‘From all quarters of the Indian world’: The temple at Rameshvaram, Hindu kings and Dutch merchants

Click here to view record
Main author: Bes, Lennart
Other authors: Branfoot, Crispin
Format: Journal Article           
Online access: Click here to view record


id eprints-39461
recordtype eprints
institution SOAS, University of London
collection SOAS Research Online
language English
language_search English
topic DH Netherlands (The Low Countries)
DS Asia
N Visual arts (General)
NA Architecture
NB Sculpture
B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion
description On Rameshvaram island in the south-east corner of India lies one of Hinduism's most important temples—the Rāmanāthasvāmi, one of the four dhams (‘holy abodes’) and the site of two Śiva-liṅgas said to have been consecrated by Rāma himself. A temple has existed here since at least the eleventh century, although most of the present temple dates to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when the island was protected by the Setupati rulers of nearby Ramnad. In several of the long corridors and halls for which this temple is famous are brightly painted life-sized standing images of over 100 male figures attached to columns. Though such images are characteristic of many south Indian temples from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, there are far more at Rameshvaram than at any other south Indian temple. This article examines the number, location, and significance of these numerous standing images within this temple. By exploring the significance of the temple as a long-standing site for the royal performance of devotion, this article seeks to address whether the great number and identity of the life-sized donor images can be explained by both Purāṇic ideas of kingship and seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Dutch observations of the pan-Indian status of the temple.
format Journal Article
author Bes, Lennart
author_facet Bes, Lennart
Branfoot, Crispin
authorStr Bes, Lennart
author_letter Bes, Lennart
author2 Branfoot, Crispin
author2Str Branfoot, Crispin
title ‘From all quarters of the Indian world’: The temple at Rameshvaram, Hindu kings and Dutch merchants
publisher Cambridge University Press
publishDate 2024
url https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/39461/

Similar items