Rarely has so much effort been packed into one macro level study of Indian iconography. Travelling extensively throughout the length and breath of six eastern Indian States of Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Assam and Tripura over a period of five years, defying extreme climates ignoring extremist threats and braving the inhospitable right outs on unknown roads historians Malaysankar Bhattacharyya and Susanta Kumar Biswas have managed to put together some of the rarest stone sculptures and terracotta figurines of eastern India. Some of these might have already been relocated in museums or archaeological galleries and catalogued others not so fortunately placed in obscure private collections but almost none were classified under a specific subject heading eroticism. And not just innumerable exquisite plates of erotic sculptures the authors have succeeded in putting forward an exhaustive study of the contemporary society economy polity religion and even food or dress habits to recreate the perspective that inspired these bold and wonderful creations. In doing so they have brought to fore the age old debate of aesthetics versus evangelicalism artistic expression versus profanity and human instincts versus conservatism. Instead of making it a heavy academic exercise alone the free flowing language and unencumbered expressions of the authors makes the book a thoroughly readable one.
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