The Great Penance at Mamallapuram (Hard bound)

The Great Penance carving at Mamallapuram is "a work of such inspiration that it cannot be compared In Its power to anything less than the Last Judgment of Michelangelo. It has also remained an intricate mystery with respect to its subject matter, date and authorship. Its varied designations and characterizations such as 'Arjuna's Penance'. 'Descent of the Ganges’ and the plurality of interpretation of the tableau's chief protagonist all indicate our inability to arrive at a holistic comprehension of this visual text. It is in this context that the present study of Dr Michael D Rabe marks a significant breakthrough and a well-made key by which to unlock an impregnable fortress of a complex visual composition.
That Dr Rabe brings in the Oriental metaphor of the mandalas (the concentric diagrams) by which to reintegrate the disparate planes of the Great Penance reveals his profound understanding of this composition, his exemplary perseverance and the sharpness of his critical tools. His perception, in tune with the grammar of the Indian temple architecture, of the existence of four gatehouses of the yantra (iconography, hermeneutics, alamkara sastra and prasasti) and their intertextuality constitutes a sound hypothesis. He proceeds thereon with an inductive examination of these four 'gateways' by looking at them simultaneously and juxtapositioning them. A plurality of approach accomplished by journeying back and forth into epigraphy, history, poetics and literature progressively leads into an empirical translation of the hypothesis into conclusions of critical authenticity and validity.