Listening to Icons, Volume 1: Indian Iconographic and Iconological Studies

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This anthology represents papers most characteristic of the author’s investigative strengths and methods in the domains of Indian art history and Indology. The selected papers were published between 1979 and 2015. In numerous cases, the large time span covered by these papers has been brought up-to- date. New information reflects developments in the field or in the author’s thinking, and it is noted by an asterisk at the end of a given paper.

The sixteen papers in Volume I fall within four main themes: Saiva, Vaisnava, Secular and Folk Themes as well as Narrative Art. Within these broad categories, analyses and interpretations range across a wide spectrum: Indus Valley material, early sectarian sculpture, temple architecture, miniature paintings, Vedic ritual construction. Most of the topics treat the art in the context of the culture of the Indo-Gangetic Plains, that is, India above the Vindhya Mountains. The author’s studies on the arts beyond this region, comprising the arts from Gandhara, will form the contents of Volume II.

Some specific topics advanced in this volume are: the likely Vedic origin of Rudra-Siva; the meaning and significance of Saiva and Vaisnava icons with the multiplicity convention; Krsna’s Pre Puranic imagery from Mathura; a new attribute associated with Samkarsana/Balarama; the importance of courtesans in ancient India and a newly recognized statue of one beauty; icons attesting to ancient Snake cults; understanding the artistic consequences of Mathura’s emphasis on the oral transmission of sacred knowledge.

Scholars and students alike will be stimulated by the findings and methodology found in this volume.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Doris Meth Srinivasan

Doris Meth Srinivasan is Research Professor, Department of Asian and Asian-American Studies/Center of India Studies, State University of New York at Stony Brook. A Ph.D. from University of Pennsylvania, she has authored nearly ninety publications including a documentary film on the Hindu Ritual Sandhya. Her books include: On the Cusp of an Era: Art in the Pre-Kusana World (Editor, Brill, 2007); Many Heads, Arms and Eyes. Origin, Meaning and Form of Multiplicity in Indian Art (Brill, 1997); Urban Form and Meaning in South Asia: The Shaping of Cities from Prehistoric to Precolonial Times (Studies in the History of Art No. 31, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, London and Hanover, 1993); Mathura: The Cultural Heritage (Editor, Sponsored by The American Institute of Indian Studies, Delhi, 1989); Concept of Cow in the Rig Veda (Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1979). Her papers and reviews are mainly in the areas of specializations: early Hindu and Buddhist art of South Asia; Brahmanic religion and culture. A Getty Scholar in 1999, she held the Hohenberg Chair of Excellence in Art History at the University of Memphis, 2001-2002. Some of her awards include: National Endowment for the Humanities grant (twice); American Institute of Indian Studies Fellow (twice); ACLS Fellow; President: American Committee for South Asian Art, 1984-1987. She taught at Columbia University; George Washington University; Haverford College; George Mason University; and was the Curator of South and Southeast Asian Art at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City.