With reference to Jammu District, India; a study.

This book studies the different dimensions of culture change in India. It covers important strands of the ancient and modern intellectual traditions of India and the socio-cultural changes that the country underwent during the colonial, post-independence modernization, and globalization periods in the country. In this context, the authors examine some of the major aspects of culture change observed at the institutional level across the country. They also touch upon cultural diversity and multiculturalism in India and Europe, as well as the dilemmas faced by diasporic Indians in North America. Lucid and topical, this book will be an essential read for students and scholars of sociology, sociology of culture, history, political science, cultural anthropology, Indian sociology, social anthropology, cultural studies, and South Asian studies.

In recent years, the Dallas Museum of Art has expanded its collection of South Asian art from a small number of Indian temple sculptures to nearly 500 works, including Indian Hindu and Buddhist sculptures, Himalayan Buddhist bronze sculptures and ritual objects, artwork from Southeast Asia, and decorative arts from India's Mughal period. Artworks in the collection have origins from the former Ottoman empire to Java, and architectural pieces suggest the grandeur of buildings in the Indian tradition. This volume details the cultural and artistic significance of more than 140 featured works, which range from Tibetan thangkas and Indian miniature paintings to stone sculptures and bronzes. Relating these works to one another through interconnecting narratives and cross-references, scholars and curators provide a broad cultural history of the region. Distributed for the Dallas Museum of Art

Contributed articles.

The roots between the Hindu religion and the wider culture are deep and uniquely complex. No study of either ancient or contemporary Indian culture can be undertaken without a clear understanding of Hindu visual arts and their sources in religious belief and practice. Defining what is meant by religion - no such term exists in Sanskrit - and what is understood by Hindu ideals of beauty, Heather Elgood provides the best synthesis and critical study of recent scholarship on the topic. In addition, this book offers critical background information for anyone interested in the social and anthropological roots of artistic creativity, as well as the rites, practices and beliefs of the hundreds of millions of Hindus in the world today.