Campus
- Downtown Toronto (St. George)
Fields of Study
- South Asian Religions
Areas of Interest
- Hinduism and Buddhism
- Sanskrit and Pali language and literature
- Pratiṣṭhā (installation procedure), vāstuśāstra (building instruction), śilpaśāstra (instruction for artisans), and jīrṇoddhāra (the procedure for the maintenance and renewal of temples and deity figures)
Biography
Libbie Mills’ principal research interest is in the instruction found in the texts of vāstuśāstra, śilpaśāstra and tantra on the creation and management of materials of worship (temples and deity figures). From the basis of this textual study, she examines the production and ongoing maintenance of such materials right up to the modern period, in both South Asia and its diaspora. There are strong connections to be drawn between the procedures taught in the early records that she treats and those followed in modern creation. It is notable that building and artistic theory has been enduring and consistent.
Two current projects are: a collaboration with architectural historians to examine the interface between South Asian temple architecture and the building theory behind it; and a collaboration with an archaeologist, a data scientist and AI to develop translations of, and glossaries for, South Indian texts describing the production of monumental figures in unbaked clay – tools useful to the understanding of monumental terracruda figures found across both South and Central Asia.