Art, Architecture, Antiquities

The Art of India Through the Ages: Traditions of Indian Sculpture Painting and Architecture: With 180 Illustrations in Colour and Monochrome

The visual arts of India have been underappreciated for centuries, despite the fact that Europeans were the first to discover and study their poetry and philosophy in India over a century ago. While ‘Sakuntala’ and ‘The Sermons of Buddha’ were regarded as literary masterpieces on par with those of Sophocles and Plato, the Indian arts were viewed as a visual supplement to the study of religion or anthropology in a faraway land, one that was enigmatic, sensual, and exotic.

The finding that Indian art has a suitable position in the history of art had still to be made. This book is the first of its kind in the field, therefore there is no need to worry about hyperbole.
As a result of researchers’ inability to demonstrate that Indian sculpture and building had the same artistic worth as Greek sculpture and mediaeval churches, this is what has occurred
The book’s 180 images serve as a visual tour of Hindu and Buddhist art in India.
Many of these pictures, many of which have never been seen before, were taken over the course of extended travels and years of intensive investigation This collection includes intricate temple structures, gracefully swaying bronze statues, magnificent rock-hewn representations of gods and monsters, murals, artistic reliefs, massive statues and busts, etc. It is likely that students will find the comprehensive images of buildings and sculptures (some of which were taken in extremely challenging conditions) as well as the eight colour reproductions of paintings, which augment the monochrome, photogravures, particularly valuable.

Forms of the Goddess Lajja Gauri in Indian Art

To convey her majesty, the painters who created Lajja Gauri’s portraits drew on a plethora of traditional symbols of prosperity, fertility, and life-force. Due to the lack of supporting texts, the research begins with the items themselves and works backwards to establish their meaning. To better understand Lajja Gauri’s rich symbolic meaning and cultural background, Carol Bolon traces the evolution of the goddess’s shape over the course of four centuries, including its likely acceptance from tribal worship into Hindu temples

The Mystery of Art

The Mystery of Art lets the forms of art tell their own tale. Instead of analyzing the art expressions this narrative work invites the reader to re-discover the functions of art. The observation of the art-scenes starts with the present and winds its way backward through time and history. In the course of this journey the different art-expressions reveal themselves in a novel light.

About the Author(s)

D K Chandra

The Art of Ajanta and Sopocani: A Comprehensive Study

Pauranic Prana-aesthetics, a finer shade different from that of Vitalistic aesthetics (the earlier having breathing-rhythm of “Kshaya- Vriddhi” – diminution 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 beatified 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 Pranaaesthetics 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 visualarts straining them upto the stage of catabolic dissolution.

Symbols in Art and Religion: The Indian and the Comparative Perspective

Symbols in Art and Religion: The Indian and the Comparative Perspective

About the Author(s)

KAREL WERNER

Indian Sculpture: Ancient, Classical and Mediaeval

Anyone with an understanding of art in general and a knowledge, however slight, of Indian things, will, on being shown a work of Indian sculpture, unfailingly label it Indian. Differences in age and origin, however clearly marked to the discerning eye, when pointed out to the outsider, will be apprehended only with more or less difficulty. There is something so strong, and at the same time unique, in any Indian work of art that its ‘Indianness’ is felt first of all, and what it is, is seen only on second thought.

How this Indianness is expressed in terms of relation between line, surface, volume and other elements of visulisation is dealt with in this book. There are permanent qualities throughout the fabric of Indian sculpture which are discussed in detail. These essential qualities, all inter-related and inseparable, contain within their compass the life of Indian plastic art.

The book surveys the structure of Indian sculpture in its relevant aspects. The underlying and essential qualities are viewed in their permanency throughout the special conditions that the single monuments imply. Their outward connections, geographical and chronological, are seen to resolve themselves into ethical problems and those of the artistic process itself.

While stylistical investigations are the basis of this book, Indian sculpture is dealt with as conditioned by the Indian craftsman. His consciousness makes him known to himself as a part of nature and his work is the form of this ‘naturalism’. Its degree and aspects vary according to the levels of his consciousness.

Exploring India’s Sacred Art: Selected Writings of Stella Kramrisch Ed. & with a biographical Essay

Exploring India’s Sacred Art presents a selection of Stella Kramrisch’s influential essays, along with a biographical essay. The writings collected here emphasize the cultural and symbolic values of Indian art. The first section discusses the social and religious contexts of art. This is followed by essays on various forms of ritual art. The section entitled “The Subtle Body” is derived from her term for the form that underlies concrete shapes; it includes studies of literary and visual symbolism. Further essays concentrate on formal and technical aspects of temple structure and painting in the context of their symbolic meaning. Over 150 illustrations, many of them prepared especially for this volume, provide a vital visual dimension to her writings. Also included is Joseph Dye’s comprehensive bibliography of her works. Exploring India’s Sacred Art testifies to the life and work of one of this century’s greatest art scholars and provides an unparalleled source of insight into Indian art and culture.

Alice Boner Diaries: India 1934-1967

Apart from an insight into Alice Boner’s keen observation of Indian temple-architecture and art the present selection of her diary entries also depict the struggles of Alice Boner, the artist. In her work she strove to represent the spirit of India which her intensive experiences of over 40 years in the country revealed to her. Her experiences also included contact with personalities of the calibre of Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Laxman Joo, Sarojini Naidu, Ustad Alauddin Khan, and her admiration of Mahatma Gandhi. As a remarkable diarist Alice Boner puts her thoughts to pen in an elegant, eminently readable style. The reader feels with her the thrill and awe at the ancient monumental sights all over India, reads about her vision of the principles of sacred art, and shares with her the inner conflict of one torn between the two worlds of Europe and India. Over and over again this unique woman, with roots in the European culture, expresses her deep attachment to India. Most of the diary entries are in German and English and these have been retained for the sake of the originality of her fine expression, interspeersed with a selection of sketches from her vast repertoire. In addition, the German portions have been translated here for the benefit of English readers.

Evolution of Stupas in Burma: Pagan Period: 11th to 13th Centuries A.D.)

This work is the outcome of painstaking research on the evolution of stupas in Burma, Pagan Period, 11th to 13th centuries a.d. Burma known as the land of pagodas is nowhere so rich in the number of pagodas as in Pagan. The stupendous vastness of the ruins reminiscent of the glory that was of Pagan

in its heyday inspired this study. The evolution traced back to the beginning of the stupa structure in India, deals with the various architectural phases (duly illustrated) it passed through ending with the final stage in the Rhwedagum Pagoda in Rangoon (Burma). Apart from the material side of the study, there is the need of looking into the aesthetic and spiritual side of the evolution. That religious architecture is a barometer of the material prosperity and social outlook of the people,

besides being the handmaid of the spiritual aspirations of the devotees, is amply discernible in this study.

The value of the art survey in this work is further enhanced by the inclusion of over 138 photographs. Moreover, besides the magnificent Pagan art, it gives a comparative view of the religious architectual development in the Asian countries contemporaneous with the Pagan Period.