Temple Sculptures of Assam

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The book presents a comprehensive and critical study regarding the ancient temple sculptures of Assam. The complete work focus upon the aesthetic as well as the historical aspects of the temple sculptures of Assam. The work highlights the sculptural development of Assam with special reference to the Daparbatiya Temple, Kamakhya Temple, Deoparbat Temple, Madan Kamdeva Temple, Pingaleswar Temple and Hayagriva Madhava Temple. A detailed study is accomplish to explore the sculptural motifs of the temples, which are further studied and classified into religious, secular, narrative scenes, erotic scenes, celestial dancers and musicians, flora and fauna, geometrical motifs etc.

Born in Shillong. Dr. Meghali Goswami is an art historian and an art critic. She complete her school education in Pine Mount School Shillong and persuaded her Bachelor of Fine Arts from College of Arts and Crafts Guwahati. Dr. Goswami completed her post graduation in History of Art from National Museum Institute of History of Art. Conservation and Museology, New Delhi and obtained her Ph D from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee To her credit Dr. Goswami has a number of research paper in international as well as national journals. Dr Goswami also had authored a number of books in visual arts. She is also an editor of Canvas a bilingual Contemporary Art Magazine. She has been guiding a number of PhD scholars in the field of visual arts. She had served an Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual Arts Assam University Silchar. At present she is an Associate Professor in the Department of History of Art, Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati University Santiniketan.

Born in Guwahati, Assam, Dr. Mousumi Deka is an artist and a researcher. She completed her Bachelor of Arts in Education from Gauhati University. She did her graduation in Fine Arts from Government College of Art & Crafts, Guwahati. Dr. Deka completed her post graduation in Fine Arts from the Department of Fine Arts, Assam University, Silchar and obtained her PhD degree in Visual Arts from Assam University, Silchar. To her credit Dr. Deka has participated in many national art exhibitions and art workshops. She has published a number of research papers in Indian journals. At present she is an Assistant Professor of Royal School of Fine Arts in Royal Global University, Guwahati.

Assam has a long history in the field of culture. The temple sculptures of Assam provided great contribution towards the field of culture. In ancient times, the development of the sculptural art occurred due to the erection of the temple architectures, because the Hindu sacred sculptures were always associated with the temples. Numerous temples ruins, literary works and epigraphic records proved that in ancient times, Kamarupa, old name of Assam, was a great centre for the sculptural activities. The political history of Assam started with the advent of Varman dynasty in 4th century A. D. After this dynasty, two dynasties, which were Salastambha dynasty and Pala dynasty came to be focused. In Assam, sculptural activities reached its zenith from 5th century A. D to 12th century A. D. The introductory chapter concentrates on the origin of the development of temple sculptures with special reference to temple sculptures of Assam. The second chapter highlights about the historical background of the temple architecture of Assam. The earliest sculptural developments of Assam appeared under three dynasties. Varman dynasty, Salastambha dynasty and Pala dynasty played an important role for the development of the temple architectures. The study focuses on the sub topics like evolution of temple sculptures in Assam, growth of indigenous school, sculptural developments under different dynasties of Assam and religious influences on the temple architectures of Assam. The third chapter focuses about the sculptures of Daparbatiya temple, which is the earliest representation in the sculptures art of Assam. At Daparbatiya temple site, an ornamented door frame was found as authentic evidence. On the door frame, the figures of Ganga and Yamuna, which are the characteristic features of the Gupta style, are depicted. This chapter concentrates on the sculptural motifs of the door frame.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages