Shifting Stones, Shaping the Past: Sculpture from the Buddhist Stupas of Andhra Pradesh

by Catherine Becker

Overview

In this wide-ranging exploration of the creation and use of Buddhist art in Andhra Pradesh, India, Catherine Becker examines how material remains and visual experiences shape and reveal essential human concerns. Shifting Stones, Shaping the Past addresses the fundamental Buddhist question of how humanity progresses centuries after the passing of its teacher, the Buddha Sakyamuni. How might the Buddha's distant teachings be made immediate and accessible? Beginning with an analysis of the spectacular relief sculptures that once adorned the stupas. Over a period of almost two millennia, many of these stupas have fallen into disrepair. While it is tempting to view these monuments as ruins, they are by no means "dead." Turning to the 20th and 21st centuries, Becker analyzes examples of new Buddhist imagery, recent state-sponsored tourism campaigns, and new devotional activities at the sites in order to demonstrate that the stupas of Andhra Pradesh and their sculptural adornments continue to engage the human imagination and are even ascribed innate power and agency. Shifting Stones, Shaping the Past reveals intriguing parallels between ancient uses of imagery and the new social, political, and religious functions of these objects and spaces.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190202156
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/01/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	34 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Catherine Becker is Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Keeping the Faith: Andhra's Stupas as Sites of Transformation 2. Seeing is Believing: Visual Narration at Andhra's Stupas 3. Hyderabad's Hussain Sagar Buddha 4. Marketing Enlightenment: The Development of Andhra's Buddhist Tourist Potential 5. Kalachakra 2006: Amaravati Welcomes the World Epilogue Bibliography Index

Editorial Reviews

"There is much to learn in this fine study focusing on the Buddhist art of Andhra, not the least of which is the importance for Buddhist studies of combining a broad range of material and disciplinary perspectives with good art historical methodology. Eschewing an attempt to reassemble the now scattered remains of this region's most famous monuments, Becker has nonetheless constructed a better sense of how and why they matter than has ever been achieved."—Janice Leoshko, Associate Professor of Asian art, University of Texas at Austin

"This is a superb book that offers important contributions to many of the most compelling conversations in the field of South Asian studies and of art history more broadly." —H-Asia, H-Net Reviews

From the Publisher