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Mirror of the world, the "Indian" temple mirrors India, by whom it has beer created, as well as the cosmos where live its gods. Through it, architects and sculptors inspired by theologians have known how to re-invent Space and Time. combining both of them in a continuous performance, where the Creation of the Universe starts over and over, again and again and is constantly repeated through daily ceremonies and solemn festivals. To ensure continuity in this performance they have petrified it in the temple ornamentation in the same way that the) have inscribed the cosmos and it! arrangement in the temple architecture a! well as the pantheon and its mythology in the images on its walls.

This Indian temple, like the church mosque, or even the Greek temple which it has sometimes encountered has spread all over the world, thereby following the doctrines which produced it. It has thus: become the mirror of many cultures, each of which has given its own interpretation in accordance with its own genius, but without ever discarding its bask characteristics which, as are defined if architecture treatises, allow recognition of its unity.

In ancient times, the temple blossomed in India and then went t< South-East Asia especially to Cambodia and Indonesia where appeared some of it: most magnificent manifestations, such a: Angkor Wat. More recently, approximately since the last two centuries Indians are building it on all continents.

This book aims at gathering in one presentation all these "Indian" temples, irrespective of their origin and their date. Attempting to delimit the mutual contribution of each concerned culture, it constantly draws a parallel between theoretical data and actual monuments, from the oldest to the more recent and through the liveliness of Indian traditions which they bespeak.