Martand Sun Temple, inspite of having undergone much destruction, stands as a magnificent example of the architecture of Kashmir region from the first half of eighth century. Constructed as a prestigious monument by the victorious king Lalitaditya of the Karakota Dynasty, the Martand temple became the template of the medieval Kashmir style of temple architecture. Right from the late 19th century since its discovery by British colonial officials, the grandeur of Martand temple has been explained as a consequence of the influences derived from Graeco Roman architecture. Dr Parimoo has especially demonstrated that the early medieval phase of Hindu temple architecture of Kashmir is as much intrinsically related to the Shilpa Shastra tradition based architectural developments across the different regions of India, as much as the Sanskrit intellectual scholarship of Kashmir is inherently integrated with rest of the country.
The Speaker:
Prof Ratan Parimoo is an artist, art historian, and a pedagogue who has dedicated his entire life to producing art, teaching Indian and western art history and theories, and engaging in seminal research and critical writing. He is one of the pioneering art historians of post-independence India whose work is internationally known through publications he has authored and edited. Prof Parimoo received a Commonwealth Scholarship to study Art History at the Courtauld Institute of the University of London. He earned his PhD from The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. He served that institution as the Head of the Department of Art History, shaping the teaching of Art History as an independent discipline in India during his tenure. He was the Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts and retired from teaching in 1996. He was invited to lead the Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Museum in Ahmedabad as its Director. Prof Parimoo introduced European methodological framework alongside Indian aesthetic theories of Rasa and Alamkara for the analysis and interpretation of Indian art. From Indian textual sources he has drawn on Buddhist, Puranic and regional texts for the interpretation of sculpture and painting.