About the Book

This comprehensive guide to Southern India's varied heritage covers all the major Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and European historical monuments and sities in Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The descriptions vary from forts and palaces, and temple architecture, sculpture and painting to mosques and tombs and churches and civic buildings. The guide is devided into travel-friendly itineraries, accompanied by useful location maps.

About the Author

George Michell trained as an architect, and over the last 40 yars has studied the temples in and around badami, the brick and terracotta shrines of bengal, the mosques and tombs of Ahmedabad, and the ruined monuments of Hampi Vijayanagara. He has published widely on all these subjects.

Foreword

In recent years Southern India has attracted ever growing numbers of travellers, scholars, students and pilgrims from other parts of India, as well as from abroad. Yet until now there has been no comprehensive, handy reference to the region's major historical monuments and sites and principal museum collections. Hence the present volume, which is conceived as a series of itineraries based in and around a city or town where visitors may expect to find adequate accommodation and other essential facilities. The itineraries cover more than 500 monuments and sites, far more than visitors could expect to reach in a single tour, no matter how extended. These places are all included here in the hope that visitors will consider returning to Southern India on more than one occasion so as to explore a region that is unusually richly endowed with ancient buildings, remains, and objects and artefacts spanning more than 2,000 year of history.

In preparing this volume, I have benefitted from inputs offered by friends and colleagues. They include Andrew Bauer, Henry Brownrigg, John Copland, Anna L. Dallapiccola, John M. Fritz, Sandhya Harendra, Helen Philon, Klaus Rotzer and Bob Simkin. Priya Kapoor, together with her team at Roli Books in Delhi, has offered encouragement and editorial and design skills. To all these individuals I offer my sincere thanks.

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