Himanshu Prabha Ray has degrees in archaeology, Sanskrit and ancient Indian history and teaches at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. In her research she adopts an inter-disciplinary approach for a study of seafaring activity in the Indian Ocean, of the history of archaeology and the archaeology of religion in South Asia. Her publications include Monastery and Guild: Commerce under the Satavahanas (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1986), The Winds of Change: Buddhism and the Maritime Links of Ancient South Asia (Oxford India Paperbacks, 2000), The Archaeology of Seafaring in Ancient South Asia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003) and edited volumes titled Tradition and Archaeology, with Jean-Francois Salles (New Delhi: Manohar, 1996), Archaeology of Seafaring: The Indian Ocean in the Ancient Period (New Delhi: Indian Council of Historical Research Monograph I, 1999) and Archaeology as History in Early South Asia, with Carla Sinopoli (New Delhi: Aryan Books International, 2004)
This paper argues against the current view that the apsidal form was Buddhist in origin and that apsidal Hindu temples are essentially Buddhist shrines subsequently converted to Hinduism. It also counters the linear view of religious change, which suggests that the Hindu temple came into its own after the decline of Buddhism in the fourth-fifth centuries ad. Instead, the paper establishes that the apsidal form was part of a common architectural vocabulary widely used from the second century bc onwards not only for the Buddhist shrine, but also for the Hindu temple and several local and regional cults. The historical development of the apsidal shrine is traced at three levels. One is at the macro-level of the Indian subcontinent from the second century bc to the nineteenth century ad. Second is the location of the apsidal form in the religious landscape of a particular site, viz. that of Nagarjunakonda in the lower Krishna valley in Andhra. Finally, the paper highlights the archaeological excavations conducted at the apsidal temple of Gudimallam also in Andhra to trace the history of the religious site from the second century bc to the twelfth century ad, the objective being to highlight the changing nature of the Hindu temple. The paper thus makes a case for plurality of religious beliefs and practices in ancient South Asia as against the prevailing view that these local and regional cults were gradually subsumed under the mantle of Sanskritization starting from the fourth-fifth centuries onwards.
目次
Abstract 343 Introduction 343 Secondary writings on religious change 344 The Hindu temple: beginnings 348 The development and expansion of the apsidal form 349 Nagarjunakonda: the religious landscape 352 Archaeology of a temple site: Gudimallam 356 References 357
