The Power of Rock at Badami

When one thinks of the art and architecture of premodern India, the medium of stone is front and center. Recent scholarship has described the ‘workability’ of different types of stone and how a close study of creative processes can lead to a better understanding of a monument’s function and reception. Building from these approaches, I explore the power of rock—as both medium for creative expression and as a natural formation—at the site of Badami. My paper focuses on a colossal boulder located near the site’s water tank. Rather than excavating this rock to create a cave or temple, Badami’s artists carved images of temples and deities across the boulder’s surface. What does it mean to carve a temple on a boulder? In what ways do these images relate to (and/or depart from) the built temples and caves found throughout the site? Though the medium is the same, what is lost and what is gained by this translation of form and space? And finally, what might this tell us about the power of rock at Badami? In my examinations of this boulder and its carvings, I consider how they collectively create a power of place and contribute to the site’s ritual landscape. I argue that the carvings and the boulder itself form a dialogue with other stone monuments and imagery at Badami and that this dialogue reveals sophisticated acts of commemoration performed by diverse audiences.