Overview

The world of art is complex and challenging in general; in India it is even more so because the documentation here is truly thin, and whatever exists is so widely scattered that it becomes a task in itself to locate it. This book address both these issues and brings together in one volume a remarkable body of material consisting not of speculations or theories but of original, primary sources. The voices one 'hears' in these excerpts are true and authentic, and if there are any speculations or interpretations, they come from texts or persons directly involved in the making or the understanding of the art of India. Sages speak here, in these pages, of the inter-relationships between the arts, practitioners record measurements of units of time and space, iconographers lay down rules and practices, artists record their experiences and patrons their delights. Information gathered from colophons is documented; excerpts are taken from memoirs and contemporary histories; the work of early writers on the arts is presented. Slowly, as one dips into these sources, one can hear the past speak, and the arts of India that have been lost to history come alive.

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9780199469420

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B.N. Goswamy, distinguished art historian, is Professor Emeritus of Art History at the Panjab University, Chandigarh. His work covers a wide range and is regarded, especially in the area of Indian painting, as having influenced much thinking. He has been the recipient of many honours, including the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship, the Rietberg Award for Outstanding Research in Art History, the Padma Shri (1998) and the Padma Bhushan (2008) from the President of India. Currently, he holds the Tagore National Fellowship for Cultural Research. Goswamy has taught, as Visiting Professor, at several universities across the world, among them the universities of Pennsylvania, Heidelberg, California (at Berkeley and Los Angeles), Texas (at Austin), Zurich, and the ETH (Federal University) at Zurich. He has also been responsible for major exhibitions of Indian art at Paris, San Francisco, Zurich, San Diego, New York, Frankfurt, and New Delhi. Most recently, he co-edited the two volume study, Masters of Indian Painting: 1100-1900, which accompanied major exhibitions at the Museum Rietberg, Zurich and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Among his many publications are: The Spirit of Indian Painting: Close Encounters with 101 Great Works 1100-1900 (Penguin 2015); Pahari Painting: The Family as the Basis of Style (Marg, Bombay,1968); Painters at the Sikh Court (Wiesbaden, 1975), Essence of Indian Art (San Francisco, 1986); Wonders of a Golden Age: Painting at the Court of the Great Mughals (with E. Fischer, Zurich, 1987).

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