This book investigates how the material culture of South Indian courts was perceived by those who lived there in the pre-colonial period. Howes peels away the standard categories used to study Indian palace space, such as public/private and male/female, and replaces them with indigenous descriptions of space found in court poetry, vastu shastra and painted representations of courtly life. Set against the historical background of the events which led to the formation of the Ramnad Kingdom, the Kingdom's material circumstances are examined, beginning with the innermost region of the palace and moving out to the Kingdom via the palace compound itself and the walled town which surrounded it. An important study for both art historians and South India specialists. The volume is richly illustrated in colour.

To scholars in the field, the need for an up-to-date overview of the art of South Asia has been apparent for decades. Although many regional and dynastic genres of Indic art are fairly well understood, the broad, overall representation of India's centuries of splendor has been lacking. The Art of Ancient India is the result of the author's aim to provide such a synthesis. Noted expert Sherman E. Lee has commented: –Not since Coomaraswamyês History of Indian and Indonesian Art (1927) has there been a survey of such completeness.” Indeed, this work restudies and reevaluates every frontier of ancient Indic art _ from its prehistoric roots up to the period of Muslim rule, from the Himalayan north to the tropical south, and from the earliest extant writing through the most modern scholarship on the subject. This dynamic survey-generously complemented with 775 illustrations, including 48 in full color and numerous architectural ground plans, and detailed maps and fine drawings, and further enhanced by its guide to Sanskrit, copious notes, extensive bibliography, and glossary of South Asian art terms-is the most comprehensive and most fully illustrated study of South Asian art available. The works and monuments included in this volume have been selected not only for their artistic merit but also in order to both provide general coverage and include transitional works that furnish the key to an all encompassing view of the art. An outstanding portrayal of ancient Indiaês highest intellectual and technical achievements, this volume is written for many audiences: scholars, for whom it provides an up-to-date background against which to examine their own areas of study; teachers and students of college level, for whom it supplies a complete summary of and a resource for their own deeper investigations into Indic art; and curious readers, for whom it gives a broad-based introduction to this fascinating area of world art.

This book highlights the specificities of Indian portraiture in sculpted and painted images, its relationship with divine images and aims, with the help of textual and epigraphical references, to understand the development of Indian imagery. It questions also the social and religious implications related to this issue.

Sanskrit Play Production in Ancient India moves through three levels of understanding: (1) What the components of the traditional Natya Production are as described in Natyasastra and other ancient Indian dramaturgical works; how they are interrelated and how they are employed in the staging of Rasa-oriented sanskrit plays?Probing deep into the immense reaches of time to India`s archaic past the author pieces together a fascinatingly intricate design of play production down to the units and subunits of expression and executive.

An architectural biography of Jaipur, and a concise history of Indian architectural theory over the last 300 years.

In course of his studies in Sanskrit literature and research relating to various aspects of it, the author of the present work often felt the need of a vade mecum containing brief accounts of authors and works, information about the principal characters of Sanskrit plays, poems and prose works, the meaning of certain technical terms in common use, the common geographical names and the notable myths and legends. A Companion to Sanskrit Literature, the first work of its kind, covers a period of nearly 3500 years from the Vedic age down to the modern times. It seeks to acquaint the reader, within a brief compass, with the contents of outstanding works and authors in Sanskrit literature, followed by up-to-date bibliographies. Brief accounts of the important character in well-known poems, dramas and prose works have also been given. Important geographical names, with their modern identification as far as practicable, have also been laid down. Common technical terms, used in the different branches of Sanskrit literature, have been briefly explained, Prominent figures in myths and legends have been dealt with. In a number of appendices, various kinds of useful information about Sanskrit literature including sciences, sports and pastimes, etc. in ancient and medieval India have been set forth. It is an indispensable vade mecum for the general readers, the specialists and researchers. It is like a capsule taking the reader through the vast firmament of Sanskrit literature up to remote ages. -- Amazon.com.

This 1,008-page sourcebook answers many questions to quench the soul's thirst for God and Self-knowledge. Every spiritually-inclined human being will be enriched by the path revealed in this extraordinary book. India's tolerant and diverse vision of the Divine is all here: meditative, devotional, philosophical, scriptural and yogic. In question-and-answer style, Dancing with Siva guides the aspirant deep into the Hindu heart. Lavishly illustrated with 165 black and white reproductions of paintings from India. Resources include a Hindu timeline, comparisons of 12 world religions, a children's primer and more.

The book is a selected portion of my Ph.D. dissertation entitled ‘A Critical Study of Abhilasitarthacintamani (otherwise known as Manasollasa) by Somesvara submitted for Ph.D. degree in Sanskrit in the University of Calcutta in the year 2000. The encyclopaedic Sanskrit text Manasollasa authored by South Indian Karnataka king Bhulokamalladeva Somesvara of 12 th century CE., contains 100 chapters on different topics. Among them 50-60 chapters enumerate different types of social festivals and rituals, foods, poetics, different types of sports and games, animal sports, gemology hunting sex-sport etal of a king. Manasollasa or Abhilasitarthacintamani of King Somesvara III displays a unique structural composition of five units each again being a composite of the numeral twenty (vimsati). Each of the five sections (prakaranas) are again classified in twenty chapters (adhyayas). Among those five prakaranas or sections the third vimsati or Upabhogavimsati of Manasollasa describes twenty types of enjoyments or upabhogas to fulfill the king’s desire. The last two vimsatis are Vinoda vimsati and Krida vimsati. In these two vimsatis different types of amusements, sports and games are narrated. Vinoda vimsati deals with different movements and sports of elephants and horses which are named as gajavahyalivinoda and vajivahyalivinoda respectively. Other vinodas enumerate amusements, the sports of cocks, quail, ram, buffalos, pigeons, dogs, falcons and fishes. The fifteenth chapter of Vinodavimsati is Mrigayavinoda, which deals with king’s sport of hunting. And this special type of sport is of various kinds.