CONTENTS:- 1. Iconography of Siva, Ganesa, Skanda, Narayana, the ten incarnations of Visnu/dasavatara, Brahma, Navagraha/nine planets, Dikpalas/deities of the directions, diverse deities, Sages/rsi. 2. Sanskrit and Tamil texts. 3. Literature cited. Pantheon I-III. Sanskrit and Tamil texts in facsimile.
DESCRIPTION
Hindu Deities in Thai Art reproduces three albums of Tamra Devarupa, illustrating Hindu deities in their several forms, some of which have evolved in Thailand. The first album has 90 figures, the second has 69 figures and the third has 114 deities, sages, planets and protectors of the directions. All of them begin with the mukhalinga of Svayambhuva-natha who is the deity of ancient coronation ceremonies of the Cambodian kings and was adopted by the Thais. The name Svayambhuva-natha recalls Kambu Svayambhuva. The Kambuja kings trace their descent from him. Jayavarman II liberated Cambodia from Javanese vassalage and is said to have founded Angkor or Nagara, that is an ordered state. He revived the old tradition of the Suryavamsa of King Kambu, as against Bhavavarman and his successors who allude to Kaundinya and Soma as their ancestors like the kings of Funan. The primacy of Svayambhuva indicates that the Thai tradition goes back to the Angkor period. This is the first book in English to detail the Hindu iconography of Thailand, along with a classification of its morphological types and its evolution over the centuries.
