Book Description

The subject of this volume is the fired earthen sculpture, commonly known as terracotta, whose history goes back to the dawn of civilization on the subcontinent. The aim is to provide new material and insights into early Indian terracotta art in a chronological framework, from pre-Harappan times to the Gupta period. Beginning with the prehistoric period, discoveries at several new Harappan sites in India excavated since 1947 and the remarkable terracotta figurines unearthed at Mehrgarh in Pakistan are discussed. Although the southern peninsula cannot boast either the antiquity or the richness of the prehistoric terracotta tradition of the north, one particular region around the Nilgiris studied here has yielded clay sculptures fascinating for their abstract yet robust forms which reveal connections with earlier northern figures. The typological continuity with Harappan culture is evident from material exacavated at Taxila. The lesser-known site of Sugh in Haryana reveals types that spread across the northern plains all the way to the most important site for terracotta sculpture discovered in the subcontinent, Chandraketugarh in West Bengal. The terracotta finds of the middle and lower Gangetic valley are studied in Pradesh whose exceptionally elegant figurines and decorative temple panels reveal astonishing eloquence of the pan-Indian aesthetic of the Gupta period. No single volume thus far has provided such an overview, and this book should therefore be useful for art historians and all those who are interested in this rich tradition which survives in India to this day.