Wondrous Images: Krishna Seen as Shrinath-Ji

B.N. Goswamy, distinguished art historian, was till recently Professor of Art History at the Punjab University, Chandigarh. A leading authority in the field of Indian painting, his work has been of seminal importance both to the studies of Pahari painting and painting in the Punjab. Among the most significant of his published works are: Pahari Painting, The Family as the Basis of Style (Marg, 1968); Pahari Paintings of the Nala Damayanti Theme (Delhi, 1975); Essence of Indian Art (San Francisco, 1986); Wonders of a Golden Age (Zurich, 1987); Pahari Masters: Court Painters of Northern India (Zurich, 1992); Indian Costumes in the collection of the Calico Museum of Textiles (Ahmedabad, 1993); and Nainsukh of Guler: A great Indian painter from a small Hill State (Zurich, 1997). His most recent work, Painted Visions: The Goenka Collection of Indian Painting, was published by the Lalit Kala Akademi earlier this year. Professor Goswamy has been visiting Professor at the Universities of Heidelberg, Zurich, Pennsylvania, California at Berkeley, California at Los Angeles, and Texas at Austin, and has lectured extensively both in Europe and the U.S., and in India. He has also been responsible for major exhibitions of Indian art in Paris, San Francisco and Zurich.

Karuna Goswamy, Professor at the Panjab University, Chandigarh, is an historian whose work is distinguished by the use of materials and sources too often ignored by others. Gaining an understanding of the social impulses that the art of any given period mirrors, and using art as primary evidence, have marked virtually all her work. Author of two important studies, Vaishnavism in the Punjab Hills, and Pahari Painting (doctoral dissertation, Chandigarh, 1968), and The Glory of the Great Goddess: An Illustrated Manuscript from Kashmir in the Alice Boner Collection (Zurich, 1989), Dr. Goswamy has also published a large number of research papers. The present work was completed by her at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, where she was a Fellow for the years 1991-93. Currently she is engaged in an extensive research project on The Dussehra of Kulu: History and Development of a Cultural Phenomenon.