The Torana in Indian and Southeast Asian Architecture.

• Author: Brown, Robert L.
• Position: Book review

The Torana in Indian and Southeast Asian Architecture. By PARUL PANDYA DHAR. New Delhi: D. K. PRINTWORLD, 2009. Pp. xviii + 317, illus. Rs. 4200, $140.

A torana (as defined in the glossary of Dhar's book on the topic) is an "arched portal or festoon." This seemingly simple definition hardly suggests the variety and importance of the torana in the architecture of India and Southeast Asia. Yet any more detailed definition would require hundreds of pages of text illustrated with hundreds of examples, and indeed, this is what Parul Dhar has produced in her book on the topic.

She has divided her study into five chapters: chapter 1 focuses on the earliest toranas (ca. 300-500 C.E.); chapter 2 is a brief chapter on references to the use and types of torana in a selection of literary and textual sources; chapter 3 is a survey of toranas in South Indian architecture; chapter 4 is a survey of wraps in North Indian architecture; and chapter 5 surveys torapas in the architecture of Southeast Asia. The book is an extended typology that traces the development of the torana with representative examples moving from early to later time periods and within these by geographical locations. Such surveys are standard for outlining the general contours of broad art historical periods, including surveys of an entire culture's art history. These broad surveys suffer by being able to include only a small sampling of the art, with the resultant time gaps and lack of artistic relationships, and are limited in the illustrations that can be shown.

The reason Dhar's survey works so well is that it is organized around an enormous number of very nicely printed illustrations. I count some 359 illustrations, and there are in addition some 60 drawings. Thus, she is rarely talking about something that cannot be seen. In this regard the publisher has done an excellent job of laying out the art and the text. The illustration of the object being discussed is usually placed on the same page as the text describing it. The large number of toranas illustrated allows for a continuous developmental series with no chronological gaps. The survey also works because the topic is focused on an architecture element that can usually be illustrated completely.

The text that accompanies the illustrations is clear and well organized. It is almost entirely descriptive. Dhar does not propose any reasons or theories as to why the torana was so important in Indian and Southeast Asian architecture...