Department of History of Art and Archaeology
Reader in the History of South Asian Art & Archaeology
School of Arts
Department Learning and Teaching Convenor
SOAS South Asia Institute
Academic Staff
Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies
Member
Centre of Jaina Studies
Member, Centre of Jaina Studies
Dr Branfoot studied Ancient History and Archaeology at Manchester University (BA), and Art & Archaeology at SOAS (MA, PhD).
Before joining SOAS in 2006 he was a senior research fellow in South Asian Art and Architecture at De Montfort University in Leicester (2000-5) and museum assistant in the Departments of Eastern Art at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and Oriental Antiquities at the British Museum in London.
Research interests
My research examines the arts of southern India from the fourteenth to twentieth centuries, the period encompassed by the Vijayanagara Empire, the Nayaka successor states and the establishment of colonial authority. Many of my publications have addressed the architecture, sculpture and religious culture of the Hindu temples of the Tamil region.
More recent work has addressed the histories of archaeology, photography and conservation of religious architecture in south India in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Changes beyond the surface: Tracking the relationship between paper-making and human change in the Indus river basin region from 1000-1947 through a study of historical paper specimens
Visual Culture: Hindu Art in the Age of Empires and Encounter
Branfoot, Crispin (2024). In: Stoker, Valerie L., (ed.), Volume 4: A Cultural History of Hinduism in the Age of Empires. London: Bloomsbury, pp 127-152
Tirthas, temples and the architecture of Hindu pilgrimage
Branfoot, Crispin (2022). In: Prabha Ray, Himanshu, (eds.), Kulshreshtha, Salila, (eds.) and Suvrathan, Uthara, (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Hindu Temples: Materiality, Social History and Practice. New Delhi: Routledge, pp 197-217
Branfoot, Crispin (2022). In: Mason, Darielle, (ed.), Storied Stone: Reframing the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s South Indian Temple Hall. Philadelphia, New Haven and London: Philadelphia Museum of Art in association with Yale University Press, pp 82-93
Buddhismus und Jainismus in der tamilischen Kulturgeschichte [Buddhism and Jainism in Tamil Cultural History]
Branfoot, Crispin (2022). In: Noack, Georg, (eds.), Muthukumaraswamy, M.D., (eds.) and Priester-Lasch, Lisa, (eds.), Von Liebe und Krieg: Tamilische Geschichte(n) aus Indien und der Welt [Of Love and War: Tamil (Hi-)Stories in India and the World]. London: Linden-Museum Stuttgart und Sandstein Verlag, pp 166-175
Power, Processions and the Festival Architecture of the Tamil temple
Branfoot, Crispin (2020). In: Albery, Henry, (eds.), Hartmann, Jens-Uwe, (eds.) and Prabha Ray, Himanshu, (eds.), Power, Presence and Space: South Asian Rituals in Archaeological Context. New Delhi: Routledge, pp 164-187
Temple Renovation and Chettiar Patronage in Colonial Madras Presidency
Branfoot, Crispin (2019). In: Garimella, Annapurna, (eds.), Sridharan, Shriya, (eds.) and Srivathsan, A, (eds.), The Contemporary Hindu Temple: Fragments for a History. Mumbai: Marg, pp 22-35
Heroic Rulers and Devoted Servants: Performing Kingship in the Tamil Temple
Branfoot, Crispin (2018). In: Branfoot, Crispin, (ed.), Portraiture in South Asia since the Mughals: art, representation and history. London: I.B. Tauris, pp 165-197
Branfoot, Crispin (2018). In: Branfoot, Crispin, (ed.), Portraiture in South Asia since the Mughals: art, representation and history. London: I.B. Tauris, pp 1-32
Temple sculpture in colonial Madurai: The reconsecration of the Minakshi-Sundareshvara temple in the 1870s
Branfoot, Crispin (2015). In: Verghese, Anila, (eds.) and Dallapiccola, Anna L., (eds.), Art, Icon and Architecture in South Asia: Essays in Honour of Devangana Desai. New Delhi: Aryan Books International, pp 277-292
Branfoot, Crispin and Dallapiccola, Anna L. (2012). In: Michell, George, (ed.), Kanara, A Land Apart: The Artistic Heritage of Coastal Karnataka. Mumbai: Marg Publications, pp 58-65
In a Land of Kings: donors, elites and temple sculpture
Branfoot, Crispin (2011). In: Dallapiccola, Anna L., (eds.) and Verghese, Anila, (eds.), South India under Vijayanagara: Art and Archaeology. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp 249-262
Branfoot, Crispin (2007). In: Contadini, Anna, (ed.), Objects of Instruction: Treasures of the School of Oriental and African Studies. London: SOAS, pp 68-74
Branfoot, Crispin and Allan, James W. (2006). In: Branfoot, Crispin, (eds.) and Barnes, Ruth, (eds.), Pilgrimage: The Sacred Journey. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, pp 96-115
Architecture and Cultural Translation on India's Deccan Frontier’ Review of Eaton, Richard M., and Phillip B. Wagoner. Power, Memory, Architecture: Contested Sites on India’s Deccan Plateau, 1300-1600. Oxford University Press, 2013.
Branfoot, Crispin (2017). Art History (40) 3, pp 678-680
Review of: Tamara I. Sears. Worldly Gurus and Spiritual Kings: Architecture and Asceticism in Medieval India. (Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2014).
Branfoot, Crispin (2016). The Burlington Magazine (158) 1354
Review of: George Michell, Late Temple Architecture in India, 15th to 19th Centuries: Continuities, Revivals, Appropriations, and Innovations. New Delhi: Oxford University Press (2015)
Branfoot, Crispin (2016). Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society (60), pp 146-148
Review: Adam Hardy, translations from Sanskrit by Mattia Salvini. Theory and Practice of Temple Architecture in Medieval India: Bhoja's Samaranganasutradhara and the Bhojpur Line Drawings. New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts and Dev Publishers, 2015.
Branfoot, Crispin (2015). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (26) 3, pp 520-522
Religious Traditions at Vijayanagara as Revealed Through its Monuments by Anila Verghese (1995) and Sculpture at Vijayanagara: Iconography and Style by Anna L. Dallapiccola and Anila Verghese (1998)
Branfoot, Crispin (2000). South Asian Studies (16) 1, pp 152-153
