Art 515: Proseminar in Indian Architecture, Fall 1994

WORKSHOP IN INDIAN ARCHITECTURE
Hist. of Art Dept., Jaffe Building 104, Thursday 1:30-3
Prof. Michael W. Meister, Jaffe 308

Archive:  The University of Pennsylvania houses a photographic archive of 
Indian art and architecture (now over 70,000 photographs) as part of the 
W. Norman Brown South Asia Reference Room on the fifth floor (west end) 
of Van Pelt library.  To use this, contact the South Asia bibliographer, 
Kanta Bhatia, or her staff.  I hope this Archive can be an integral part 
of your work this semester.

Intention:  This seminar will both instruct you in the remarkable variety 
of India's architectural accomplishments and encourage you to discuss the 
broader issue of how architecture can be designed to express meaning.  I 
will ask students to divide into groups to work together on one area of 
India's architecture.  The categories I propose are:  

	Early Indian architecture;  
	South Indian architecture;  
	North Indian architecture;  
	early Islamic architecture in India.

I will ask you to work collectively, but on different aspects or examples 
of the general area, reporting in class on the literature, issues, ideas, 
and substance appropriate to each.

Books:  Three books have been ordered at the Penn Book Center:

	Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Essays in Early Indian Architecture, ed 
Michael W. Meister, Oxford University Press, 1993.

	James C. Harle,  The Art and Architecture of the Indian 
Subcontinent (Pelican History of Art).  New York, 1986.

	[This is out of print until November.  However, copies are likely 
to be available at many bookstores, including the PMA and University Museum]

	George Michell, The Hindu Temple:  An Introduction to Its Meaning 
and Forms, New York, 1977  (Chicago University Press paperback).


Brief Bibliography for General Reference: 

	Batley, Claude.  The Design Development of Indian Architecture, 
3rd rev. enl. ed., London, 1973.
	Brown, Percy.  Indian Architecture, vol. 1. Buddhist and Hindu 
periods, vol. 2. Islamic period, 5th ed., Bombay, 1965-68.  
	Coomaraswamy, Ananda K.  The Arts and Crafts of India and Ceylon. 
London, 1913.
	Coomaraswamy, Ananda K.  History of Indian and Indonesian Art.  
New York, 1927.
	Fergusson, James.  History of Indian and Eastern Architecture, 
London, 1876;  revised and edited by James Burgess, 2 vol., London, 1910.
	Herdeg, Klaus.  Formal Structure in Indian Architecture, preface 
by Balkrishna Doshi, New York: Rizzoli, 1990 (1978).
	Mayamata.  An Indian Treatise on Housing, Architecture, and 
Iconography, trans. by Bruno Dagens, Delhi, 1985.
	Pereira, José.  Elements of Indian Architecture, Delhi, 1987.
	Tadgell, Christopher.  The History of Architecture in India:  
From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj, London: Architecture 
Design and Technology Press, 1990.             
	Volwahsen, Andreas.  Living Architecture:  Indian and Living 
Architecture:  Islamic Indian, New York, 1969-70. 

Further reading will be assigned.


Course assignments:  In addition to participation in class discussion, 
students will be asked to prepare short reports for presentation in class 
and to choose an area for research leading to a final presentation and paper.





First general reading assignment, for discussion on Sept. 15:

	Riegl, Alois.  "The Modern Cult of Monuments:  Its Character and 
Its Origin," trans. by Kurt W. Foster and Diane Ghirardo, in Oppositions 
25 (1982): 21-51. (FA Reserve, NA 1.065)

	Meister, Michael and Joseph Rykwert, "Adam's House and Hermits' 
Huts," in Coomaraswamy, Early Indian Architecture (above), pp. 125-131.

Second reading assignment, for discussion Sept. 23:

Meister, "An Essay in Indian Architecture," Roopa Lekha 41 (1973):  
35-47;  "De- and Re-constructing the Indian Temple," Art Journal 49 
(1990):  395-400.