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Book
Author Bunce, Fredrick W., author

Title The iconography of architectural plans : a study of the influence of Buddhism and Hinduism on plans of South and Southeast Asia / by Fredrick W. Bunce
Published New Delhi : D.K. Printworld, 2002
New Delhi : D.K. Printworld, [2002]
©2002

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Description xxviii, 563 pages : illustrations (black and white), plans ; 29 cm
Contents Preface -- Introduction : architectural iconography -- The basis of form -- Philosophic and theological foundations -- Numerology -- Astrology/astronomy -- Additional iconic concerns -- The mandala -- India and Sri Lanka -- Java (Indonesia) -- Khmer (Kambuja) -- Pagan (Myanmar [Burma]) -- Lanna Tai, Sukhothai, Ayutthaya & Rattanakosin (Thailand) -- Champa (Viet Nam) -- Postscriptus : Malaysia -- Conclusions -- Appendix A. Miscellaneous related plans, elevations and sections -- Appendix B. Rulers of Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia (Kampuchea) (Khmer Empire), India (Maurya, Shunga, Kanva, Andhra, Satavahana, Kushan, Gupta, Pallava, Chalukya, Rashtrakuta, Pala and Sena, Chola, Chandella, Hoysala, Sena and Mogul Dynasties), Indonesia (Java & Sumatra), Sri Lanka, Thailand (Siam) (Kingdoms of Sukhothai, Chieng Mai, Ayutthaya, Thon Buri & Rattanakosin/Bangkok), and Viet Nam (Champa) -- Appendix C. A chronology of : India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia (Java), Cambodia, Burma (Myanmar), Thailand and Viet Nam ; including major monuments, styles and political events -- Appendix D. Glossary -- Addendum. (That Luang, Vientiane, Lao)
Summary Over the rolling centuries, Buddhism and Hinduism, two of the world s oldest sustained faiths, came to evolve a complex, yet precisely defining, iconic language: not just for figural representations, but for the architectural plans of their temples and monuments as well a language that allows interpretations of geometric proportions. Here is the first ever effort to brilliantly unravel the iconic idiom involved in the architectural plans of Buddhist and Hindu temples and monuments of India and the Indianized States of Southeast Asia. With his indepth surveys of diverse Buddhic and Hindic temples in India, Sri Lanka, Java (Indonesia), Kambuja, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and even Malaysia, the author shows how the basic element in their architecture: the PLAN conceived within a cosmological framework was fraught with iconographic import and input, necessitating the guidance of authoritative compendia, like the Manasara and the Mayamata, the arcane knowledge of the sthapati (priest-architect), and many other complex procedures which all were steeped in symbolism. In analysing the architectural plans of these temples, Professor Bunce also highlights the various related iconographic considerations, like orientation, basic geometric forms, construction methods, rules and ratios, the non-congregational necessity, the high place as a consideration as well as the cave besides a number of viable influences which exert various amounts of control, e.g., textual, philosophic/theologic, numerological, astrological/astronomical, regionality and, most importantly, the mandala. Generously supported by visual material comprising as many as 400 figures and line-drawings, Professor Bunce s book is veritably a monumental, off-beat exercise of enormous interest to iconographers as well as the historians/specialists of South and Southeast Asian temple architecture
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 382-396) and index
Subject Hindu architecture -- Southeast Asia.
Buddhist architecture -- Southeast Asia.
Symbolism in architecture -- Southeast Asia.
Architecture -- Southeast Asia.
Buddhist architecture -- South Asia.
Hindu architecture -- South Asia.
Symbolism in architecture -- South Asia.
Architecture -- South Asia.
LC no. 2002293042
ISBN 812460200X
9788124602003