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THE GREAT COLA TEMPLE OF SIVA IN DARASURAM TIZIANA LORENZETTI Karine Ladrech, ed. Darasuram: Architecture and Iconography. Col-lection Indologie 108. Pondichéry-Paris: EFEO-IFP, 2007. CD-ROMOM.
A multimedia publication that deserves mention is this CD-ROMOM on the great Cola temple of Siva in Darasuram, a holy place in the Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu. This is the culmination of previous research studies initiated by Françoise L'Hernault, in the 1970s. At that time, in fact, she was a researcher at the École Française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO) in Pondicherry and had started organising the photographic archives of the school, while also studying the monuments photographed. She thus came into contact with the splendid temple architecture of the ancient dynasties that had once reigned over Tamil Nadu. L'Hernault was especially fascinated by the Siva temple in Darasuram, one of the four great Cola temples, now called Airavatesvara but in the past known as Rajarajesvara, after the Cola king Rajaraja II who built it in the second half of the 12th century. She delved deep into the study of the temple's architecture, iconography and epigraphy, in collaboration with a team of well-known scholars such as Pierre Picard, Jean Deloche, P.R. Srinivasam and Marie-Louise Reiniche.
The results of their work were collected in two volumes (now out of print): Darasuram: Epigraphical Study. Étude architecturale. Étude iconographique (Paris: École Française d'Extrême-Orient, 1987).
The present CD-ROMOM is based on this previous publication: actually, the setting up of a data base on the Airavatesvara temple in Darasuram was started by L'Hernault herself, but interrupted by her death in 1999. The work, later carried on in homage to her, represents a collection of the essential data on the entire templar complex, updated with a wealth of new drawings and photographs taken at the site in 2006.
This multimedia publication, with the user having immediate perception of its consistent methodological approach, comprises six main sections:
1. General information about the team members that have variously participated in the compilation of the CD-ROMOM. We have brief pen-portraits of the scholars Françoise L'Hernault...