READINGS IN THE HISTORY OF INDIAN ART HISTORY Thesis: The study of art in India has taken several intellectual paths in the past 150 years. Readings in this course will address the history and direction of the field. Preliminary and General Reading:
Mitter, Partha. Much Maligned Monsters, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977. (paperback available at Penn Book Center)
Chandra, Pramod. On the Study of Indian Art, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983.
Harle, James C. The Art and Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent. London: Penquin Books, 1986. (paperback available)
See also: Donald Stadtner, ed., Art Journal 49 (1990), special issue on "New Approaches to South Asian Art."
Additional scholars for students to approach might include (chronologically):
Raz, Ram (1790?-1833?), Essay on the Architecture of the Hindus, Varanasi, Indological Book House (first published in 1834). Fergusson, James (1808-1886), On the Study of Indian Architecture: read at a meeting of the Society of Arts on Wednesday, 19th December 1886, Varanasi: Indological Book House, 1977 (reprint of 1867), and other works. Havell, Ernest Binfield (1861-1934), Ideals of Indian Art, London, Murray, 1911, and other works. Smith, Vincent Arthur (1848-1920), A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the earliest times to the present day, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1911. Coomaraswamy, Ananda Kentish (1877-1947), Selected Essays, edited by Roger Lipsey, and Coomaraswamy (a biography), by Roger Lipsey, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1977, and other works including History of Indian and Indonesian Art (1927). Zimmer, Heinrich Robert (1890-1943), Artistic form and yoga in the sacred images of India (Kunstform und Yoga im indischen Kultbild, translated from the German and edited by Gerald Chapple and James B. Lawson in collaboration with J. Michael McKnight), Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984. Kramrisch, Stella (1898-1993), Exploring India's Sacred Art: selected writings of Stella Kramrisch, edited and with a biographical essay by Barbara Stoler Miller, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983, and other writings. Desai, Devangana (1937- ), Erotic Sculpture of India: a socio-cultural study, New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill, 1975, and other writings including her newly published book on The Religious Imagery of Khajuraho, Bombay, 1996. Williams, Joanna G., ed., Kaladarsana: American Studies in the Art of India, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1981, and other writings, including The Art of Gupta India: empire and province, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982, and The Two-Headed Deer, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. Meister, Michael W., ed., Making Things in South Asia: the Role of Artist and Craftsman, Philadelphia: Dept. of South Asia Regional Studies, 1988, and other writings. Maxwell, T. S., Visvarupa, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1988, and other writings. Davis, Richard H. Ritual in an Oscillating Universe: Worshiping Siva in Medieval India, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1991, and other writings. Misra, R. N., Ancient Artists and Art Activity, Simla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 1975.