R Mahalakshi (editor) - Art and History: Texts, Contexts and Visual Representations in Ancient and Early Medieval India

It is an occasion of great pleasure to welcome in advance the release of the volume Art and History: Texts, Contexts and Visual Representations in Ancient and Early Medieval India. This anthology of essays written by an array of scholars, collectively demonstrates new strategies of reading history into the art heritage of our past. Hopefully, in future studies, this collection will help breakdown the conventional barrier between art history and history. The anthology covers a wide field, spatially and thematically, and its inclusive character hopefully will suggest directions for cross-regional comparisons in future research.

B.D. Chattopadhyaya, Professor (retired), Centre for Historical Studies,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

This volume is an ambitious attempt to gather together a number of studies in the admittedly very large area of art (mainly sculpture) and thought (mainly religious) up to c. 1200 AD. The volume constitutes a thought-provoking inroad into the history of Indian art. The editors introduction surveys almost every aspect of the theme, including a critical survey of the previous work on history of the Indian art. By its width and depth, the book will surely long serve as an important work of reference for all present and future students of the field.

Irfan Habib, Professor Emeritus, Aligarh Muslim University

This is a collection of articles by different scholars dealing with the interface between art and various aspects of historical development and underlines the importance of visual representations as a source of History. It emphasises their relevance to historical research and is an indispensable reading for historians and researchers.

D.N. Jha, Professor (retired), Department of History,
University of Delhi, Delhi

As a historian, I am delighted about Prof. Mahalakshmis comprehensive volume as we historians are often still too reluctant to contextualise the visual representations and symbolic elements of our texts. The present volume provides an overdue selection of excellent exemplary studies of understanding historical context from visual material.

Hermann Kulke, Professor Emeritus, University of Kiel

Art and
History

Art and
History

Texts, Contexts and Visual Representations in
Ancient and Early Medieval India

Edited by
R. Mahalakshmi

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First published in India 2020

This edition published 2020

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Editor of this work

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ISBN: HB: 978-93-88414-29-6; eBook: 978-93-88414-31-9

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For my father, Shri K.S. Ramakrishnan, who passed away while this book
was in press, and my sons Ramakrishna and Vishnuvardhan

Contents

Images