Art and the Architecture

The dictionary of Buddhist Iconography is an endeavour of half a centruy to identify, classify, describe and delineate the bewildering variation in Buddhist icons, ever since the representation of the Buddha on a coin of the Kushan Emperor Kaniska. It is a continuation of the vast iconic materials and research that the authors father Prof. RaghuVira had conducted since the 1930s. Thousands of index cards, microfilms, photographs, painted scrolls, statues, woodcuts, line drawings, sketches in manuscripts and xylographs, of Buddhist…

In 1819, a group of British soldiers on a hunting expedition chanced upon the Ajanta caves in a ravine some 200 miles north-east of Bombay. Ranging from the second century BC to the sixth century AD, the breathtaking Buddhist paintings and sculptures found there rank among the worlds most important cultural treasures. Ajanta provides virtually the only evidence remaining of painting styles that first developed in India and then travelled with the spread of Buddhism into the Himalayan regions, and…

Development of Buddhist Sculpture AD 600-1200 A renowned meeting ground of Buddhist Asia, Nalanda was also a prolific centre of artistic output imbued with remarkable sthetic vision and innovative skill. The books is the first major study of the Buddhist sculpture from the site in multiple media like stone, metal and stucco. It provides a succinct account of the development of plastic from basing on a solid foundation of iconographic and stylistic analysis. After tracing its Kusana-Gandhara and Gupta-Sarnath heritage…

Tibet has produced some of the most distinctive and creative art in the world. From a bleak and often inaccessible landscape arose an artistic tradition so vibrant and sophisticated that even Chinas emperors commisioned works.With the spread of Buddhism in the West, inspired by the leadership of the exiled Dalai Lama, and the controversy over Tibets status, interest in this mysterious ladn has never been greater. This book covers the entire history of Tibetan art, focusing on the inextricably interwined…

Modern students who are drawn to the study and practice of Buddhism are not always able to easily learn the symbolic meaning of the various types of statuary connected to this philosophy. In Buddhism, every symbol has a meaning, and this book explores the symbolism of the ritual objects that are used on statues and paintings, as well as explaining the ritual meaning of the objects associated with Buddhism. This book serves as an introduction for Western students. It is…