RECENTLY UPDATED FOR 2017! With nearly 120 high-resolution images, detailed site profiles and an architectural style guide, this is the definitive travel guide to South India’s temples.
South India is the premier area in which to experience the architectural tradition of the Hindu temple. Given that the Hindu empires of the South were able to hold off the imperial expansion of Islamic forces, Hindu architecture in South India did not suffer the same destruction as that in the North. As a result, the South’s religious complexes remain largely intact, offering an abundance of temples from all time periods and empires.
This guidebook begins with an introduction to Hindu architecture, exploring its history and defining characteristics. With the fundamentals in place, we then go one level deeper, distinguishing between the two prevailing styles of Hindu temples: North Indian and South Indian.
We then turn our focus to the South specifically, looking at temples built by eight of the most powerful Hindu empires in Tamil Nadu (Pallava, Pandyan, Chola, and Nayak) and Karnataka (Chalukya, Rashtrakuta, Hoysala, and Vijayanagar). For each empire, we review the defining features of its architectural style, with a focus on innovations and trademark elements. The goal is to provide travelers with an appreciation of both what makes each empire’s architecture unique, as well as what connects it to that of those empires that came before and those that would come after.
With this stylistic foundation in place, this Approach Guide takes travelers on a tour of twenty-four Hindu temples in South India, walking step-by-step through their distinctive architectural and artistic elements. Each temple’s detailed profile includes high-resolution images and floorplans that reveal salient features with color highlights to ease identification. This tour includes the following locations:
* Aihole (near Goa)
* Belur (near Mysore and Bangalore)
* Ellora (near Mumbai)
* Halebid (near Mysore and Bangalore)
* Hampi (near Goa)
* Kanchipuram (near Chennai)
* Mahabalipuram (near Chennai)
* Madurai
* Pattadakal (near Goa)
* Somnathpur (near Mysore and Bangalore)
* Thanjavur
* NEW! Customers can now print this guidebook with our new PDF-on-Demand service. See the final chapter in the book for details.
ABOUT APPROACH GUIDES
Travel guidebooks for the ultra curious, Approach Guides reveal a destination’s essence by exploring a compelling aspect of its cultural heritage: art, architecture, history, food, or wine.
PRAISE FOR APPROACH GUIDES
Compulsive (and compulsively informed) travelers, the Raezers are the masterminds behind the downloadable Approach Guides, which are filled with a university course-worth of history and insights for 62 destinations worldwide. WHY WE LOVE IT: The Raezers share our desire for deep, well-researched information on the wonders of the world.
- Travel + Leisure
South India is the premier area in which to experience the architectural tradition of the Hindu temple. Given that the Hindu empires of the South were able to hold off the imperial expansion of Islamic forces, Hindu architecture in South India did not suffer the same destruction as that in the North. As a result, the South’s religious complexes remain largely intact, offering an abundance of temples from all time periods and empires.
This guidebook begins with an introduction to Hindu architecture, exploring its history and defining characteristics. With the fundamentals in place, we then go one level deeper, distinguishing between the two prevailing styles of Hindu temples: North Indian and South Indian.
We then turn our focus to the South specifically, looking at temples built by eight of the most powerful Hindu empires in Tamil Nadu (Pallava, Pandyan, Chola, and Nayak) and Karnataka (Chalukya, Rashtrakuta, Hoysala, and Vijayanagar). For each empire, we review the defining features of its architectural style, with a focus on innovations and trademark elements. The goal is to provide travelers with an appreciation of both what makes each empire’s architecture unique, as well as what connects it to that of those empires that came before and those that would come after.
With this stylistic foundation in place, this Approach Guide takes travelers on a tour of twenty-four Hindu temples in South India, walking step-by-step through their distinctive architectural and artistic elements. Each temple’s detailed profile includes high-resolution images and floorplans that reveal salient features with color highlights to ease identification. This tour includes the following locations:
* Aihole (near Goa)
* Belur (near Mysore and Bangalore)
* Ellora (near Mumbai)
* Halebid (near Mysore and Bangalore)
* Hampi (near Goa)
* Kanchipuram (near Chennai)
* Mahabalipuram (near Chennai)
* Madurai
* Pattadakal (near Goa)
* Somnathpur (near Mysore and Bangalore)
* Thanjavur
* NEW! Customers can now print this guidebook with our new PDF-on-Demand service. See the final chapter in the book for details.
ABOUT APPROACH GUIDES
Travel guidebooks for the ultra curious, Approach Guides reveal a destination’s essence by exploring a compelling aspect of its cultural heritage: art, architecture, history, food, or wine.
PRAISE FOR APPROACH GUIDES
Compulsive (and compulsively informed) travelers, the Raezers are the masterminds behind the downloadable Approach Guides, which are filled with a university course-worth of history and insights for 62 destinations worldwide. WHY WE LOVE IT: The Raezers share our desire for deep, well-researched information on the wonders of the world.
- Travel + Leisure
