Columns in Context

Venerable Monuments and Landscapes of Memory in Early India

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3974713
AutoresElizabeth A Cecil (0000-0002-9205-4916, Florida State University, autor de correspondencia), Peter C Bisschop (0000-0002-6355-9800, Florida State University)
Año2019
Volumen58
Número4
Páginas355-403
Fecha de publicación2019-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaHistory of Religions (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0018-2710 • E-ISSN: 1545-6935
EditorialUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/702256
OpenAlexW2941105573
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas13

The inscribed stone column gained particular popularity in early India as media for political self-styling and religious merit-making in the territories of the Gupta rulers and their successors. Analysis of the textual semantics of the inscriptions has, thus far, dominated the study of the columns, leaving the significance of the visual language and the material semantics of these objects unexplored. Monolithic in form, but certainly not in function, columns were part of a larger continuum of ritually efficacious objects imbued with the power of spirits and deities. By adapting the column as a site for display inscriptions, political actors succeeded in mobilizing the ritual and religious potency of the objects in the service of their agendas. Accessing these meanings requires analysis of the contexts in which the objects were encountered and experienced. This study draws upon recent fieldwork undertaken at sites where monumental inscribed columns were defining features of the political and religious landscape—these include Besnagar, Sondhni, and Eran in the Northern Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and Mahakuta and Pattadakal located in the southern state of Karnataka. Making the column itself the subject of inquiry, this study contributes a new perspective on the experiential gestalt of lived religion in early India by tracing the ways in which meanings accrue in particular material forms and the values attached to them by particular communities

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Art history · Cliff · Column (typography · Context (archaeology · Endowment · Genealogy · Political science · Telecommunications · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Engineering · History · Indian and Buddhist Studies · Law · South Asian Studies and Conflicts