This book has grown out of an earlier publication Five Thousand Indian Designs and Motifs, which was basically an album. Using the album as his point of reference, Kalyan Kumar Ganguli, the eminent scholar, has now produced a comprehensive study of Indian designs, tracing their evolution and underlining their significance, even as he locates them in an international continuity of traditions. His study covers designs in sculptures, punch-mark coins, icons, decorations, furniture, textile, jewellery, architecture, structural forms, and discovers their roots in the sensibilities of communities spread throughout the country. The sheer range of designs that the book unravels is a treat in itself, and with the insights that the author provides into their symbolism, they should contribute to a closer reading of their significance, and creative exploitation of several of these in contemporary art practice. The book should be of interest to historians and cultural anthropologists too, for the cultural history that emerges out of Professor Ganguli’s penetrating analysis of the design themselves. The more than thousands of designs reproduced in the book will be an invaluable source of reference for designers in different fields in India and abroad.
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