This two-volume set is a festschrift for the renowned scholar Dr. Umesh Chandra Dwivedi containing forty research papers by renowned senior and young scholars, besides reminiscences of his friends who cherish his academic contributions. The essays deal with a wide range of topics that cover prehistoric rock art, archaeology, patronage to art, accounts of architecture in travelogues, art historiography, museum objects, revisits to monuments, religious art, art motifs and gestures, narrative art, iconography of male and female divinities, tantrism, cultural heritage, temple complexes, Indian inspired art and architecture in other Asian countries, sacred textiles, ancient medicine, peeks into inscriptions, through to comparative religion. These volumes will be useful for Archaeologists, Indologists and Art Historians.

C.P. Sinha, Former Director of K.P. Jayaswal Research Institute, Patna is an eminent Art Historian and Indologist. Dr. Sinha has many academic distinctions to his credit. He is Advisor, Indian Art History congress and was President of the Bihar Puravid Parishad. He is recipient of Senior Academic Fellowship from Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi. He has authored several books, edited more than 35 volumes on art, archaeology and culture. He has also contributed 246 research papers on different aspects of art and iconography in reputed journals which are known for their authenticity. Some of his well acclaimed works are: Early Sculpture of Bihar (1980), Prachin Bhartiya Abhilekhiki Evam Lipi (1975), Jharkhand ke Pramukh Shaiva Mandir (2014), Pre-history and Protohistory of Jharkhand with Arbindo Singha Roy (2018), Art and Archaeology in Bihar (2018), Bihar Pride of India and the World (2020).

Dr. Kameshwar Prasad (b. 1947) is superannuated Professor and Head of the Department of History, Patna University. His field of specialization is Ancient Indian History. He is a prolific author and has written several books in English and Hindi. His outstanding publications are Cities, Craft and Commerce Under the Kushanas, (Delhi, 1984), The Glory That Was Vaishali, (Patna, 2015), Buddhist Education in Early Medieval India, (New Delhi, 2021) and Teach Yourself History of India in four volumes (in Hindi).

Sunita Bharti, Bachelor in Journalism, Master in Dramatics, Research Scholar, Faculty of Fine Arts, Lalit Narayan University, Darbhanga, Bihar. Culture and Heritage Conservation Activist and author, three infodrama books and several research papers in reputed Journals published; Sri Aurbindo Samman 2024 awardee; introduced the concept of Info-drama to educate people about culture and heritage of India through theatre; presently leading the Cultural Education Campaign in state of Bihar through Seminar, Lecture, Workshop, Documentary and Info-drama.

Arvind Kumar M. Sc., former lecturer of physics and text-book author, presently working in the field of Ancient Indian Culture and History.