ABSTRACT
This introductory chapter to Section III (‘Temple as Social Space’) highlights both the creation of the temple space through the actions and experience of a complex network of individuals and communities, as well as the diverse range of oral, visual, textual and material approaches and primary sources that are central in the examination of this complexity. A more holistic consideration of temple spaces is advocated beyond the academic fragmentation into component objects of study: architecture, sculpture, art, dance and music and so on, by highlighting recent investigations into Hindu temples that undertake a contextual and interdisciplinary analysis that engage with questions of identity, mobility, pluralism, embodiment, reinvention, the transmission of knowledge and so on.
