies to ensure their preservation. It is this need for change that the papers by archaeologists, historians and heritage specialists in this edited book articulate and discuss.
The book locates monuments in their social and cultural context and views them as religious archi... more The book locates monuments in their social and cultural context and views them as religious architecture. The shrine was not only a place of ritual, but also a centre for religious festivities and discourses on ethics and moral values. The temple or the mosque thus evolved as a crucial link between the ruling elite and the community and through its wider network extended the religious domain beyond political frontiers. With the establishment of colonial rule in South Asia during the 19th and 20th centuries, the relationship between the shrine and its community was radically transformed. This book takes the reader through the gradual metamorphosis in the character of religious sites from being culturally pluralistic to a monotheistic religious identity. This interesting book highlights the genesis of the multi-religious identity of monuments in India.
Economic History Review, 1989
An academic directory and search engine.
The Return of the Buddha traces the development of Buddhist archaeology in colonial India, examin... more The Return of the Buddha traces the development of Buddhist archaeology in colonial India, examines its impact on the reconstruction of India’s Buddhist past, and the making of a public and academic discourse around these archaeological discoveries.
The book discusses the role of the state and modern Buddhist institutions in the reconstitution of national heritage through promulgation of laws for the protection of Buddhist monuments, acquiring of land around the sites, restoration of edifices, and organization of the display and dissemination of relics. It also highlights the engagement of prominent Indian figures, such as Nehru, Gandhi, Ambedkar, and Tagore, with Buddhist themes in their writings.
Stressing upon the lasting legacy of Buddhism in independent India, the author explores the use of Buddhist symbols and imagery in nation-building and the making of the constitution, as also the recent efforts to resurrect Buddhist centers of learning such as Nalanda. With rich archival sources, the book will immensely interest scholars, researchers and students of modern Indian history, culture, archaeology, Buddhist studies, and heritage management.
The first half of the book focuses on maritime communities and littoral societies, and the second... more The first half of the book focuses on maritime communities and littoral societies, and the second examines commercial transactions and currency systems. The scope of both sections is refreshingly broad, with respect to geography, community, and time.
The issue that is addressed in this book relates to the role of the Buddhist heritage in construc... more The issue that is addressed in this book relates to the role of the Buddhist heritage in construction of identity in the state. Cultural and religious diversity has been the defining feature of the Indian subcontinent and this is also emphasized by its built heritage. Expanding cities and homogenization of urban design and form seriously threaten the plurality of the cultural fabric that the archaeological heritage represents. Urban planners either tend to homogenize architecture or else demarcate heritage zones. Monument centric expansion requires not just urban planning and identification of heritage structures, but more importantly comprehension of the context of monuments both historical and contemporary.
‘Mausam’ or Arabic ‘Mawsim’ refers to the season when ships could sail safely in the Indian Ocean... more ‘Mausam’ or Arabic ‘Mawsim’ refers to the season when ships could sail safely in the Indian Ocean and these seasonal monsoon winds underwrote both a shared culture in the past, as also the continued survival of maritime regions into the present. ‘Maritime cultural landscape’ was used by Olof Hasslof, the Swedish maritime ethnologist in the 1950s to indicate an understanding of the use of the sea by humans and included attendant coastal structures and cultural identifiers.
The papers in this book examine the development of coastal settlements and architectural remains from the third millennium BCE Bronze Age to almost the present across a large part of the Indian Ocean extending from Arabia to Vietnam. A second objective of the book is to relate this understanding of the past with that of the present and to highlight the extent to which indicators of historical cultural networks provide building blocks for contemporary societies, as they work towards universal values and trans-border groupings – both of which underwrite UNESCO’s 1972 World Heritage Convention. The Convention encourages the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity, thereby focussing on the universal, rather than the local or regional. The book will appeal to readers of maritime history, as well as those involved in heritage studies.
The book presents papers by archaeologists, anthropologists, historians and heritage specialists ... more The book presents papers by archaeologists, anthropologists, historians and heritage specialists and highlights the multi-layered meaning of maritime cultural landscapes. The authors shift the emphasis from understanding heritage in its local context to discussing it across the waters of the Arabian Sea. The relationship between the sea and the land underlines the centrality of the coast; the communities who inhabited the space between the ocean and the hinterland; their histories and attempts at constructing their cultural environment. An important component of this cultural landscape is monumental architecture and archaeological sites, as also their inter-linkage with travelling groups who moved both across the sea, as well as on routes into the interior.
A common concern that all papers share is with definitions of maritime heritage; different articulations of social and political power; and regional and local nautical traditions. One of the objectives of this volume is to underscore the important role of World Heritage, especially sites and monuments located along the coasts that have already been identified as national treasures by individual Nation States. The objective is to bring these coastal monuments and structures into dialogue with those located across the Ocean for a holistic understanding of maritime cultural heritage of the western Indian Ocean. It is suggested that this dialogue across the seas, would help in the protection and preservation of a maritime heritage known for its ‘outstanding universal value’.
This volume focuses on the religious shrine in western India as an institution of cultural integr... more This volume focuses on the religious shrine in western India as an institution of cultural integration in the period spanning 200 BCE to 800CE. Itpresents an analysis of religious architecture at multiple levels, both temporal and spatial, and distinguishes it as a ritual instrument that integrates individuals and communities into a cultural fabric. The work shows how these structures emphasise on communication with a host of audiences such as the lay worshipper, the ritual specialist, the royalty and the elite as well as the artisan and the sculptor. It also examines religious imagery, inscriptions, traditional lore and Sanskrit literature.
Himanshu Prabha Ray looks at the maritime orientation of communities of the Indian subcontinent p... more Himanshu Prabha Ray looks at the maritime orientation of communities of the Indian subcontinent prior to European expansion. She uses archaeological data to reveal the connections between the early history of peninsular South Asia and its Asian and Mediterranean partners in the Indian Ocean region. Differing from traditional works on the subject, the book discusses maritime history in the broader sense of ancient seafaring activity, religious travel and political economy rather than focusing specifically on maritime trade and shipping.
The Routledge Handbook of Hindu Temples, 2023
Book Review
Asian Review of World Histories, 11, 2023
This review article emphasizes the importance of using the idea of material culture as a tool for... more This review article emphasizes the importance of using the idea of material culture as a tool for writing global histories of the maritime world. Taking the Indian Ocean as a case study, the article contends that the multiple, diverse avenues of communication reaching across its waters profoundly affected religions, cultures, and languages by way of texts and music, and through various types of imaginings like myths and invocations of sacred landscapes and seascapes. Investigations into these ideas and things not only direct our attention away from trade histories in the seas, they also counteract the maritime blindness that prevails in the academy, because the histories that result from these investigations are much more nuanced in their understanding of space/place. Material culture, through flows that are considered to be pluricultural in nature, can therefore provide a useful lens for studying the relationship between the local and the global.
Asian Review of World Histories, 2021
Book Review Himanshu Prabha Ray, Coastal Shrines and Transnational Maritime Networks across India... more Book Review Himanshu Prabha Ray, Coastal Shrines and Transnational Maritime Networks across
India and Southeast Asia. London: Routledge India, 2020. i–xi + 268 pp. 15 b/w
illustrations. ISBN: 9780429285233 (eBook).
New Global Studies, 2021
Himanshu Prabha Ray, ed. Decolonizing Heritage in South Asia: The Global, the National and the Tr... more Himanshu Prabha Ray, ed. Decolonizing Heritage in South Asia: The Global, the
National and the Transnational. London and New York: Routledge, 2019. 258pp.
ISBN: 978-1138505599. £120.00 hardcover.
Reviewed by Afonso Dias Ramos, Instituto de História da Arte (IHA), Universidade Nova de Lisboa,
Lisboa, 1099-085, Portugal, E-mail: afonsoramos@fcsh.unl.pt
Book Reviews 283 read without compromising the rigour it has. Otherwise, the author appears very ... more Book Reviews 283 read without compromising the rigour it has. Otherwise, the author appears very convincing while emphasising the ''disjuncture between nation and its marker'' (p. 4). Palpable through the book, the author is served well by his post-modernist predilections for profane over sacred, pasts over history, belief over reason, ambiguity over clarity, plural over singular, fluid over rigid, experience over knowledge and impure over chaste. On the whole, the book is a piece of reading to be savoured slowly and steadily over the years.
Asian Perspectives Journal, 2019
Elegantly produced with fine pictures and informative texts, this book comprises six papers prese... more Elegantly produced with fine pictures and informative texts, this book comprises six papers presented during an international seminar conceived by the National Monuments Authority in New Delhi during December 2013, with the objective of highlighting the archaeological context and cultural landscapes relating to monuments inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage list and drawing attention to urban pressures that impact the conservation and preservation of the sites.
Book Review of 'Archaeology of Sacred Spaces'
Series Editors: Linda Hulin (Oxford), Veronica Vardillo-Walker (Helsinki) In the thirty years sin... more Series Editors: Linda Hulin (Oxford), Veronica Vardillo-Walker (Helsinki) In the thirty years since Christer Westerdahl called for the study of maritime cultural landscapes, the field of maritime and underwater archaeology has been dominated by economic studies and the exploration of boat building traditions. Yet there has been a quiet sea-change, with more and more graduate studies oriented towards maritime cultural life on land as well as on board ship, and including inland rivers, lakes and waterways in the scope of their inquiry. The series editors wish to encourage contributions that embrace all forms of theory in maritime and underwater archaeology that increase our understanding of maritime cultural practices and identities in the past. The series will publish synthetic studies, theoretically oriented excavation reports and object studies, conference proceedings and revised doctoral theses. To ensure academic relevance, we encourage conference proceedings to be published within 2 years of the conference session taking place. The geographical scope of the series will be global, and contributions are encouraged from all regions of the world and from all time periods, from the Palaeolithic to the modern world. Editorial Board
Schedule for Workshop on Shared Cultural Heritage across the Indian Ocean
in Himanshu Prabha Ray, Salila Kulshreshtha and Uthara Suvrathan (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Hindu Temples: Materiality, Social History and Practice. New Delhi: Routledge (2022), pp. 197-217 , 2022
This handbook is a comprehensive study of the archaeology, social history and the cultural landsc... more This handbook is a comprehensive study of the archaeology, social history and the cultural landscape of the Hindu temple. Perhaps the most recognizable of the material forms of Hinduism, temples are lived, dynamic spaces. They are significant sites for the creation of cultural heritage, both in the past and in the present. Drawing on historiographical surveys and in-depth case studies, the volume centres the material form of the Hindu temple as an entry point to study its many adaptations and transformations from the early centuries ce to the 20th century. It highlights the vibrancy and dynamism of the shrine in different locales and studies the active participation of the community for its establishment, maintenance and survival. The illustrated handbook takes a unique approach by focusing on the social base of the temple rather than its aesthetics or chronological linear development. It fills a significant gap in the study of Hinduism and will be an indispensable resource for scholars of archaeology, Hinduism, Indian history, religious studies, museum studies, South Asian history and Southeast Asian history.