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Journal of the American Academy of Religion 2005 73(1):45-87; doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfi004
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the American Academy of Religion. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org

Learning to See the Goddess Once Again: Male and Female in Balance at the Kailasanath Temple in Kañcipuram

Padma Kaimal

Department of Art and Art History at Colgate University, Hamilton, NY 13346

All scholarship on the famous Kailasanath temple, a stone complex built by a king of the Pallava dynasty during the early eighth century at his capital city in southeastern India, assumes that it was dedicated to Siva alone. Surveys of Indic art presume that most Hindu temples—and all of those built of stone, in cities, by royal patrons—were built for male deites. I propose that the Kailasanath is instead two conjoined temples of equal significance, one to Siva and one to goddesses. The architectural and sculptural signs of goddess worship at the Kailasanath are, furthermore, present at other temples, temples central to the art historical canon, temples we thought we knew well when we knew them simply as dedications to male deities. The Kailasanath temple teaches us to recognize the substantial presence of goddesses in Indic temple architecture, and to begin understanding cultural assumptions that have prevented us from seeing this before.


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