From approximately the third century BCE through the thirteenth century CE, the remote mountainous landscape around the glacial sources of the Ganga (Ganges) River in the Central Himalayas in northern India was transformed into a region encoded with deep meaning, one approached …
Stone figures hardened by ascetic discipline and heroic effort face north in deep shadow. There they meet the gazes of the same gods and goddesses but with gentler bodies enacting grace, warmth, seduction, and marriage, drenched in sunlight, facing south. These figures adorn the…
Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Plates and Figures -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Flickering Light, Fluttering Textiles -- An Interruption: Derridean Temporality at the Festival -- 2. Material Transformations: Clay, Terracotta, Trash -- 3. Time, Interrupted: P…