The Roots of Indian Art (A Detailed Study of the Formative Period of Indian Art and Architecture: Third and Second centuries s.c.-Mauryan and Late Mauryan)

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Civilization, sophistication and curtains apparently go together: for as urbanization grows, man closes the windows of his house, veils them with colourful drapes and shuts out light. So too does he screen his mind with cherished beliefs and makes them proof against doubts and new concepts. Occasionally, someone arrives, begins to doubt and starts questioning the established views. S.P. Gupta does exactly this in The Roots of Indian Art. He has pushed aside the blinds, thrown open the Oeil-de-boeui and allowed light to pour in so that the Formative Period (300-200 B.C. Mauryan and Late Mauryan) of Indian art and architecture is better illuminated.

The root of the huge tree of Indian Art goes deep into time and spreads over a large part of the oriental world. To trace the roots of this towering evergreen is no mean task. The colossal nature of the undertaking can be gauged from the fact that the geographical territories covered here include vast areas from three continents-Europe, Asia and Africa with their diverse traditions in art, architecture, culture, language, race and people. Yet the author has encompassed his them within the confines of a single, fully documented and comprehensive volume. He has marshalled a large array of facts and figures and presented them in six chapters. such as The Pillars, The Ringstones, The Sculptures and Art Motifs. The Terracottas The Rock-cut Caves, and the Architecture, each one neatly divided into short bibliography arranged in historical perspective, complete documentation and highly penetrating discussion. He has provided aids to comprehension in the shape of hundreds of illustrations, such as maps, charts, sketches, photographs and coloured plates. Further, he has encapsulated the quintessence of his thesis in the chapter, titled "The Polemics' and also 'Summing Up'. The 'Backdrop' discusses some of the fundamental questions regarding the background of the Formative Period of Indian art.

This book shall serve as a beacon to all research scholars, students and interested readers tormented by doubts and questions and enable them to appreciate the art and architecture of Early India more intimately than hitherto.

Swaraj Prakash Gupta (1931-1 2007) was a well-known Indian Archaeologist and Art historian.

From childhood Gupta was a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. He was a scholar, writer of great repute and an authority on Indian art history. He has written scores of articles and books on the subject of his interest.

Dr. Gupta also undertook several excavations in Harappan sites. Dr. Gupta remained a bachelor throughout his life. At the time of his death he was busy establishing the Indian History and Culture Society as a full-fledged research centre.

Dr. S.P. Gupta was born in 1931. and at the time of his death in late 2007 was Chairman, Indian Archaeological Society, New Delhi.

He worked and lectured in more than 30 countries of the world. He authored a number of books including Disposal of the Dead and Physical Types in Ancient India (1971). Tourism, Museums and Monuments (1975), Archaeology of Soviet Central Asia and the Indian Borderlands-two volumes (1978), The Roots of Indian Art (1980) the French edition of which was published in 1990 and Cultural Tourism in India (2002). Dr. S.P. Gupta retired as Director, Allahabad Museum.

He was also the editor of several volumes of the Puratattva, the Bulletin of the Indian Archaeological Society. He was a distinguished archaeologist and art historian who was awarded several gold medals and the Sir Mortimer Wheeler Prize for excellence in archaeology. The first "Dr. Vishnu Shridhar Wakankar National Award" of Madhya Pradesh State Government was presented to the celebrated archacologist Dr. S.P. Gupta in recognition of his devotion and contribution to archaeological research.

Antiquarianism in India goes back to eighteenth century William Jones, James Princep James Fergusson, General Cunningham, A.K. Coomaraswamy, John Marshall are only some of the well known scholars who took immeasurable pains not only to record the antiquarian remains in India but also to probe deep into the problems of their origin and inter-relationship.

We have entitled the book The Roots of Indian Art which, like The Roots of Ancient Indian Culture by Walter Fairservis, an eminent archaeologist from the United States, reflects our concern in what phenomena lies the origin of early Indian art, particularly, the plastic art ?

Apparently, the roots of every human action lie in the minds of human beings. In other words, roots of 'form' lie in 'concept. But concept and form both may remain at the level of mind, and what happens to remain only at the level of mind cannot be included in the category of art. On the other hand, when concept' and 'form' are translated into a visual medium, it reaches the realm of art. All art is, therefore, visual, some like painting is two dimensional while others like sculpture may be three dimensional. In the ultimate analysis, the roots of art lie both in the thought process of man, f.e., in man's own perception of things. and the visual form which he gives to his perception. Perception' and 'creation' turn out to be of equal importance in all studies of art.

One who makes an art object passes through both these stages in a successive order, perception first, creation later. But one who looks at a work of art, passes through these stages in the reverse order he sees the object first (creation) and then tries to capture the mind of the creator (perception) of the object. I am no exception. In this book I shall then see the objects first and discuss their significance later. Finally, I will try to make a reappraisal of a number of age-old polemics concerning the Formative Period of Indian Art. In the 'Summing Up we shall give in short our main conclusions.

One may legitimately ask for our reason in undertaking this exercise when a number of very good works are already in the market covering the fields of early Indian art. There is a story behind it.

In the spring of 1975 John Irwin delivered a series of seven most lucid and comprehensive lectures on 'Asokan Pillars in the National Museum, New Delhi.

**Contents and Sample Pages**