LANDSCAPES IN INDIA: FORMS AND MEANINGS

About The Book : Landscapes in India, as elsewhere, inspire built forms, mirror social order, and represent cultural identity. They can be read like languages, as arrangements of symbols that reveal cul tural values. Natural archetypes can be traced to the transcendentalist view of nature and are expressed in rivers, mountains, or a combination of hills, water bodies and tree groves, found in every sacred site in the Indian subcontinent . Spatial archetypes are the basis of architectural form and space insettlements and buildings. South Asian landscapes—rich with for malized symbols, from the Cosmic Tree in sacred groves to cities patterned on mandalas—are expressive of archetypes universal to humankind and externalize deeply felt emotions of relationship with the divine and social kinship. This book explores the interface between nature, culture, and the built landscape by tracing the meaning of archetypal symbols in Indic mythology, ritual space, vernacular architecture, and contemporary design practice.