Edited Volumes/Books by Swati Chemburkar
Guest Editor, Marg, Vol. 67, no. 2, December 2015-March 2016.
Papers by Swati Chemburkar
The Creative South: Buddhist and Hindu Art in Mediaeval Maritime Asia. Vol. 1, edited by Andrea Acri and Peter Sharrock , Singapore: ISEAS Publishing, 2022: 192-221., 2022
The chapter documents and re-examines the Śaiva ritual practices enjoining performance in the med... more The chapter documents and re-examines the Śaiva ritual practices enjoining performance in the mediaeval Khmer domains. Combining data mined from the Śaiva textual archive in Sanskrit and vernacular languages with hitherto neglected art historical material from Campā, Java, and South India, the chapter focuses on the Pāśupata evidence of performance-based worship in the pre-Angkorian period, then documents the survival of this sect as an elite of state-sponsored ritualists through the Angkorian period, and finally describes the development of performance in temples and festivals in both Śaiva and Buddhist milieus in the late Angkorian period.
The Creative South: Buddhist and Hindu Art in Mediaeval Maritime Asia. Vol. 1, edited by Andrea Acri and Peter Sharrock , Singapore: ISEAS Publishing, 2022: 222-288., 2022
The chapter deals with a unique and enigmatic feature of Khmer temple complexes dating from the e... more The chapter deals with a unique and enigmatic feature of Khmer temple complexes dating from the early Angkorian to the late Angkorian periods, namely the small annex building with ventilation holes built in the southeastern quarter of the main temple, which scholars have tentatively called either a 'library' or a 'fire-house'. The chapter suggests that these annex buildings, which appear to have no clearly identifiable counterparts in South Asian temples, may have been intended to function as both specific Śaiva rituals, including ash-related observances of the Pāśupata sect, as well as initiation-and homa rituals.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion, 2022
Prajñāpāramitā, the Perfection of Insight or Wisdom, designates the vast and complex corpus of te... more Prajñāpāramitā, the Perfection of Insight or Wisdom, designates the vast and complex corpus of texts in Mahāyāna Buddhism, which is commonly called Prajñāpāramitā literature. The earliest known text is the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra (Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 verses), which was assembled during the first two centuries of the Common Era and became the focus of study of Mahāyāna Buddhism. During the next two centuries, the Aṣṭasāhasrikā was expanded in varying lengths, up to one hundred thousand verses that scholars call the “Larger Prajñāpāramitā” texts. Crystallization of ideas made shorter Prajñāpāramitā texts possible during the subsequent two hundred years lasting up to the 5th century. The final development took place from 600 to 1200 ce and coincided with the emergence of Tantric or Esoteric Buddhism that emphasized the ritual use of Prajñāpāramitā texts. This final phase also saw the representation of the Perfection of Wisdom in anthropomorphic form as a goddess wi...
Heritage, history and heterotopia at Angkor Wat Review of: The second volume of Michael Falser, Angkor Wat: A Transcultural History of Heritage, Berlin/Boston Walter de Gruyter, 2020, Two Volumes, 1150 pp, approx.1500 photos/maps/illustration/sketches/notes, epilogues, bibliography, index, $198.9... is the world's largest stone monument and a precious gem in the history of world architecture. Ac... more is the world's largest stone monument and a precious gem in the history of world architecture. Across a 200m wide moat, the majestic sacred complex of elegant towers, decorated all over with delicate and stirring relief carvings, has remained active since it was erected in the early decades of the twelfth century but its meaning has constantly shifted. French archaeologists learnt from inscriptions that it was built by a great warrior king Suryavarman II (r. 1113-1149), a devotee of Viṣṇu. The temple is identified as Campeśvara in the newly found Khmer inscription. 1 Suryavarman II is recorded fighting for years as far away as modern Hanoi and modern Thailand's borders with Burma, but he died peacefully in Angkor and received a state funeral, where the younger brother who succeeded him gave him pronounced the posthumous title Paramaviṣṇuloka ('gone to the world of Viṣṇu'). After his death, the temple was apparently referred to by his posthumous name Viṣṇuloka/Biṣṇuloka. 2 The current name Angkor Wat ('temple of the city') derives from the Middle Khmer period and is found in the seventeenth century inscription from one of the gallery walls of the temple. 3 For centuries it has always been referred to by this name by local people, whose oral history retained little of the historical detail exposed by the French specialists. A lot has been written on the temple since the late thirteenth century when a Chinese traveller Zhou Daguan spent a year in Angkor and wrote an invaluable and amusing eyewitness account. His first descriptive accounts were penned in his text 1 Claude Jacques, 'Inscription K. 1297 and the fragility of our historical knowledge', paper given at EFEO Paris in April 2016. 2 The name 'Biṣṇuloka' appeared especially in the inscriptions of the sixteenth and seventeenth century on the Southern gallery of the temple in K. 298-2 above the portrait of the king. See Saveros Pou, 'Textes en kmer moyen. Inscriptions modernes d'Angkor 2 et 3',
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 2015
The spiritual power of dance in Cambodia has been valued since pre-Angkorian times, and the plent... more The spiritual power of dance in Cambodia has been valued since pre-Angkorian times, and the plentiful images of dance and music in the bas-reliefs of the great monuments of Angkor suggest that this tradition was markedly enhanced in the reign of Jayavarman VII, as a contemporary Chinese report attests. This article explores the 'halls with dancers' of the Ta Prohm, Preah Khan and Bayon temples built by king Jayavarman VII and concludes that here dance became a determinant in some Khmer sacred architecture.
Banister Fletcher: World History of Architecture, 21st edition, edited by Fraser Murray, London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2020
Indonesia and the Philippines (plus other smaller island nations). Historically and geographicall... more Indonesia and the Philippines (plus other smaller island nations). Historically and geographically their make-up is diverse and complex, although they have long shared a (generally) tropical climate and an exposure to monsoons, earthquakes and volcanic activity, being so close to the Pacific 'Ring of Fire'. Looking first at the Khmer Empire in medieval Cambodia, the ascent of King Jayavarman II to the throne in 802 laid the foundations for the Angkor Empire: it would reach its apogee four centuries later, before entering a period of decline and ending in 1431. In Cambodia, the name Angkor is derived from the Sanskrit word, nagara, meaning 'city'. It became the Middle Khmer name for the huge area enclosing several monuments, reservoirs, causeways, walls and gateways at the site of Angkor near what is now the city of Siem Reap. The original name for the capital, established at this site by King Yashovarman (r. c. 889-910) at the start of his reign, was Yashodharapura. More widely known as Angkor, and then majorly rebuilt as Angkor Thom ('great city') by King Jayavarman VII (r. 1181-1218), it was to remain the capital until the Khmer Empire abandoned the city in the fifteenth century under pressure from neighbouring Thais. Hinduism was the main religion of the Khmer Empire, followed in popularity by Buddhism. Khmer kingship was perceived as being divinely bestowed, and monarchs drew upon the power of the gods by constructing temples and creating divine abodes in stone to represent heaven on earth. In the Hindu-Buddhist cosmography, the mythical Mount Meru (or Sumeru) stands at the centre of the cosmos and links the divine and human worlds. On its summit dwell the thirty-three gods, presided over by the supreme god:
Pacific World, Third Series, No. 20, 2018
Vibrancy in Stone: Masterpieces of the Đà Nẵng Museum of Cham Sculpture, Eds.Võ Văn Thắng & Peter D Sharrock, Bangkok: River Books, 2018
In India and Southeast Asia: Cultural Discourses, ed. by Dallapiccola, Anna L. & Verghese, Anila, Mumbai: K R Cama Oriental Institute, pp. 197-222, 2018
The stupa of Borobudur in Indonesia is remarkable and intriguing for its magnificent architectura... more The stupa of Borobudur in Indonesia is remarkable and intriguing for its magnificent architectural and iconographic conception. Since the other massive stupa structures of earlier or similar date, with which it could be compared, have reduced to ruins, it now appears unique. It has been suggested that Indian prototypes surely existed, such as ruined stupa of Nandangarh or the stupa of Kesariya in Bihar. With the recent excavations and restorations at Kesariya in east Champaran, Bihar, these architectural linkages are emerging stronger.
The paper compares the sacred architectural space of Kesariya in Bihar, India, Borobudur in central Java and the main temple of Tabo monastery in the Spiti valley, India. It also addresses the larger question of how and when within this chronological context a sacred geometry evolved from a stupa to mandala and how the architectural ideas travelled within the connected Buddhist world.
Art of Cambodia: Interactions with India, Ed. Swati Chemburkar, Mumbai: Marg Foundations, Dec 2016
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Cambridge University Press, 2015
In Esoteric Buddhism in Mediaeval Maritime Asia- Networks of Masters, Texts, Icons, ed. Andrea Acri, ISEAS: Singapore, 2016
The rise of the Pāla dynasty in the 8th century CE brought paradigm shifts in Buddhist text, ritu... more The rise of the Pāla dynasty in the 8th century CE brought paradigm shifts in Buddhist text, ritual and sacred architecture that sent cultural waves across the expanding maritime and land trade routes of Asia. This paper focuses on the architectural breakthroughs and tries to sketch the inter-connected Buddhist world they were transferred into. A movement of architectural ideas can be seen from studying a corpus of the temples in the Pāla and Śailendra domains of India and Indonesia. The paper proposes that we see a paradigm shift in the design of a circular mountain stūpa of Buddhas at Kesariya (Bihar) that made possible, the celebrated and much more elaborate structure of Borobudur in Java.
In Banteay Chhmar: The Last Great Forest Temple, ed. Peter D. Sharrock, River Books: Bangkok, 2015
The Marg, Mumbai, India, Sep 2012
Conference Presentations by Swati Chemburkar
The stupa of Borobudur in Indonesia is remarkable and intriguing for its magnificent architectura... more The stupa of Borobudur in Indonesia is remarkable and intriguing for its magnificent architectural and iconographic conception. Since the other massive stupa structures of earlier or similar date, with which it could be compared, have reduced to ruins, it now appears unique. It has been suggested that Indian prototypes surely existed, such as ruined stupa of Nandangarh or the stupa of Kesariya in Bihar. With the recent excavations and restorations at Kesariya in east Champaran, Bihar, these architectural linkages are emerging stronger.
The paper compares the sacred architectural space of Kesariya in Bihar, India, Borobudur in central Java and the main temple of Tabo monastery in the Spiti valley, India. It also addresses the larger question of how and when within this chronological context a sacred geometry evolved from a stupa to mandala and how the architectural ideas travelled within the connected Buddhist world.
The spiritual power of dance in Cambodia was valued from pre-Angkorian times, and plentiful image... more The spiritual power of dance in Cambodia was valued from pre-Angkorian times, and plentiful images of dance, music and celebrations in the bas-reliefs of the great monuments of Angkor show that this tradition was markedly enhanced from the tenth to thirteenth centuries. This presentation compares the architectural space of the 'hall with dancers' at Banteay Chhmar to Indian temple mandapa and suggests that dance and music became significant determinant during Jayavarman VII.
The most remarkable king of ancient Cambodia, Jayavarman VII built huge temple complexes such as ... more The most remarkable king of ancient Cambodia, Jayavarman VII built huge temple complexes such as Preah Khan, Ta Prohm, Bayon, Banteay Chhmar and Banteay Kdei along with several hospital buildings. His architectural program saw the emergence of innovations now referred to as Bayon style. The last phase of Jayavarman VII's constructrion activity was marked by addition of open pillared halls, adorned with dancing female figures to all his temples. Called simply 'sales aux danseuses' by French scholars, these halls lend a distinct character and a fascinating feature to Jayavarman VII's temples.
The paper focuses on the discussion of 'hall with dancers' and tries to understand the religious belief of Jayavarman VII with respect to contemporary Bhakti movement of the Indian subcontinent, music and dance tradition in ancient Cambodia and local practices. The paper reflects on the role of Jayavarman VII in bringing the devotional movement to Angkor through his Buddhism.
Book Reviews by Swati Chemburkar
CAA News- International Review, 2019
In 2018, the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) partnered with ... more In 2018, the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) partnered with the Đà Nẵng Museum of Cham Sculpture in central Vietnam to produce a remarkable and visually striking centenary catalogue of its worldrenowned collection of the sacred arts of the Cham people of Vietnam. The publication of Vibrancy in Stone: Masterpieces of the Đà Nẵng Museum of Cham Sculpture was timed to coincide with the renovation and expansion of the museum.
Journal of Art Historiography by Swati Chemburkar
by Richard Woodfield, Fiona K A Gatty, Amy C Smith, Tomáš Murár, Tereza Hrdlička, Csilla Markója, Martin Horáček, Milena Bartlová, Stefaniia Demchuk, Hannah De Moor, Susanna Avery-Quash, and Swati Chemburkar Journal of Art Historiography, 2021
Update: ToC should include:
Hans Christian Hönes (University of Aberdeen) ‘Painting Art History’... more Update: ToC should include:
Hans Christian Hönes (University of Aberdeen) ‘Painting Art History’. Review of: Léa Kuhn, Gemalte Kunstgeschichte. Bildgenealogien in der Malerei um 1800, Paderborn: Fink 2020, ISBN-13: 978-3-7705-6453-8, 333pp., EUR 69,00. 25/HCH2
Hans Christian Hönes (University of Aberdeen), ‘Out of the shadows? Discovering Mary Warburg’. Review of: Hedinger, Bärbel; Diers, Michael (Eds.): Mary Warburg. Porträt einer Künstlerin. Leben, Werk, München: Hirmer Verlag 2020, ISBN-13: 978-3-7774-3614-2, 535 S., EUR 68.00. 25/HCH1
Link correction for Eckart Marchand (Warburg Institute), 'Apostles of Good Taste? The use and perception of plaster casts in the Enlightenment' 25/EM1: https://arthistoriography.files.wordpress.com/2021/11/marchand.pdf
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Edited Volumes/Books by Swati Chemburkar
Papers by Swati Chemburkar
The paper compares the sacred architectural space of Kesariya in Bihar, India, Borobudur in central Java and the main temple of Tabo monastery in the Spiti valley, India. It also addresses the larger question of how and when within this chronological context a sacred geometry evolved from a stupa to mandala and how the architectural ideas travelled within the connected Buddhist world.
Conference Presentations by Swati Chemburkar
The paper compares the sacred architectural space of Kesariya in Bihar, India, Borobudur in central Java and the main temple of Tabo monastery in the Spiti valley, India. It also addresses the larger question of how and when within this chronological context a sacred geometry evolved from a stupa to mandala and how the architectural ideas travelled within the connected Buddhist world.
The paper focuses on the discussion of 'hall with dancers' and tries to understand the religious belief of Jayavarman VII with respect to contemporary Bhakti movement of the Indian subcontinent, music and dance tradition in ancient Cambodia and local practices. The paper reflects on the role of Jayavarman VII in bringing the devotional movement to Angkor through his Buddhism.
Book Reviews by Swati Chemburkar
Journal of Art Historiography by Swati Chemburkar
Hans Christian Hönes (University of Aberdeen) ‘Painting Art History’. Review of: Léa Kuhn, Gemalte Kunstgeschichte. Bildgenealogien in der Malerei um 1800, Paderborn: Fink 2020, ISBN-13: 978-3-7705-6453-8, 333pp., EUR 69,00. 25/HCH2
Hans Christian Hönes (University of Aberdeen), ‘Out of the shadows? Discovering Mary Warburg’. Review of: Hedinger, Bärbel; Diers, Michael (Eds.): Mary Warburg. Porträt einer Künstlerin. Leben, Werk, München: Hirmer Verlag 2020, ISBN-13: 978-3-7774-3614-2, 535 S., EUR 68.00. 25/HCH1
Link correction for Eckart Marchand (Warburg Institute), 'Apostles of Good Taste? The use and perception of plaster casts in the Enlightenment' 25/EM1: https://arthistoriography.files.wordpress.com/2021/11/marchand.pdf
The paper compares the sacred architectural space of Kesariya in Bihar, India, Borobudur in central Java and the main temple of Tabo monastery in the Spiti valley, India. It also addresses the larger question of how and when within this chronological context a sacred geometry evolved from a stupa to mandala and how the architectural ideas travelled within the connected Buddhist world.
The paper compares the sacred architectural space of Kesariya in Bihar, India, Borobudur in central Java and the main temple of Tabo monastery in the Spiti valley, India. It also addresses the larger question of how and when within this chronological context a sacred geometry evolved from a stupa to mandala and how the architectural ideas travelled within the connected Buddhist world.
The paper focuses on the discussion of 'hall with dancers' and tries to understand the religious belief of Jayavarman VII with respect to contemporary Bhakti movement of the Indian subcontinent, music and dance tradition in ancient Cambodia and local practices. The paper reflects on the role of Jayavarman VII in bringing the devotional movement to Angkor through his Buddhism.
Hans Christian Hönes (University of Aberdeen) ‘Painting Art History’. Review of: Léa Kuhn, Gemalte Kunstgeschichte. Bildgenealogien in der Malerei um 1800, Paderborn: Fink 2020, ISBN-13: 978-3-7705-6453-8, 333pp., EUR 69,00. 25/HCH2
Hans Christian Hönes (University of Aberdeen), ‘Out of the shadows? Discovering Mary Warburg’. Review of: Hedinger, Bärbel; Diers, Michael (Eds.): Mary Warburg. Porträt einer Künstlerin. Leben, Werk, München: Hirmer Verlag 2020, ISBN-13: 978-3-7774-3614-2, 535 S., EUR 68.00. 25/HCH1
Link correction for Eckart Marchand (Warburg Institute), 'Apostles of Good Taste? The use and perception of plaster casts in the Enlightenment' 25/EM1: https://arthistoriography.files.wordpress.com/2021/11/marchand.pdf