On the Study of Indian Art

156 Pages·1983·15.772 MB·English

by  Pramod Chandra

O N T H E S T U D Y O F
Indian Art
The Polsky Lectures in Indian and
Southeast Asian Art and Archaeology
Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy {1877-1947).
O N T H E S T U D Y O F
Indian Art
P R A M O D C H A N D R A
Published for the Asia Society by
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, Massachusetts
and London, England
1983
Copyright © 1983 by the Asia Society
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
10 987654321
This book is printed on acid-free paper,
and its binding materials have been
chosen for strength and durability.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Puhlication Data
Chandra, Pramod.
On the study of Indian art.
(The Polsky lectures in Indian and
Southeast Asian art and archaeology)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Art, Indic. I. Title. II. Series.
N7301.C474 1983 709'.54 83-8393
ISBN 0-674-63762-3
Designed hy Gwen Frankfeldt
A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S
Jwish to express my thanks to the Asia Society, particularly Mr.
Allen Wardwell, and to the generous sponsor, Mrs. Cynthia
Hazen Polsky, for the honor they did me by inviting me to deliver
the three inaugural Polsky Lectures.
The lectures, and indeed the lecturer, were introduced by His
Excellency Shri K. R. Narayanan, Ambassador of India to the
United States of America. I am grateful for this generous act of
courtesy. Dr. Rama Coomaraswamy kindly provided a photo-
graph of his father, Dr. Ananda Coomaraswamy, whose unique
scholarship looms large in the study of Indian art. The portrait,
appropriately, is the frontispiece of this book. To him and to Dr.
H. Sarkar of the Archaeological Survey of India, who turned up the
photograph of a portrait of General Cunningham, I am deeply
indebted.

C O N T E N T S
Introduction
1
O N E
Architecture
7
T W O
Sculpture
39
T H R E E
Painting
81
Notes 115
References 122
Index 130
I L L U S T R A T I O N S
Frontispiece. Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (1877-1947).
Courtesy Dr. Rama Coomaraswamy.
Following page 54
1. The Ambikä Mätä temple at Jagat, Rajasthan; dated A.D. 961.
Courtesy American Institute of Indian Studies.
2. Alexander Cunningham (1814-1893). Courtesy Archaeo-
logical Survey of India.
3. Small Jaina temple near the Mahävira temple at Osia, Ra-
jasthan; eleventh Century.
4. Portrait of Ernest Binfield Havell (1861 -1934) by Abanin-
dranath Tagore. Courtesy Lady Sonja Wilson and Mahrukh
Tarapor.
5. The dream of Mäyä, the Buddha's mother. From Bharhut,
Madhya Pradesh; middle of the second Century B.C.
6. Landscape with lovers. From the torana of the Great Stupa at
Sanchi; middle of the first Century B.C.
7. Jouveau-Dubreuil's depiction of the evolution of the cakra
held by Visnu. From G. Jouveau-Dubreuil, Archeologie du Sud
de l'Inde, II, Iconographie (Paris: Paul Geunther, 1914).
8. Yaksi. From Didarganj, Patna, Bihar; third Century B.C.
9. Amorous couple. From Karle, Maharashtra; first Century B.C.
10. Miniature from a series illustrating the Caurapancäsikä of
Bilhana; early sixteenth Century. Gujarat Museum Society,
Amadabad.
11. Shäh Jahän on the peacock throne. Mughal style; nine-
teenth-century copy of a mid-seventeenth-century original.
Courtesy Victoria and Albert Museum.
O N T H E S T U D Y O F
Indian Art