Opening Kailasanatha: The Temple in Kanchipuram Revealed in Time and Space

The footsteps and sensory experience of devotees linger in an Indian temple

Stone figures hardened by ascetic discipline and heroic effort face north in deep shadow. There they meet the gazes of the same gods and goddesses but with gentler bodies enacting grace, warmth, seduction, and marriage, drenched in sunlight, facing south. These figures adorn the eighth-century Kailasanatha temple complex in southeastern India, built by rulers who were both warriors and ascetics, engaged in the work o...