Archaeology and empire

Abstract

In this article, which is based largely on archaeological data, I argue that colonial intervention between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries in South and Southeast Asia not only altered the nature of linkages that had existed across Asia from at least the middle of the first millennium BC, but also, and more significantly, redefined our understanding of monuments, especially religious structures, from abodes of spiritual power to objects of artistic and aesthetic appre-ciation. This had far-reaching implications for the study and understanding of the nature of Indic religions, and here, I focus on Buddhism. The article highlights the changes intro-duced as a result of colonial intervention in three major monuments of South and Southeast Asia, viz., Bodh Gaya in eastern India, Borobudur in central Java, and the Angkor complex in Cambodia.

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