Social and semiotic transitions in the carved spaces of religious sites across Asia during the first Millenium CE

The construction of sacred spaces within man-made caves is a significant, though peripheral, element of religious practice across Asia during in the first millennium CE. This paper focuses the transitions in the semiotics of carved space within rock carved religious sites over time and space. Since the majority of rock carved religious sites in Asia are Buddhist, this paper focuses on Buddhist rock carved architecture, but also refers to Jain, Hindu, Christian and Daoist sites. By focusing on the transitioning semiotics of carved and constructed spaces this paper approaches rock carved religious sites as locales of human activity in the past. Through analysing the semiotic balance between icons and devotees within rock carved religious sites this paper highlights the underlying web of exchange, regionalisation and localisation which, alongside changes to religious praxis, led to the gradual transition in the semiotics of space within religious rock carved sites across South, Central and East Asia during the first millennium CE.