"The Indian Buddhist world abounds with goddesses--voluptuous tree spirits, maternal nurturers, potent healers and protectors, transcendent wisdom figures, cosmic mothers of liberation, and dancing female Buddhas. Despite their importance in Buddhist thought and practice, these female deities have received relatively little scholarly attention, and no comprehensive study of the female pantheon has been available. Buddhist Goddesses of India is the essential and definitive guide to divinities that, as Miranda Shaw writes, "operate from transcendent planes of bliss and awareness for as long as their presence may benefit living beings." Beautifully illustrated, the book chronicles the histories, legends, and artistic portrayals of nineteen goddesses and several related human figures and texts. Drawing on a sweeping range of material, from devotional poetry and meditation manuals to rituals and artistic images, Shaw reveals the character, powers, and practice traditions of the female divinities. Interpretations of intriguing traits such as body color, stance, hairstyle, clothing, jewelry, hand gestures, and handheld objects lend deep insight into the symbolism and roles of each goddess. In addition to being a comprehensive reference, this book traces the fascinating history of these goddesses as they evolved through the early, Mahayana, and Tantric movements in India and found a place in the pantheons of Tibet and Nepal."--Publisher's website.

One of the first things that strike the Western viewer of Indian art is the multiplicity of heads, arms and eyes. This convention grows out of imagery conceived by Vedic sages to explain creation. This book for the first time investigates into the meaning of this convention. The author concentrates on its origins in Hindu art and on preceding textual references to the phenomenon of multiplicity. The first part establishes a general definition for the convention. Examination of all Brahmanical literature up to, and sometimes beyond, the 1st - 3rd century A.D., adds more information to this basic definition. The second part applies this literary information mainly to icons of the Yaksa, Śiva, Vāsudeva-Kṛsṇa and the Goddess, and indicates how Brahmanical cultural norms, exemplified in Mathurā, can transmit textual symbols. Both Part I and Part II provide iconic modules and a methodology to generate interpretations for icons with this remarkable feature through the Gupta age.

The sheer wealth and dizzying diversity of Indian sculpture are celebrated in this second volume of the catalogue raisonne of the Los Angeles County Museum's collection. Nearly two hundred sculptures produced during eleven centuries are described. Of these, one-quarter of the pieces are part of the Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, while the remaining three-quarters have been acquired since 1970. This splendid collection, while not representing all the major styles of sculpture that flourished on the Indian subcontinent from 700-1900, is certainly one of the most comprehensive among American and European museums. Included are stone, metal, ivory, and wood sculptures from fourteen states and territories of India and from Pakistan and Afghanistan. Organized by regions--Central and Western, Eastern, and Southern India, and the Northwest--the catalogue contains detailed descriptions and illustrations of the 188 sculptures, many with details or multiple views, for a total of 259 illustrations--251 in duotone and halftone and 8 in color.

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 Unravels The Details Of The Material Culture Of 2Nd And 1St Century B.C. India In Different Headings Like Architecture, Costume And Textile, Personal Ornaments, Coiffure And Head Gear, Vessels And Household Materials, Aries And Armour, Conveyance, Musical Instruments, Etc. The Represented Shapes Are Co-Related With The Descriptions In The Contemporary Literature And Corroborated With The Excavated Evidence, Wherever It Is Found Possible, To Establish The Authenticity Of The Pictorial Representations. Attempts Are Also Made In This Study To Understand The Social Context Of These Materials Like The Class, Gender And Regional Differences As Well As Their Cultural Functions Wherever The Evidences Have Permitted To Do So. This Study Also Helps Us Expand Our Understanding Of The Contemporary Literature And Excavated Objects, Because, It Provides The Visual Counterparts To The Literary Terms And, The Lost Shapes And Functional Contexts To The Excavated Objects. The Description In This Book Is Visually Supported By The Relevant Line Drawings And Photographs.

'There are many missing pieces in the jigsaw puzzle that is ancient India, but those we have yield a rich tapestry.' The oldest surviving love graffiti on a cave wall immortalizing an intimate bond in the third century BCE; charred seeds and chewed animal bones that provide evidence of a peoples' food obsessions; architectural minutiae that point to the alarming regression of a civilization's potty habits; intriguing sculptures that reveal myriad facets of the human-animal relationship... In Time Pieces, award-winning historian Nayanjot Lahiri whimsically sifts through intricate clues left behind by the early inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent - in plaques and inscriptions, fragments of jewellery, bones and tools, poetry, art and pottery - to reveal to us our ancient land in all its variety, splendour, complexity and contradictions. Sparkling with wit and reflective of a scholar's keen and curious energy, this delightful volume seamlessly connects the past to the present and a civilization to the world beyond.

A pioneering study of the emergence of Buddhist art in southern India, featuring vibrant photography of rare works, many published here for the first time Named for two primary motifs in Buddhist art, the sacred bodhi tree and the protective snake, Tree & Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India is the first publication to foreground devotional works produced in the Deccan from 200 BCE to 400 CE. Unlike traditional narratives, which focus on northern India (where the Buddha was born, taught, and died), this groundbreaking book presents Buddhist art from monastic sites in the south. Long neglected, this is among the earliest surviving bodies of Buddhist art, and among the most sublimely beautiful. An international team of researchers contributes new scholarship on the sculptural and devotional art associated with Buddhism, and masterpieces from recently excavated Buddhist sites are published here for the first time—including Kanaganahalli and Phanigiri, the most important new discoveries in a generation. With its exploration of Buddhism’s emergence in southern India, as well as of India’s deep commercial and cultural engagement with the Hellenized and Roman worlds, this definitive study expands our understanding of the origins of Buddhist art itself.

This booklet publishes for the first time the most intact as well as the probably most attractive North-Indian terracottas from the 3rd century B.C. to the 1st century A.D. The survey covers figurines, moulded plaques and so called 'toy-carts' from outstanding Indian, American and European collections.