In this rich study based largely on the author's doctoral dissertation, Anna Ślączka examines both textual and material evidence of consecration rituals in ancient India. She focuses on three key rituals: the prathameṣtṭakā (laying of the first stone), the garbhanyāsa (placing of consecration deposits), and the mūdheṣtṭakā (placing of the crowning bricks). All are crucial: Whereas the prathameṣtṭakā and mūdheṣtṭakā bracket the beginning and ending points of the temple's physical construction, the garbhanyāsa imbues it with power and ensures the sanctity of the space within. Because Ślączka dons multiple disciplinary hats—first as a highly trained Sanskritist and second as an archaeologist—she produces a remarkably satisfying study that is highly focused yet broad in its implications.
In the first three of the book's seven chapters, Ślączka offers an introduction to her central text: the Kāśyapaśilpa, a South Indian Sanskrit treatise composed in the eleventh or twelfth century. The text is well chosen, in no small part because of its complexity. Serving both as an Āgama (ritual manual) and as a śilpaśāstra (architectural treatise), it can be seen as a kind of makara (a composite animal possessing an elephant's head and crocodile's tail), an image familiar to historians of Indian art. Ślączka's deployment of this visual metaphor in describing the written text demonstrates what is distinctive about her work: What interests her is the connection between ritual texts and actual architectural practices, not merely one or the other.
Chapter 4, the heart of the book, consists of a meticulous translation and commentary of the chapters from the Kāśyapaśilpa that detail the performance of the three rituals. Ślączka maintains the integrity of her translations by keeping them as literal as possible when no English equivalent is available—for example, bhittistambha becomes “pilaster” (p. 58), whereas hastipāda is translated literally as “elephant-feet” (p. 44)—or by using Sanskrit technical terms rather than loose English translations. The carefully cross-referenced commentary following each verse further clarifies any uncertainties in the text. Although the edition does not include a glossary, Ślączka makes the text easy to navigate by including an index of technical terms (pp. 272–74), subheadings marking transitions from one topic to another, and a comprehensive description of the ceremonies (pp. 173–83). The resulting translation is rigorous enough to satisfy specialists yet accessible enough to serve as a reference for other interested readers.
Chapters 5 and 6 situate the appearance of the prathameṣtṭakā, garbhanyāsa, and mūdheṣtṭakā rituals within a wide range of architectural treatises, ritual manuals, and Purāṇas, from the sixth-century Bṛhat Saṃhitā onward. The available sources, which hail primarily from South India, suggest that the rituals' primary functions are to charge the building materials with divine powers, to situate the temple within an earthly microcosm, and to protect the inner space within the building's walls. The garbhanyāsa (consecration deposit), most often installed in the temple's garbha-gçha (sanctum), is particularly important in imbuing the building with prāṇa, or life breath.
Rather than resting content with the textual sources, Ślączka attempts in chapter 7—one of the great pleasures of the book—to determine whether the three rituals in question were actually performed. In order to do so, she sifts through archaeological materials and witness accounts from South and Southeast Asia that might correspond to the practices described in texts. Because evidence from India is limited, Ślączka's discussion is relatively brief and based heavily on archaeological reports. By contrast, her account of archaeological finds discovered outside India—from Cambodia, Java, and Vietnam, for example, and at both Hindu and Buddhist sites—is richly detailed, carefully drawn out, and well illustrated in forty black-and-white plates. An extensive catalogue of these archaeological finds included at the end of the book (appendix 4) will no doubt serve as an important resource for years to come.
Throughout the book, Ślączka notes that the sheer geographic range of the archaeological evidence for the performance of consecration rituals and the many similarities between textual and material evidence support the broader idea of a cultural continuity suggested by Sheldon Pollock's “Sanskrit cosmopolis” (pp. 3, 234, 255, 275). One wonders whether Ślączka might have probed further: To what extent does her study contribute, corroborate, or complicate the idea of cultural continuity? Art historians may note the author's frequent use of J. C. Harle's general survey, Art and Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986; repr., New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1994), for interpreting architectural form and terminology rather than more authoritative sources, such as the lower Drāviḍadeśa volume (vol. 1, pt. 1) of the Encyclopedia of Indian Temple Architecture (ed. M. A. Dhaky [Philadelphia and New Delhi: American Institute of Indian Studies and University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983]). Such details reinforce the inherent textual emphasis of the book—material evidence is important, but primarily to the extent that it corroborates text. Nonetheless, Ślączka's book is, in final estimation, a deeply rewarding study, one that makes a significant step toward integrating careful readings of Sanskrit texts with close attention to archaeological material. Like the author's own makara, it will be of tremendous interest to scholars working in a many fields, and it should become essential reading for scholars working on the Indian temple.
