Water architecture in South Asia represents some of the most beautiful and spectacular building achievements of the region. This study provides a holistic approach to the subject, suggesting common links and regional contrasts between types of water structures and their contexts, with a comprehensive interpretation of the history and meaning of water architecture in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Five types of water structures are identified. Their development is traced from simple to more complex forms, considering how these accommodate secular and religious functions, and present expressions of sacred and royal authority. This publication is the first reference work on the subject. Many of the structures discussed and illustrated here have never been published before. Its comprehensive approach will have a wide relevance for other South Asian disciplines.

This book surveys the intersections between water systems and the phenomenology of visual cultures in early modern, colonial and contemporary South Asia. Bringing together contributions by eminent artists, architects, curators and scholars who explore the connections between the environmental and the cultural, the volume situates water in an expansive relational domain. It covers disciplines as diverse as literary studies, environmental humanities, sustainable design, urban planning and media studies. The chapters explore the ways in which material cultures of water generate technological and aesthetic acts of envisioning geographies, and make an intervention within political, social and cultural discourses. A critical interjection in the sociologies of water in the subcontinent, the book brings art history into conversation with current debates on climate change by examining water’s artistic, architectural, engineering, religious, scientific and environmental facets from the 16th century to the present. This is one of the first books on South Asia’s art, architecture and visual history to interweave the ecological with the aesthetic under the emerging field of eco art history. The volume will be of interest to scholars and general readers of art history, Islamic studies, South Asian studies, urban studies, architecture, geography, history and environmental studies. It will also appeal to activists, curators, art critics and those interested in water management.

Volume Three contains 1643 records on South Asia selected from the ABIA South and Southeast Asian Art and Archaeology Index database at www.abia.net. Volume Three has been compiled by specialists of the ABIA Project stationed at Leiden, Colombo, New Delhi, Dhaka, Kathmandu and Peshawar. It features a selection of publications in print published between 2002 and 2007 on prehistory and protohistory, historical archaeology, art history (from ancient to contemporary), material culture, epigraphy and palaeography, numismatics and sigillography. Covered are South Asia and culturally related regions of Afghanistan, South Uzbekistan, South Tajikistan and Tibet. The bibliographic descriptions (with the original diacritics), controlled keywords and elucidating annotations make this reference work into a reliable guide to recent scholarly work in the fields of the ABIA Index.

This volume analyses the ways in which the works of one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century, Michel Foucault, have been received and re-worked by scholars of South Asia. South Asian Governmentalities surveys the past, present, and future lives of the mutually constitutive disciplinary fields of governmentality - a concept introduced by Foucault himself - and South Asian studies. It aims to chart the intersection of post-structuralism and postcolonialism that has seen the latter Foucault being used to ask new questions in and of South Asia, and the experiences of post-colonies used to tease and test the utility of European philosophy beyond Europe. But it also seeks to contribute to the rich body of work on South Asian governmentalities through a critical engagement with the lecture series delivered by Foucault at the Collège de France from 1971 until his death in 1984, which have now become available in English.

This edited book examines architectural representations that tie water, as a physical and symbolic property, with the sacred. The discussion centers on two levels of this relationship: how water influenced the sacredness of buildings across history and different religions; and how sacred architecture expressed the spiritual meaning of water. The volume deliberately offers original material on various unique contextual and design aspects of water and sacred architecture, rather than an attempt to produce a historic chronological analysis on the topic or focusing on a specific geographical region. As such, this unique volume adds a new dimension to the study of sacred architecture. The book’s chapters are compiled by a stellar group of scholars and practitioners from the US, Canada, Europe, Asia, and Africa. It addresses major aspects of water in religious buildings, such as, rituals, pilgrimage, water as a cultural material and place-making, hydro systems, modern practices, environmental considerations, the contribution of water to transforming secular into sacred, and future digital/cyber context of water and sacredness. All chapters are based on original archival studies, historical documents, and field visits to the sites and buildings. These examinations show water as an expression of architectural design, its materiality, and its spiritual values. The book will be of interest to architects, historians, environmentalists, archaeologists, religious scholars, and preservationists.

Water has been an important topic in architecture and urban planning for years. The revitalization of the waterfront has been a prevalent trend in cities around the world. On the other hand, architecture also had to respond to the threat of floods. The theme of Building with Water is the use of water in architecture. It presents buildings that explicitly refer to water in their design and form. It establishes a typology of building by the water: residential structures, recreation facilities, industry and infrastructure, buildings for culture and art. The various design parameters are explored in four essays. Subsequently, twenty-two international projects are presented, organized according to their locations by a river, a lake or the sea. The authors’ concern is not to show luxurious buildings in privileged locations but rather presenting projects that seriously grapple with the main criterion of the location—namely, water—in an ecologically sustainable way and respond to it with their design. Wasser ist seit Jahren ein wichtiges Thema in Architektur und Städtebau. «Building with Water» thematisiert die Verarbeitung von Wasser im architektonischen Entwurf; es werden Bauten vorgestellt, die sich in ihrer Gestaltung und Form ausdrücklich auf Wasser beziehen. Eine Typologie des Bauens am Wasser wird erstellt: Wohnbauten, Verkehrs- und Industriebauten, Bauten für Kultur und Freizeit. Ebenso werden einleitend klassische Beispiele des Bauens am/im/auf dem Wasser gezeigt, wie etwa Château de Chenonceaux an der Loire, Falling Water in Pennsylvania von Frank Lloyd Wright oder das Salk Institute in La Jolla,Kalifornien, von Louis I. Kahn. Geordnet nach ihren Standorten am Fluss, See oder Meer, werden dann etwa 20 internationale Projekte vorgestellt. Es geht den Autoren nicht darum, luxuriöse Bauten an privilegierten Plätzen zu zeigen, sondern Projekte darzustellen, deren Entwurf sich ernsthaft und ökologisch verträglich mit dem Hauptkriterium des Standortes – nämlich Wasser – auseinandersetzt und sich gestalterisch darauf bezieht

Globalization has significantly redefined the nature of governance in the water sector. Non-state actors—multilateral and transnational donor agencies and corporations, non-government organizations, markets, and civil society at large—are assuming a bigger role in public policy-making for water resource management. New discourses on neoliberalism, integrated water resource management (IWRM), public–private partnerships, privatization, and gender equity have come to influence water governance. Drawing upon detailed case studies from India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan, this volume shows the implications of these new global paradigms for water allocation and management practices, institutions and governance structures in South Asia. It suggests that, despite claims to the contrary, they have done little to further human well-being, reduce gender disparity, or improve accountability and transparency in the system. Steering away from blueprint approaches, it argues for a more nuanced and contextual understanding of water management challenges, based on local knowledge and initiatives. This book will be useful to those interested in political economy and water governance, natural resource management, environmental studies, development studies, and public administration, as well as to water professionals, policy-makers and civil society activists.

First Published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.