The Body In Indian Art And Thought

The body is omnipresent in Indian art and culture, and this richly illustrated, comprehensive introduction to the plurality of approaches to the body reflects the many ways it is represented in the artistic heritage of this vast and culturally diverse subcontinent. Through a selection of more than 300 exceptional artworks from around 50 public and private collections, many reproduced here for the first time, each chapter introduces a variety of aesthetic, philosophical and cosmological themes, revealing the body as not only the subject and inspiration of art, but also the repository of Indian values, preoccupations and aspirations, whether classical, mediaeval or modern.