The Body of God: An Emperor's Palace for Krishna in Eighth-Century Kanchipuram: An Emperor's Palace for Krishna in Eighth Century Kanchipuram

This book is the crowning achievement of the remarkable scholar D. Dennis Hudson, bringing together the results of a lifetime of interdisciplinary study of south Indian Hinduism. The book is a finely detailed examination of a virtually unstudied Tamil Hindu temple, the Vaikuntha Perumal (ca. 770 C.E.). Hudson offers a sustained reading of the temple as a coherent, organized, minutely conceptualized mandala. Its iconography and structure can be understood in the light of a ten-stanza poem by the Alvar poet Tirumangai, and of the Bhagavata Purana and other major religious texts, even as it in turn illuminates the meanings of those texts. Hudson takes the reader step by step on a tour of the temple, telling the stories suggested by each of the 56 sculpted panels and showing how their relationship to one another brings out layers of meaning. He correlates the stories with stages in the spiritual growth of the king through the complex rituals that formed a crucial dimension of the religion. The result is a tapestry of interpretation that brings to life the richness of spiritual understanding embodied in the temple. Hudson's underlying assumption is that the temple itself constitutes a summa theologica for the Pancharatra doctrines in the Bhagavata tradition centered on Krishna as it had developed through the eighth century. This tradition was already ancient and had spread widely across South Asia and into Southeast Asia. By interweaving history with artistic, liturgical, and textual interpretation, Hudson makes a remarkable contribution to our understanding of an Indian religious and cultural tradition. ## Abstract This work closely examines the architectural and sculptural “texts” of the Vaikuntha Perumal Temple built for Vishnu/Krishna at Kanchipuram in the 8th century. The keys to unlock the meaning of these “texts” are in a poem written about the temple by Tirumangai Alvar shortly after it was built. Sacred texts and liturgical practices are also analyzed to understand the vision this Vishnu‐house was intended to embody for sophisticated Bhagavatas of the time. The three‐story temple, conceived as a mandala, houses figures representing various aspects or formations of the supreme Vishnu, and it is covered with some fifty-six panels of figures representing scenes from sacred texts, primarily the Bhagavata Purana. Not only are the stories illustrated by the panels important but also their physical placement, which takes into account metaphysical and cosmological implications of where they are situated on the building and their positions relative to one another. Pancharatra doctrine informs and is illustrated by the panels, opening up complex and subtle relations between the stories and teachings represented. The sculptural program also portrays the spiritual progress of the builder, the emperor Nandivarman Pallavamalla. His life and career are illustrated on the interior of the surrounding walls. "The book is a finely detailed examination of a virtually unstudied Tamil Hindu temple, the Vaikuntha Perumal (ca. 770 C.E.). Hudson offers a sustained reading of the temple as a coherent, organized, minutely conceptualized mandala. Its iconography and structure can be understood in the light of a ten-stanza poem by the Alvar poet Tirumangai, and of the Bhagavata Purana and other major religious texts, even as it in turn illuminates the meanings of those texts." "Hudson takes the reader step by step on a tour of the temple, telling the stories suggested by each of the 56 sculpted panels and showing how their relationship to one another brings out layers of meaning. He correlates the stories with stages in the spiritual growthof the king through the complex rituals that formed a crucial dimension of the religion. The result is a tapestry of interpretation that brings to life the richness of spiritual understanding embodied in the temple."--Jacket. Although Hudson died without completing 'The Body of God', the work has been edited and brought to fruition by Margaret Case. The book is a detailed study of a renowned Tamil Hindu temple, the Vaikuntha Perumal (ca. 770 CE). Hudson uses this temple as an illustration of a major current and historical stage in South Indian Vaisnava religion