Despite having travelled to Greece, the Mediterranean or China for business and pleasure, his "hunger for yet more architecture" ended in Asia, at the portals of the Sri Mahadeva Temple, Ettumanoor, in Kerala. "The moment I entered the temple, I was seized with awareness," writes the enamoured author in his introduction. "There are clearly two worlds coexisting in this temple-the experience of pure space and the moment of complete freedom. When that realisation dawned, I knew the search was over; the hunger for yet more architecture had been driven away."
Kerala's wood architecture, simple in layout but intricate in detail, prompts poetic prose. The harmony of scale, size, profile and landscape is its hallmark and, when viewed through the lens of architect and photographer Joginder Singh, it has an added presence. More remarkable is the detail of the woodwork. Besides aesthetics, its carvings fulfill a purpose-they filter just enough light into the interiors while at the same time controlling the glare.
Architectural structures viewed in the backdrop of the landscape, where they merge naturally with the surroundings, are perhaps the truest forms of design. This spirit is best captured in the opening spread of the Mannar temple in Kottayam district. The temple mittam (courtyard), the puddle after a downpour, the leaning palm frond, the tiled-roof sitting like a brown suede cap on the justvisible structure, stand testimony to the quintessential image of Kerala. Simple, tranquil, profoundly rewarding.
The book, which chronicles such classics-the century-old temples and palaces of Kerala-is one that students and patrons of art would enjoy to the very end.
