Āśāpurī, main group of temples

From Museum to the field

The Temples of Āśāpurī, India

Āśāpurī Museum © Johan Levillain⁠
Viṣṇu Varāha, Āśāpurī, mid 9th-mid 10th century, current location unknown © DAAM
 Female figures, Āśāpurī, late 10th-early 11th century, current location unknown © Johan Levillain
View of Asapuri, Madhya Pradesh, India

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Photos:
- Āśāpurī, main group of temples © Johan Levillain
- Āśāpurī Museum © Johan Levillain⁠
- Visnu Varāha, Āśāpurī, mid 9th-mid 10th century, current location unknown © DAAM
- Female figures, Āśāpurī, late 10th-early 11th century, current location unknown © Johan Levillain
- Views of Āśāpurī © Johan Levillain and Louise Deglin

[1] A paper by the editor-in-chief, M.R. Anand, in which he recounts his visit to the Birla Museum and an article by K.D. Bajpai – curator at the Mathurā Museum (Uttar Pradesh) offering a retrospective of ancient Madhya Pradesh sculpture.
[2] The Vaiṣṇava Gallery, Siva Gallery and Devi Gallery Catalog. The Minor Deities Catalog was not published until 1992.
[3] In 2013, the “Ashapuri Temples Project”, financed by the World Monument Fund and the University of Cardiff (Wales) made it possible to start new field research and a field school for the students of Bhopāl. The project is among others led by Adam Hardy, who in the process will publish an article where is already mentioned the possibility of rebuilding certain temples by anastylosis. The first monograph of the site was published in 2014 by Ashok Shah. Besides a Ph.D. dissertation in preparation on Āśāpurī, our first contribution takes the form of a note devoted to the iconography of Viṣṇu Varāha in Āśāpurī.

Anand M.R., 1973: « Souvenirs of Madhya Pradesh Sculptures », Mārg, vol. xxvi (n° 3), pp. 2-26. Bajpai K.D., 1973: « Madhya Pradesh Sculpture Through the Ages », Mārg vol. xxvi (n° 3), pp. 27-49. Dwivedi S.K., 1991: Temple Sculptures of India With special reference to the sculptures of the Bhūmija Temples of Malwa, Delhi: Agam Kala Prakashan. Hardy A., 2015: « Ashapuri : resurrecting a medieval temple site », in Verghese A. and Dallapiccola A.L. (ed.), Art, Icon and Architecture in South Asia: Essays in Honor of Dr Devangana Desai, vol. II, New Delhi: Aryan Books International, pp. 338-348.
Levillain J., 2018: « Entre Gūrjara-Pratīhāra et Paramāra, étude de l’iconographie de Varāha à Āśāpurī (Madhya Pradesh) », Arts Asiatiques, vol. 73, pp. 135-146.
Rao M., 1979: « Some notable Paramāra sculptures of Birla Museum, Bhopal », in SHARMA R.K. (ed), Art of the Paramāras of Malwa, Delhi: Agam Kala Prakashan, pp. 76-89.
Shah A., 2014: Ashapuri, The Cradle of Paramara & Pratihara Art, Temples Unveiled, Delhi: Bookwell.

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