This book about the cave paintings of Ajanta. In this book, it was the objective of the author to reveal out the pulse of those ancient paintings of Ajanta cave, in the light of his artistic knowledge and some hidden backgrounds he discovered from several resources. His artistic discussion is not only related to the grammatical aspects of art but also enlightens the soul of Buddhist spiritualism which is necessary to realize the inner-soul of those paintings. There are numerous books about Ajanta cave highlighted the several aspects of this controversial cave; however, not a single one discussed the insides of those paintings, including the ancient grammatical concepts and rules. This book is only a documentation of the ancient Asian art which followed some secret rules and grammars to compose those world-famous paintings.

Pauranic Prana-aesthetics, a finer shade different from that of vitalistic aesthetics )the earlier having breathing-rhythm of Ksaya-Vrddhi --diminuation and augmentation--other than the latter`s emphasis only on the rhythm of augmentation), has been delineated in this study with examples from the world`s two of the best art-monuments: Ajanta (India), now not remaining unknown even to the most casual connoisseur, and Sopocani (Yugoslavia), the most significant and monumentally beautiful work of Byzantine art. Tracing Prana-aesthetics as the aesthetics of inner-light coded in the creeper-motif by the artists of Ajanta, this work emphasises decoding of the creeper-motif by Byzantine artists culminating into the frescoes of Sopocani done in Hellenistic-Byzantine aesthetics beatifield by Hesycast meditation to which that of Buddhists was not unknown. Comparisons of various determinant aspects, aesthetics and artistic denominators, and constraints not allowing similar consummation are properly investigated to substantiate the thesis that Prana-aesthetics transfigures at Ajanta but transubstantiates at Sopocani. The significance of the anabolic aspects of this aesthetics is highlighted especially as a way out from the reductivistic tendencies of the present day visual-arts straining them upto the stage of catabolic dissolution.

From William Dalrymple—award-winning historian, journalist and travel writer—a masterly retelling of what was perhaps the West’s greatest imperial disaster in the East, and an important parable of neocolonial ambition, folly and hubris that has striking relevance to our own time. With access to newly discovered primary sources from archives in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia and India—including a series of previously untranslated Afghan epic poems and biographies—the author gives us the most immediate and comprehensive account yet of the spectacular first battle for Afghanistan: the British invasion of the remote kingdom in 1839. Led by lancers in scarlet cloaks and plumed helmets, and facing little resistance, nearly 20,000 British and East India Company troops poured through the mountain passes from India into Afghanistan in order to reestablish Shah Shuja ul-Mulk on the throne, and as their puppet. But after little more than two years, the Afghans rose in answer to the call for jihad and the country exploded into rebellion. This First Anglo-Afghan War ended with an entire army of what was then the most powerful military nation in the world ambushed and destroyed in snowbound mountain passes by simply equipped Afghan tribesmen. Only one British man made it through. But Dalrymple takes us beyond the bare outline of this infamous battle, and with penetrating, balanced insight illuminates the uncanny similarities between the West’s first disastrous entanglement with Afghanistan and the situation today. He delineates the straightforward facts: Shah Shuja and President Hamid Karzai share the same tribal heritage; the Shah’s principal opponents were the Ghilzai tribe, who today make up the bulk of the Taliban’s foot soldiers; the same cities garrisoned by the British are today garrisoned by foreign troops, attacked from the same rings of hills and high passes from which the British faced attack. Dalryrmple also makes clear the byzantine complexity of Afghanistan’s age-old tribal rivalries, the stranglehold they have on the politics of the nation and the ways in which they ensnared both the British in the nineteenth century and NATO forces in the twenty-first. Informed by the author’s decades-long firsthand knowledge of Afghanistan, and superbly shaped by his hallmark gifts as a narrative historian and his singular eye for the evocation of place and culture, The Return of a King is both the definitive analysis of the First Anglo-Afghan War and a work of stunning topicality.

New in paperback, this stunningly photographed book was hailed by The Times Higher Education Supplement as one of the most gorgeous and stimulating books of Indian art ever produced.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1977.

This book presents the latest and updated information about the Ajanta caves, their histories, and painted themes. For the first time, a book accommodates-within the space of a single volume-many dimensions and components of the caves. It includes the latest research by the author on the gradual development of the caves. historical framework formulated by Walter M. Spink. identifications of the narrative paintings by Dieter Schlingloff. identifications of the devotional and ornamental paintings by Monika Zin. summaries of nearly all the narrative paintings (84 stories). corpus of photo documentation on the paintings, sculptures, and architecture. attempt on long exposure photography in poorly lit conditions. The language is so crafted as to help the students, travellers, and general readers grasp the beauty and complexities of Ajanta and the times. At the same time the content is so packed, and the issues discussed in such a manner, as to keep the expert readers engaged.