Behl’s book on Indian art offers visual treat

Explores ancient and medieval periods

Covers of volumes 1 and 2.

Frontline, a magazine of The Hindu Group has published a coffee-table book titled The Art of India: Sculpture and Mural Painting in the Ancient and Medieval Periods , authored by renowned art historian Benoy K. Behl, who is also an accomplished culture photographer.

The book has more than 450 exquisite photographs taken by Mr. Behl , supported by a narration that is based on a series of articles published over the years in Frontline and on courses in art history that he was invited to give for Delhi University and for the College of Art, Delhi.

Intricate work

Among the photographs are artefacts and seals of the Indus Valley, whose art has not yielded a single depiction of warfare and is characterised by their smallness of scale; the female chauri or whisk bearer of the Mauryan period (322 BCE-185 BCE) at Didarganj, in present-day Patna; a depiction of Shalabanjika, who represents fertility and abundance, in the East Gateway of Stupa I at Sanchi (1st century); the rock-cut caves of early western India and the later caves of western India in Ajanta and Ellora; the emergence of deities; the temples of the Chalukyas, the Pallavas, the Cholas, the Hoysala and so on.

Mr. Behl’s travels took him far and wide: the 8th century Sun temple at Martand in Kashmir; the trans-Himalayan Buddhist monasteries; the Ramanathaswamy temple in Rameswaram; the rock-cut Jaina reliefs at Kazhugumalai; the Konark temple in Odisha; the Jaina temples in Rajasthan; and the Sun temple at Modhera in Gujarat.

Extensive journeys

“Much of the travel… was made possible by two assignments given to me by national television channel Doordarshan. The first, in 2000, was to make a series of 26 documentaries on the history of painting in India and the second, in 2006, was to make another 26 documentaries tracing the history of Indian sculpture. Both assignments took me on extensive journeys to all corners of India and to museums which had collections of Indian art in Europe and in the U.S.,” said Mr. Behl.

Copies of the book can be bought at the branch offices of The Hindu and at the head office in Chennai.

The special publication, priced at ₹5,000, is in two volumes.