Banaras Reconstructed: Architecture and Sacred Space in a Hindu Holy City (Global South Asia) - Softcover

Desai, Madhuri

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0295741996 ISBN 13: 9780295741994

Publisher: University of Washington Press, 2017

Synopsis

Between the late sixteenth and early twentieth centuries, Banaras, the iconic Hindu center in northern India that is often described as the oldest living city in the world, was reconstructed materially as well as imaginatively, and embellished with temples, monasteries, mansions, and ghats (riverfront fortress-palaces). Banaras's refurbished sacred landscape became the subject of pilgrimage maps and its spectacular riverfront was depicted in panoramas and described in travelogues.

In Banaras Reconstructed, Madhuri Desai examines the confluences, as well as the tensions, that have shaped this complex and remarkable city. In so doing, she raises issues central to historical as well as contemporary Indian identity and delves into larger questions about religious urban environments in South Asia.

About this title

About the Author

Madhuri Desai is associate professor of art history and Asian studies at the Pennsylvania State University. She is the coeditor of Colonial Frames, Nationalist Histories: Imperial Legacies, Architecture, and Modernity.

Review

Desai shows clearly that the city, especially its waterfront, has been a canvas for the inscription of power--of Mughal courtiers, Bengali merchants, British imperial functionaries, Hindu rajas, Maratha nobles, and an array of others trying to create their own narratives of heritage and lineage, whether for political or personal gain.

--Journal of Asian Studies

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Washington Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0295741996
• ISBN 13: 9780295741994
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 304