Archaeology of Hinduism

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Archaeology of Hinduism
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chapter 57
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ARCHAEOLOGY OF HINDUISM
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NAMITA SUGANDHI AND KATHLEEN MORRISON
1 DEFINING THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF HINDUISM

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It is a difficult and complicated matter to identify and interpret the archaeological remains
associated with the Hindu religion. Hinduism cannot be defined as a singular codified
system, but instead must be understood as a heterogeneous amalgam of beliefs and
practices that vary widely across both space and time. As such, there is no simple or
universally agreed upon definition of ‘Hinduism’, and any attempt to synthesize the
archaeological record of Hinduism is sure to be controversial (Bhan 1997).
Interpretations of the origins of Hinduism have spanned the transcendental to the
colonial. It is a religion which has developed and transformed over millennia, incorporating
regional, foreign, and shared ‘pan-Indic’ traditions, many of which exist up until the
present day. The earliest material evidence for Hinduism is found in the Indo-Gangetic
divide during the mid-first millennium bc, and in the succeeding centuries these traditions
spread to incorporate the entire Indian subcontinent, eventually reaching South-east Asia
during the first millennium ad. These traditions are associated with Vedic and Puranic
Hinduism, but their systems of ritual practice and iconographic representation have roots
which reach back thousands of years.
In one of the first comprehensive overviews of the archaeology of early Hinduism,
Chakrabarti (2001) states three major points. The first is that an organized Brahmanical
framework developed only after the advent of the textual record, which dates from
approximately the sixth century bc, or the beginning of what is known as the Early Historic
period in South Asian chronology. Consequently, much of the archaeology of what is
manifestly early Hinduism may be considered logocentric, in that it attempts to correlate
material traces and artefacts with references in early literature and epigraphic records. Once
ritual practice shifted decisively toward temple-focused forms of worship in the first
millennium ce, archaeological and art-historical research on architecture and iconography
becomes a powerful source of evidence for both orthodox and alternative forms of religious
practice in both the public and private spheres.
However, Chakrabarti also notes that ‘individual components’ of Hinduism may be
linked to ritual practices and beliefs that date to earlier pre- and proto-historic time periods
(2001: 58). This relates to his second point, which concerns the continuity of Hindu sacred
920 NA M I TA S U G A N D H I A N D KAT H L E E N M O R R I S O N
space over time. Much research tracing long term continuities has focused on the descrip-
tive and formal analysis of material culture and written records, which allows a long-term
perspective on the development of styles and literature, but says little about the actual
practices of Hinduism and their considerable transformations over time in different
regional and individual contexts. An archaeological perspective which focuses on practice,
as well as the wider social context of objects, offers a unique view through which to examine
the dynamic mass of beliefs and practices that characterize the Hindu religion.
An archaeological interpretation that situates religious practice within its wider socio-
cultural and economic setting is demonstrated by Chakrabarti’s third point, which looks to
pilgrimage networks as significant components of the economic and social relationships
connecting different parts of South Asia to one another, and to the world beyond. Early
Historic and prehistoric patterns of interregional and foreign interaction are certainly
reflected in the diversity of traditions that characterize Hindu practice and representation.
This is often typified as a fusion of regional and local ‘folk’ customs with wider ‘Pan-Indic’
Brahmanical traditions. Further syncretism may be marked between various orthodox
Hindu traditions and heterodox religions such as Buddhism and Jainism, and links to
more-foreign Zoroastrian, Scythian, and Greek traditions are also distinct, particularly in
the iconographic and epigraphic styles of the north-west.
2 CATEGORIES OF EVIDENCE
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In terms of material culture, there are numerous categories of evidence which may be
examined in the study of Hindu practices as they developed over time. Evidence for ritual
activity can be inferred through the study of structures such as platforms, altars, shrines
and larger temple complexes. In addition to these types of constructions, smaller portable
objects such as figurines, coins, seals, and ritual vessels and instruments attest to a diversity
of enduring religious traditions in both public and private contexts (Ghosh 1989). The
material consideration of these structures and objects may be further encompassed within a
broader reflection of sacred space across the Hindu landscape. Across the Indian subconti-
nent, sacred rivers, hills, mountains and other localities may be marked by shrines,
inscriptions or other evidence for ritual activity, and may also figure in the literary record
of Hinduism (Eck 1981). In this way, particular cities such as Mathura, Varanasi, and
Tirupati are also recognized as sacred locations in traditions that link urban settlements
and textual references in a historical geography of Hinduism which continues up until the
present day.
In addition to the study of ritual practice and space, the study of material culture also
contributes a considerable amount to our understanding of the Hindu pantheon of
divinities and its elaboration over time. It is not until the second half of the Early Historic
period (c.first–fifth century ad) that a systematic iconographic tradition developed which
can be identified with deities associated with Puranic Hindusim. The latter centuries of this
period also mark a transformation from earlier Vedic elite practices of sacrifice towards
more popular traditions of worship and devotion, and a consequent shift in material
culture. Earlier representations of divinities found in prehistoric and proto-historic con-
texts are sometimes linked to Vedic figures such as Rudra and Ushas, but are also thought
A RC H A E O LO G Y O F H I N D U I S M 921
to prefigure later forms of Hindu gods and goddesses known from Puranic and Epic
literature such as Vishnu, Siva, Brahma, Lakshmi, Durga, and Saravati, as well as many
of their numerous avatars, and other minor deities such as Nagas, Yakshas, and Yakshinis.
Many of these deities are also associated with local cultic gods and goddesses, who over
time were either absorbed or marginalized by orthodox Brahmanical Hinduism and its
iconographic conventions.
3 EARLY EVIDENCE
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Examples of built platforms and small shrine-shaped objects have been cited as evidence
for early ritual practice during the Upper Palaeolithic (tenth to ninth millennia bc) at sites
such as Baghor in central India, but it is not until the development of Neolithic farming
communities during the fourth–third millennia bc that more definitive evidence of reli-
gious symbolism is seen. The earliest evidence is found in the region of Baluchistan, where
terracotta female figurines have been recovered at sites such as Mehrgarh (Ardeleanu-
Jansen 2002). These early agricultural communities are linked to the emerging traditions of
the Indus civilization, which flourished from the mid-third to late second millennia bc with
a geographical scope stretching from Saurashtra to the Iranian borderlands (Possehl 2002).
Since the discovery of the Indus civilization (also known as the Harappan civilization) in
the early twentieth century, many have attempted to link evidence for ritual activity at
Indus sites with later Hindu practices. Although several points of possible convergence
have been noted between the Indus civilization and later Hindu forms of religious practice
and representation, these connections are vague and often hotly contested by specialists
(Atre 2002).
Female terracotta figurines found at Indus sites are often associated with a broader
tradition of Mother Goddess worship, and are thought to have symbolized creativity,
fertility and birth (Bhardwaj 2004). These figurines are linked to later female images that
display a more consistent iconography such as the goddess with five–ten āyudhas (weap-
ons) in her headdress, and the lājja-gaurí, frequently depicted as headless and posed in a
squatting position. However, these more identifiable images are not seen until much later,
from the first century bc onwards, and any connection to the earlier Indus figurines
remains speculative. Male figures depicted on seals found at Indus sites have been categor-
ized as ‘Proto-Śivas’, referring to their yoga-like posture and ithyphallic nature. This image
is also depicted with a buffalo-horned headdress and is frequently surrounded by wild
animals such as elephants, tigers, and rhinos (Figure 57.1). This has led some to identify this
figure with the god Śiva as Mahayogi (Master of Yoga) and also as the Vedic Rudra in the
form of Pasupati (Lord of Beasts). However as several scholars have pointed out (Sullivan
1964; Srinivasan 1983), such direct links are somewhat tenuous, and the connection between
the Indus horned deity and the Śiva images of later Puranic Hinduism remains ambiguous.
Nevertheless, there are some suggestions for the existence of a cult of human sexuality in
the Indus civilization, as depicted by linga-type phallic objects and ring stones at sites such
as Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa, and Surkotada (Ghosh 1989).
922 NA M I TA S U G A N D H I A N D K AT H L E E N M O R R I S O N
FIGURE57.1 Sealing from Indus stamp-seal showing the so-called ‘Proto Śiva’ figure with
horned headdress.
In addition to the representation of deities and their aniconic forms, evidence for ritual
practice during the Indus civilization has also been interpreted from various architectural
elements. A noteworthy feature of Indus urban centres is the marked absence of monu-
mental architecture, religious or otherwise. One exception to this is the Great Bath complex
at Mohenjo-Daro, which lies on the elevated ‘citadel’ above the lower town. In general,
water is believed to have played an important role in the ideology of the Indus civilization,
as evidenced by the extensive bathing and drainage facilities found at many Indus settle-
ments, and this perhaps can be regarded as a predecessor to later Hindu practices of
ceremonial ablutions and the construction of tanks and wells at many temple complexes
(Possehl 2002).
Other proposed ritual structures associated with Indus Civilization include ‘fire-altars’.
These small ash and debris filled pits have been identified at sites such as Kalibangan,
Rakhigarhi, Lothal, and Navdatoli. A definitive identification of these ‘fire-altars’ as ritual
features has yet to be made, and suggestions that these structures may be correlated with
sacrificial structures depicted in Vedic literature have become entangled in debates
concerning the nature of society during the centuries following the decline of the Indus
civilization, and the origins of ‘Vedic’ culture.
The origins and nature of ‘Vedic’ society are the subject of much controversy in both
politics and historical scholarship. Archaeologically, there is little in the material record
that can be identified as ‘Vedic’, though a marked shift from earlier Indus traditions is
certainly seen. In general, most scholars characterize the late-second through mid-first
millennia bc in north India and the north-west territories as a time of disintegrating
Harappan urban traditions, and the emergence of pastoral communities associated with
groups of Indo-European language speakers who gradually migrated into the Indian
subcontinent during the second millennium bc (Thapar 2000 [1983]). This is in contrast
to the view that there was no Indo-European migration and all developments in South Asia
were of indigenous origin—for both groups archaeological arguments have become closely
linked to contemporary politics.
Archaeologically, the period following the decline of the Indus civilization is character-
ized by a number of regional cultures, largely defined by ceramic types, such as the Malwa
and Jorwe of central and western India, and other Chalcolithic ‘cultures’ of the Middle and
Lower Gangetic Plains. Terracotta figurines found at many of these sites suggest a contin-
uation of regional cults worshipping mother goddesses, phallic icons, and cattle. North
India and the north-west territories are associated with a ‘Painted Grey Ware’ culture that
is sometimes controversially related to a ‘Vedic’ society. However, the development of
Vedic traditions should not be regarded as a specific ‘culture’ per se, but rather as a gradual
accumulation of ritual practices and belief systems that integrated ideological aspects from
many different regions. The composition of the earliest Vedic samhita verses are conven-
tionally dated to the second half of the second millennium bc, but material evidence of
Vedic ritual practices and representations are not seen until much later, during the latter
half of the first millennium bc.
The Early Historic period begins during the mid-first millennium bc—in north India
and it is conventionally dated to approximately 600 bc, while in the south it begins about
three centuries later. This was a period that saw not only the crystallization of Brahmana
Hindu norms and practices (as well as those of many other ‘heterodox’ or Sramana sects),
but also the re-emergence of urbanism, complex political formation, and a general intensi-
fication of interregional interaction and long-distance networks. As suggested by the term
‘Early Historic’, this is the time associated with the earliest literary traditions in India,
beginning with the wide corpus of Vedic prose compositions that include the Brahmanas,
Aranyakas, and Upanishads. These early texts are not found in any extant form until the
second millennium ad, but later manuscripts are presumed to derive from a long line of
copies that may date back to the earliest centuries of the Early Historic period. This earliest
literary corpus, categorized as shruti (‘what is heard’), gradually expanded to include smrti
texts (‘that which is to be remembered’), and shastra texts which served as explanatory
treatises for a wide variety of subjects.
Included in these genres are the Puranas, the Mahabharata, and Ramayana epics, and
various Agama, Darsana, and Dharmasastra texts (Dimock et al. 1974). This literature
represents the remarkably varied canonical body of early Hinduism, but it must be
remembered that existing versions most certainly went through a significant amount of
revision and loss over time. Thus it is quite difficult to definitively correlate archaeological
evidence for religious practice with textual references that may be uncertain in terms of
both chronology and origin. Similarly, it is also a complicated matter to identify the social
manifestation of Hindu caste ideology without relying heavily on textual or ethnographic
records (Boivin 2005). Although, some settlement evidence attests to the stratified nature of
early Indian society and the existence of occupational communities, there is very little in
the archaeological record that definitively demonstrates a social hierarchy based on con-
cepts of ritual purity or a distinction between upper-caste arya groups and low-caste dasas.
Nevertheless, the material record of the Early Historic period attests to the development
of rich and diverse traditions of religious artistic expression, as seen in architecture,
sculpture, numismatic records, seals and epigraphic evidence. In the early centuries ad,
Buddhism was more politically favoured than Hinduism, based on epigraphic evidence as
well as architectural remains of stupas, viharas, and monastic complexes. Indeed, the rock-
cut Buddhist ‘cave’ temple provided the structural model for slightly later Hindu temples
made in the same mode and, sometimes, in the same locations. Both, clearly, built on a
history of wooden structures, as is evident from, for example, the forms of structurally
unnecessary ‘beams’ cut out of what is often referred to as the living rock. While Buddhism
and Jainism were explicitly formulated in response to Hinduism, the distinction between
traditions was not always rigid. Yaksha images, for example, are common on Buddhist
reliefs. Still later, the Buddha would be taken in as an avatar of Vishnu, despite (or perhaps
because of) the aggressive suppression of Buddhism in the Middle period and its eventual
disappearance from the country of its birth.
What Michaels (2004: 32) refers to as the period of ‘Preclassical Hinduism’ (200 bc–300
ad) marked the re-emergence of Vedic–Brahmanic Hinduism from the heterodox chal-
lenges, a restoration movement that, he notes, was accompanied by the compilation of the
two great epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, even though these refer to much
earlier periods. This revival was not so much a return to the past as a new synthesis of belief
and practice. Some of the more egalitarian impulses of Buddhism appear to have been
eroded, and both descent and ritual purity emerged or re-emerged as concerns of some
parts of society. Although these kinds of changes would have had material consequences,
this has to date not been much investigated archaeologically. This is unfortunate, as the
epigraphic record suggests significant changes, including change in practices of religious
donation. At many Buddhist religious centres such as Sanchi, thousands of inscriptions
record small donations from craftspeople, merchants, and other non-elite members of
society, including a significant number of women (Dehejia 1992). In contrast, by the Middle
periods, religious prestation had become a privilege of the elite, wielded with great energy
in the building of political power and alliances as well as devotion.
In this ‘Preclassical’ era, too, shifts in devotional practices created very clear archaeolog-
ical signatures. At least iconographically, Vedic deities were virtually replaced by Siva and
Vishnu in their various forms, as well as by goddesses in various forms. Temple-based
forms of worship, if established by this time, did not leave us architectural remains, but
archaeological evidence from sites such as Mathura provide tantalizing evidence for the
establishment of what would become stable long-term cult centres. Mathura, an important
early city on the Gangetic plain, was occupied from at least the ‘Painted Grey Ware’ period
or Early Iron Age, though the Early Historic and into the fourth century ad. This location,
famed now for its proximity to Brindavan, the traditional birthplace of the god Krishna
(a form of Vishnu), has seen significant long-term excavation as well as sustained art-
historical research. From the first few centuries bc, Mathura was a cosmopolitan place
where Jains, Hindus, and Buddhists lived together. Srinivasan (1989) argues that Mathura
became a regional centre of Vaisnavism beginning around the second century ad, identify-
ing a large number of coins, images, and reliefs with figures from the Vaishnava Bhagavata
movement, though many of iconographic attributes of Vishnu known from later periods
were not found in the Mathura assemblage.
The diverse array of ‘folk’ deities and practices such as the worship of Nagas or snakes,
are clearly evident in this period, as well as later ones. For example, Shaw documented large
sculpted Nagas placed atop the embankments of the Early Historic reservoirs she docu-
mented all around the site of Sanchi, an important Buddhist monastic centre, arguing that
these large images are contemporaneous with the reservoirs themselves (Shaw 2000).
Smaller objects such as miniature votive tanks arguably used for religious purposes are
also found in many excavated contexts.
Pollock (1996: 197) has argued that the expansion of Sanskrit in the first few centuries ad
across the large region from Afghanistan to Bali, was the product of a pan-regional cultural
and conceptual order, his ‘Sanskrit Cosmopolis’. Though not associated with any unitary
political order or sweeping religious movement, this transformation was certainly accom-
panied by state formation throughout this vast region and, until the beginning of the
Middle period (around ad 1000) when the so-called vernacular languages emerged as
literary and religious vehicles, the widespread use of Sanskrit certainly also must have
facilitated religious as well as literary communication across a vast area.
4 THE MIDDLE PERIODS

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While the Middle Periods (1000–1600 ad) saw the decline and, in many cases, the active
suppression of Buddhism, Jainism continued to be important, especially in some regions
such as Gujarat and Karnataka. Perhaps the most striking transformation in the ritual
landscape of Hindu South and South-east Asia during these centuries was the establish-
ment and institutionalization of temple-based worship. While early stone temples such as
the sixth-century Vishnu temple in Deogarh, Bihar, and the seventh-century Durga temple
at Aihole, Karnataka (Figure 57.2), constitute important models for later structures, the
Early Middle period saw a virtual explosion of temple construction across the entire Hindu
world. In part, this change was associated with shifts in devotional practice toward more
FIGURE 57.2 Seventh-century Durga temple at Aihole, Karnataka. The apsidal form recalls
Buddhist structures; Ray (2004) has argued that both traditions employed existing archi-
tectural forms rather than one being influenced by the other.
FIGURE 57.3 Sixteenth-century Vijayanagara temple complex dedicated to Tiruvengala-

natha, a form of Vishnu. This late Vijayanagara temple was classified as a city in its own
right; its form borrows heavily from earlier Chola imperial styles.
‘personal’ and, to some extent, more congregational styles of worship carried out in public
or semi-public structures such as temples. This shift is exemplified by the Bhakti move-
ment, a series of schools of thought emphasizing personal love of god, at least some of
which also espoused a more egalitarian social ideology (Veluthat 1987).
Despite the existence of many transregional as well as local traditions of religious hymns,
poems, and scholars, distinct regional styles of temple architecture and sculpture can be
identified. In some cases, these styles clearly carried very specific political messages which
could be asserted through architectural emulation. For example, Michell (1994) has noted
that the sixteenth-century Vijayanagara kings, at a moment of imperial expansion, adopted
Chola imperial temple forms virtually wholesale, despite the thousands of kilometres and
hundreds of years separating the two polities (Figure 57.3). In general, there is a rich
architectural and art-historical literature on Hindu temples, which also find ample mention
in historical documents of various kinds. Among the latter are tens of thousands of
inscriptions, carved both into ‘books’ made of copper plates as well as into stone. The
latter may be inscribed into temple walls or gates or, often, onto monumental slabs set up in
temples, villages, fields, and other locations. While historical analysis of the content of these
texts has been the most common approach, the archaeologists Morrison and Lycett (1994,
1997) have shown both how a quantitative analysis of inscription content can reveal
unexpected patterns and how the physical context of inscriptions is related to their content,
indicating the limits of study based only on temple inscriptions.
Middle period temples ranged widely in size from small shrines to vast walled complexes
approaching the size of small cities. Temples could control large landholdings, and often
invested their considerable wealth in agriculture and craft production. Large temples
maintained occupational specialists such as priests, dancers, and scholars and also ran
kitchens in which both public feasts and private meals were prepared. Detailed architec-
tural documentation has been carried out for many temple complexes, though studies of
FIGURE 57.4 Chola king as devotee, Tiruchirapalli. Just rule was closely linked to patronage
of religious institutions such as Hindu temples.
artefacts or plant remains are generally lacking. This is unfortunate since, for example,
temple kitchens would provide outstanding contexts for the study of changing food
practices and should be quite amenable to archaeological study. Pilgrimage, too, became
important in the Middle period, and both regional residential mobility, amply documented
historically though generally with a low level of specificity, as well as shorter-term mobility
could be studied using archaeological tools such as strontium isotope analysis. The regional
movement of specialist-produced objects, including sculptures, musical instruments, and
other paraphernalia of worship is another important area of study (Figure 57.4). An
important metallurgical analysis of Chola bronze sculptures by Srinivasin (2004) stands
as an example of the potential contribution of archaeology to the study of religion in this
period. Srinivasin’s work not only pinpointed specific bronze-working workshops, but also
showed that the famous Shiva Natraj ‘dance of bliss’ was actually an earlier Pallava
innovation, rather than tenth-century Chola as had usually been believed.
As noted, temples were often closely associated with claims to just rule, and temple
patrons included local leaders, merchant groups, and royal personages, all of whom
documented their largesse in lithic and copper plate inscriptions and in sculpted donor
portraits. As early as the seventh and eighth centuries, some temple complexes were built
to make grand imperial gestures, such as the Bubaneshwar temple in Orissa or the
Mahabalipuram complex in Tamil Nadu. The political and economic roles of Hindu
temples have been widely discussed though only a few archaeological studies explicitly
address these aspects. One of the most comprehensive combinations of iconographic,
architectural, and archaeological research is the analysis of thousands of structures and
images in and around the city of Vijayanagara by Verghese (2000), who convincingly
documents religious shifts across more than 300 years in this huge imperial city. Vergh-
ese’s material analysis reveals in great detail some of the patterns long noted by historians
such as Stein (1978), who described a pattern of assimilation of local gods and goddesses
FIGURE 57.5 Fifteenth- or sixteenth-century Naga carved on boulder outcrops in rural area
near the abandoned imperial city of Vijayanagara, in southern India. Note that this image is
still in worship.
into more orthodox Hindu pantheons across the Middle periods. Similarly, in a study of
the large-scale transformation of sacred space occasioned by the construction and recon-
struction of temples, gates, and roads at Vijayanagara, Wagoner (1991) has shown how
both the natural world and the built environment were made to reflect changing religious
practices from worship of a local river goddess to her displacement by Shiva and her
domestication to Parvati, Shiva’s more docile wife, as well as connected claims to political
authority. Were there information on artefacts, portable votive objects, food residues, and
other archaeological information from these same locales, one can only imagine how
much richer these analyses could be.
Although most research has been directed toward large temple complexes, some atten-
tion has been paid to smaller shrines and isolated sculptures and their integration into
regional landscapes (Figure 57.5). Such landscape-based approaches show a great deal of
promise in documenting the broad range of religious practices of the Middle periods and
integrating religious practice with broader questions about social and political life. Further,
regional-scale studies can isolate patterns not easily found in texts. For example, Morrison
(2008) noted that in the region outside the city of Vijayanagara and especially in areas far
from any evidence of government authority, worship of Shiva and the Goddess (Devi)
predominated, even to the extent that Vishnu temples built during the imperial era were
later transformed into Shiva or Goddess shrines. Building on a detailed analysis of local
temples by Patil (1992), Morrison also documented the religious significance of Vijayana-
gara reservoirs in this region, part of an overall pattern of significance for water and water
features that apparently has an extremely long history in this region. Reservoir sluice gates,
for example, often contain images of the goddess Lakshmi as well as other images
associated with temple doorways; she has argued that reservoirs were meant to represent
temples themselves as well as to evoke the eternal ocean that encircles this earth.
Temples and, to a lesser extent, inscriptions and images dominate the archaeological
scholarship on Middle period Hinduism. However, the realm of personal and family
devotion remains a critical understudied area of work. Objects of personal devotion such
as the small Shiva Lingas worn by Lingayat groups in the south and tiny clay or stone
images of Nandi (the bull, vehicle of Shiva) are found in both excavated and surface
contexts (e.g. Narasimaiah 1992), yet to date there has been no systematic study of such
objects nor has there yet been much work on household shrines, which presumably were
common across all of South Asia, as they are today. Many personal practices, too, such as
vegetarianism and the avoidance of specific foodstuffs, have both religious and social
associations and these would certainly be amenable to archaeological analysis.
5 CONCLUSIONS
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While archaeological analysis of religious belief and practice is never straightforward, the
record of that broad and diverse category that falls under the rubric of Hinduism has left us
a rich material record. While research has been dominated by the rich iconography and
styles of sculptures, bronzes, and other images as well as by the imposing Hindu temples
and temple complexes, a great deal remains to be done on the more quotidian remains of
personal devotion and practice that are manifest in, for example, household shrines, objects
of personal devotion, broad landscapes of fields, villages, and sacred spaces, and even the
bodily practices of diet, dress, and family.
SUGGESTED READING
For an introduction to the archaeology of Hinduism see Dilip Chakrabati’s 2001 article, ‘The
archaeology of Hinduism’, the 2004 article by Nayanjot Lahiri and Elizabeth Bacus, ‘Exploring
the archaeology of Hinduism’, and Michaels’ 2004 volume, Hinduism, Past and Present.
Harappan religion and archaeology are discussed by Atre (2002), Hindu temples by Michell
(1988) and early Hindu shrines by Ray (2004). Michael Willis (2009) examines the early
development of Hinduism focusing upon the site of Udayagiri in central India and Verghese
(2000) presents a selection of essays on the now-ruined city of Vijayanagara, capital of the
fourteenth–seventeenth century ad south Indian Vijayanagara Empire.
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NAMITA SUGANDHI AND KATHLEEN MORRISON

1 DEFINING THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF HINDUISM

4 THE MIDDLE PERIODS

FIGURE 57.3 Sixteenth-century Vijayanagara temple complex dedicated to Tiruvengala-

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