About the book

These essays are a culmination of zealous research, field work and post graduate teaching conducted zestfully for years by now retired professor of art history, Ratan Parimoo, who is also a distinguished practicing painter.

Having studied Stella Kramrisch and keenly analysed Ananda Coomaraswamy, Parimoo has also kept abreast with the current trends in international Art History Kramrisch’s thinking was formulated under the influence of the Vienna school of Art History combined with her own deep insight of form analyses and symbolic significance. Parimoo perceives the development of form and style in a fresh manner combining his own understanding of the original writings of art historians of style such as H. Wolfflin, A Riegl and H. Focillon along with promoters of the iconological method like E. Panofsky, E. Gombrich and Meyer Schapiro. Being of the few Indian art historians to apply the western methodologies to Indian art, he has also probed into the relevance of several overlooked Sanskrit sources in analysing traditional Indian sculpture and architecture.

In India, the art historical situation has come to a point when several regions in the count have continuously been explored and breathtakingly new material has come to light, which was not available to scholars who wrote about a half century ago. It is now possible to look with fresh eye and empirically, the problem of the classical quality, the development of sculpture and architecture during the medieval period, the notion of naturalism / realism in Indian sculpture and the least recognised contribution of regional schools.

Written with the painter’s sensitivity, these essays cover the areas of style, to some extent iconology and show possibilities of opening research in temple architecture. After having writings on Indian sculpture by Coomaraswamy, Stella Kramrisch and C. Sivaramamurti, these essays by Ratan Parimoo being released at the beginning of the new millennium, is a contribution in the direction of ‘New Art History’ and will have as much significance as Heinrich Zimmer’s classic work, the ‘Art of Indian Asia’.

Content:

Part1

1.A Critique of Ananda Coomaraswamy’s Presuppositions for a Philosophy of Indian Art    

2.Stella Kramrisch: Indian Art History and German Art-Historical Studies (Including the Vienna School)       

3.From Iconography through Iconology to New Art History

Part II        

4.The Idea of Form and Style in Indian Sculpture   

5.The Myth of Gupta Classicism and the Concept of Regional Genres  

6.Problematic of Gandharan Art, Oriendtalism, and the Clumsy Notion of Graeco-roman Influence on Indian Art   

7.Vishnu’s Weapons and Their Representation in Indian Arts    

8.Some Thoughts on the Sculptures of Vishvarupa Vishnu        

9.Elephanta in the Context of Evolution and Significance of Shaiva Sculpture        

10.On the Sculptures from Ellora Caves and the Problems of Deccan School 

11.Some Problems of Ellora from the Point of View of Buddhist Caves  

12.The Aihole Sub-Style of Chalukyan Sculpture    

13.Krishna Lila in Sculptural Reliefs and Temples

14.Some Aspects of the Decorative Repertoire of North Indian (Nagara) Temple Architecture         

15.A proposed Methodology for the Study of System of Proportion in Indian Temple Architecture the Case study of Sunak Temple.        

16.The Formation of Medieval Style in Malwa Region (A Presentation of Hinglajgarh Sculptures)         

17.Khajuraho: The Chandella Sculptor’s Paradise, is There a Chandella Style of Medieval Indian Sculpture? Its Sources and Characteristics  

Appendix-I: Coomaraswamy and Indian Art History

Appendix-II: Stella Kramrisch: She Sculpts with words    

Appendix-III: C.Sivaramamurti-Obituary