Download or read book Early Buddhist Architecture in Context written by Akira Shimada and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2012-11-09 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the dramatic discovery and tragic destruction of the monument in the 19th century, the Amarāvatī stūpa in the south-east Deccan has attracted many scholars but has also left many unanswered questions. Akira Shimada's Early Buddhist Architecture in Context provides an updated and comprehensive chronology of the stūpa and its architectural development based on the latest sculptural, epigraphic and numismatic evidence combined with the survey of the early excavation records. It also examines the wider social milieu of the south-east Deccan by exploring archaeological, epigraphic and related textual evidence. These analyses reveal that the flowering of the stūpa was not a simple accomplishment of the powerful Sātavāhana dynasty, but was the result of the long-term development of urbanization of this region between ca. 200 BCE-250 CE.