Sunga Art: Cultural Reflections

Indian art has not only delighted the hearts of the art lovers, but it has also provided a hoard of information for the cultural historians right from the days of Anand Coomaraswamy. Art has served as one of the most valuable source material for the archaeologists who intend to reconstruct the material culture and day today life of the past. The present book dwells upon the stone sculptures and terracotta of the Sunga period for this purpose, Time and again our art historians have emphasized that, Sunga Sculptures, among all the art schools of ancient India, are the most realistic representations of the contemporary life. This book unravels the details of the material culture of 2nd and 1st century B.C. India in different headings like Architecuture, Costume and Textile, Personal ornaments, Coiffure and Head gear, Vessels and household materials, Arms and armour, conveyance, Musical instruments, etc. The represented shapes are co-related with the descriptions in the contemporary literature and corroborated with the excavated evidence, wherever it is found possible, to establish the authenticity of the pictorial representations. Attempts are also made in this study to understand the social context of these materials like the class, gender and regional differences as well as their cultural functions wherever the evidences have permitted to do so. This study also helps us expand our understanding of the contemporary literature and excavated objects, because, it provides the visual counterparts to the literary terms and, the lost shapes and functional contexts to the excavated objects. The description in this book is visually supported by the relevant line drawing and photographs.