Constructing Kanchi

Kanchi or Kanchipuram, located on the Palar River in the South Indian state of Tamilnadu, is popularly known as a city of a thousand temples, with the list of favorites varying based on personal choice. Several scholars have written architectural histories of individual temples, from C. Minakshi's 1941 study of the Vaikuntha Perumal Temple at Kanchipuram to the subsequent overview of regional styles in the Encyclopaedia of Indian Temple Architecture (1983) by Michael Meister and M. A. Dhaky.1 The book under review moves away from the beaten path to address such themes as the relationships among the myriad temples, the interactions of the shrines and the landscape, and their location along transregional networks of religion and power. During the eighth to the thirteenth century Kanchi was the capital of two major dynasties of South India—the Pallavas and the Cholas. However, it was not royalty that brought Kanchi into prominence; instead, the Pallavas chose Kanchi because it was already an important place, as evident from the archaeological record and the many mentions in early Tamil literature. This longue durée appreciation of the sanctity accorded to certain places adds a hitherto underresearched dimension to the book.Divided into four chapters, excluding an introduction and epilogue, the book highlights the rich history of the city and its sacred structures from the prehistoric past to the colonial period, which by itself is no mean task. This wider lens instantly shifts the emphasis from the art and architecture of isolated temples to understanding continuities and transformations in religious architecture over time, including the integration of temple complexes with precolonial urban planning, as Kanchi emerged as a temple city. Like excavations at an archaeological site, the book peels away layers of history and brings into focus the process of rebuilding, renovation, and reuse that the city and its temples have undergone for over a millennium. The first chapter maps the locations of the temples, which were conceptualized as open-air shrines and brick constructions in the period from 700 to 900 CE. Many of these temple sites had earlier beginnings and were perhaps selected as they already had sanctity attached to them. The urban core of the city was situated to the west of present-day Kanchi and almost doubled during these centuries. The chapter provides valuable insights into the iconographic programs of the temples, especially the narrative panels of the surrounding walls of the Vaikuntha Perumal temple, which is the second largest Pallava temple in the city. It is striking that these narrative panels parallel notions of kingship represented in royal eulogies in Pallava inscriptions and the changing relationship between the king and the temple.From the tenth to the thirteenth century, as the political center shifted farther south to the Kaveri heartland under the Chola dynasty, Kanchi became an important stop on the pilgrimage network, as mapped in the second chapter. It was connected through a royal road, the present Kamarajar Salai, that ran through the city and linked the centers of northern Tamilnadu to the holy hilltop center of Tirupati in Andhra. The expansion of Kanchi continued, and as discussed in chapter 3, many of the outlying villages became a part of the sacred landscape as temples acquired administrative roles and expanded their reach as far as Mamallapuram on the seacoast. Kanchi was now connected to the larger Buddhist network that extended across South and Southeast Asia. Kanchi's central role in Buddhist networks is attested in references in Tamil literature and in Chinese writings, which refer to the place as providing refuge to Sri Lankan monks. Thus, Kanchi's influence spread beyond its environs across the waters into Southeast Asia. This connection continued well into the fourteenth century, as shown by the author with reference to the Old Javanese text the Nagarakrtagama composed in the court of the Majapahit in East Java.During the next three centuries, the Vijayanagar Empire held a preeminent position in South India, and many of the temples at Kanchi were reoriented and renovated. The narrative resumes in chapter 4 with the nineteenth century and the impact that colonialism had as the Europeans constructed Kanchi's past and reconfigured the city's religious architecture based on a then-current European understanding of conservation principles as applicable to religious architecture. The book thus opens new avenues for further investigation both in terms of the methodology adopted and by mapping the temples within a larger cultural landscape. Given the significance of maps to the intellectual framework of the text, it is unfortunate that their size has been reduced to such an extent that place names have become illegible. The e-book no doubt helps overcome this drawback of the printed version

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