In this innovative book, John Guy examines Indian religious sculpture in its temple setting, exploring its origins and cosmological meaning, its function within architectural schema and its dynamic role in facilitating worship by devotees. Illustrated with the Victoria and Albert Museum's unrivalled collection of South Asian sculpture, the volume examines Indian temple sculpture as an instrument of worship, conveying powerful religious experiences, both emotive and aesthetic. It traces the early origins of sculptural imagery in India, the emergence of the pantheon of deities associated with the growth of temple building, and with the codification of image-making. The central role of the temple setting is presented through archival and contemporary photographs, underscoring the role of ritual practice and the vitality of the temple festivals still enacted today. This book also provides a fascinating introduction to the principal iconographic forms in the three traditional religions of the Indian subcontinent, Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, with the principal deities presented through their myths and manifestations.