Overview

Explores ancient India (c. 200 BCE-600 CE) through three of its major religions -Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism - to illuminate how they reflect political power, artistic innovation and changes in peoples' daily lives. Ancient India was a dynamic, cosmopolitan centre of creativity. The visual traditions of its major indigenous religions were closely interrelated, reflecting political power, changes in peoples' daily lives and artistic innovation. Exported beyond the Indian subcontinent in antiquity, these three major religions - Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism - are living traditions and their devotional works of art impact on the daily life of billions of people across the world. This major new publication traces the development of religious imagery from around 200 BCE, when it focused on the depiction of nature spirits, to 600 CE, by which time devotional images of Jain, Buddhist and Hindu deities and teachers had taken definitive shape. Moving from symbolic to human form, such imagery employed attributes, divine attendants and animal vehicles that are still recognised across the world today and are found across the global diaspora. Examples of these ancient images are found not only across South Asia, but also in Central, East and Southeast Asia - and they transformed the religious landscape of these regions too. The authors explore fascinating topics such as the first devotional images of the twenty-four jinas (enlightened Jain teachers); the transformation from symbolic depictions of the Buddha to those that showed him in bodily form for the first time; and the formalisation of divine representations and devotional sculpture in Hindu traditions. This beautifully illustrated book reveals the ancient roots of the images and depictions of these world religions that many will find familiar today.

Full Product Details

9780714124995

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Reviews

""The catalogue frames the objects in a history of these religions, setting out the connection between ancient and modern India... Along with the individual history of each object, further close-up studies of each item can sometimes be more rewarding than a wideangle broad sweep. Many of the pieces in this exhibition are from the British Museum's own collection.""-- ""Open Magazine"" ""Not all visitors to Ancient India: living traditions will react to the objects on display in this intensely personal way. But no one will leave without having experienced a powerful sense of esteem for a culture--a religious belief-system--that has endured for more than two millennia without going defunct, or passing into a state of pure ""museum-ness.""-- ""Free Beacon""

Author Information

Sushma Jansari is Tabor Foundation Curator of the South Asia Collections at the British Museum, and Curator of the exhibition Ancient India: living traditions. Sureshkumar Muthukumaran is a Lecturer in the Department of History at the National University of Singapore.

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