Portrait Sculpture In South India

In bringing together from varied sources evidences and examples of Indian portrait sculpture, in part hitherto unpublished, the author has made a very notable contribution to our knowledge of Indian art in one of its more special applications, and consequently as a whole. The lack of interest in the study of portraiture in stone and metal prompted the author to pen this book, the character of this work is largely delimited by importance to the specimens that been inscriptions or are referred to in epigraphically. It is to be hoped that the reception accorded to this study will encourage him to pursue the study in this or other fields; for the field open to research is very large, and the number of students all too small. There can be no possible doubt that throughout the period in which stone sculpture was produced, and probably still earlier when only impermanent materials were employed, images of donors were set up in connection with their foundations; indeed, for a very much earlier period we have the evidence of undoubted portrait figures in stone, excavated at Mohenjo Daro, though we do not know what was their precise cultural significance. The book contains 11 chapters and 34 illustrations to make it a readable informative discourse.