History of Indian and Eastern Architecture

Born in Scotland, James Fergusson (1808–86) spent ten years as an indigo planter in India before embarking upon a second career as an architectural historian. Although he had no formal training, he became one of the most respected researchers in the field and an expert on India's cave temples. His History of Indian and Eastern Architecture was first published in 1876 and became a standard work. It was revised in this two-volume edition of 1910 by James Burgess (1832–1916), former Director of the Archaeological Survey of India, and Richard Spiers (1838–1916), a noted architect and historian of architecture. Volume 1 covers Buddhist and Himalayan architecture, and the Dravidian and Chalukyan styles. Volume 2 covers Jain and Indo-Aryan architecture, Islamic architecture in India, the buildings of Burma, Cambodia, Thailand and Java, and Chinese and Japanese temples. Highly illustrated throughout, this impressive work remains relevant to students of Asian architecture and history.