Ajanta: History and Development, Volume 6 Defining Features

Ajanta: History and Development, Volume 6 Defining Features
Author: Walter Spink
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 482
Release: 2014-03-13
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9047444655

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Volume 6, in Walter Spink's detailed analysis of the creation and development of the Ajanta caves, during the reign of the emperor Harisena (c.460-c.477) has had a profound and often upsetting impact on the understanding of Indian history in the so-called Golden Age. The author contends that through the discipline of Art History one can in fact change the established view of cultural developments in the crucial "Classic Age" (5th Century CE). One of his major aims is to prove that it was the Vakatakas, under the emperor Harisena, and not the Guptas, that brought Indian culture to its apogee in the late 470s and to show that by analyzing and organizing Ajanta's "defining feature" in revealing developmental sequences, one can support, with specifics, the revolutionary (but now increasingly accepted) "short chronology" for which the author is well known. These "defining features" range from the changing types of Buddha images and living arrangements for the monks, to the precise analysis of the evolution of pillars, doorways, and excavation techniques. The volume also includes, at the start, a discussion of the transforming effect of competition, and finally war, as a key to Ajanta's highly driven development, its florescence, and finally its sad demise.

Ajanta: History and Development, Volume 7 Bagh, Dandin, Cells and Cell Doorways

Ajanta: History and Development, Volume 7 Bagh, Dandin, Cells and Cell Doorways
Author: Walter Spink
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 453
Release: 2017-01-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004321926

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Walter Spink’s intense concern with the development of the Ajanta caves and their architectural, sculptural and painted features finds its most insistent reflection in his present richly illustrated study. In part 1, Spink explains the many connections between the Bagh caves and its “sister site”, Ajanta. He particularly emphasizes the leading role that Bagh plays in establishing the “short chronology” and in the crucial matter of Buddhist shrine development from the aniconic to iconic forms of worship. In part 2, along with his colleague Professor Naomichi Yaguchi, who also provided the photographs and the newly informative plans, the authors show how, over the course of a mere decade, better and better ways were discovered to fit the doors in the cells where the monks lived. Such an analysis reveals the vigor of the conceptual and technical changes that characterize Ajanta’s evolution from its start in the early 460s to its traumatic collapse in about 470. Moving from Ajanta’s beginning to its ending, the evolution of door fittings parallels the precise and dramatic development of Indian history in the remarkable course of the emperor Harisena’s reign.

Ajanta’s Evolution: From Sāvakayāna to Bodhisatvayāna amid Hunnic Turmoil

Ajanta’s Evolution: From Sāvakayāna to Bodhisatvayāna amid Hunnic Turmoil
Author: Rajesh Kumar Singh
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2024-05-02
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1803277181

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This book offers a new scholarly exploration of the rock-cut Ajanta Caves located in the modern-day Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, India, their sculpture and paintings. The book meticulously traces the rise, transformation, and legacy of these architectural marvels from the late third century BC to around AD 480.

Connected Histories of India and Southeast Asia

Connected Histories of India and Southeast Asia
Author: Dhar, Parul Pandya
Publisher: SAGE Publishing India
Total Pages: 398
Release: 2022-11-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 9354795579

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Connected Histories of India and Southeast Asia unravels the fascinating history of cultural interactions, of outstanding and universal significance, between India and Southeast Asia, with special emphasis on artistic expressions. India's connections with Southeast Asian countries, namely, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam are seen not only in trade and commerce but also in cultural and religious exchanges. Such histories are well-documented in their monuments, icons, narratives, inscribed artefacts, texts, and ritual paraphernalia. The first part of the book offers an overview of the nature of cultural and artistic interactions and the trade routes that facilitated an exchange of ideas, objects, people, and knowledge systems since ancient times. The second part addresses issues relating to architectural forms, motifs, and mobility across long distances and time periods. The final segment includes essays that discuss narratives and iconographies arising from cross-cultural artistic exchanges. With contributions by eminent scholars and over 170 colour photographs, maps, and illustrations, this book is an invaluable resource for understanding connected histories, which play a key role in revitalizing cultural connectivity and people-to-people contacts between India and Southeast Asia.

Ajanta: History and Development, Volume 4 Painting, Sculpture, Architecture - Year by Year

Ajanta: History and Development, Volume 4 Painting, Sculpture, Architecture - Year by Year
Author: Walter Spink
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 374
Release: 2008-11-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 9047442113

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These photographs of the Ajanta cave complex are the indispensable complement to the text volumes of Ajanta: History and Development. With maps, timechart, ornamentation checklist, and numerous details of the art of Ajanta.

Ajanta: History and Development, Volume 2 Arguments about Ajanta

Ajanta: History and Development, Volume 2 Arguments about Ajanta
Author: Walter Spink
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2018-11-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 9047409353

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This volume in Brill’s renowned Ajanta series discusses contentious views on Ajanta’s development, the often-dramatic changes in patronage, and the intriguing problem of why Ajanta’s original (Hinayana) caves were not refurbished by the Vakataka. A comprehensive appendix on Ajanta inscriptions is also included.

The Global Connections of Gandhāran Art

The Global Connections of Gandhāran Art
Author: Wannaporn Rienjang
Publisher: Classical Art Research Centre
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2020-09-02
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1789696968

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Gandhāran art is often regarded as the epitome of cultural exchange in antiquity. The ancient region of Gandhāra, centred on what is now the northern tip of Pakistan, has been called the ‘crossroads of Asia’. The Buddhist art produced in and around this area in the first few centuries AD exhibits extraordinary connections with other traditions across Asia and as far as the Mediterranean. Since the nineteenth century, the Graeco-Roman associations of Gandhāran art have attracted particular attention. Classically educated soldiers and administrators of that era were astonished by the uncanny resemblance of many works of Gandhāran sculpture to Greek and Roman art made thousands of miles to the west. More than a century later we can recognize that the Gandhāran artists’ appropriation of classical iconography and styles was diverse and extensive, but the explanation of this ‘influence’ remains puzzling and elusive. The Gandhāra Connections project at the University of Oxford’s Classical Art Research Centre was initiated principally to cast new light on this old problem. This volume is the third set of proceedings of the project’s annual workshop, and the first to address directly the question of cross-cultural influence on and by Gandhāran art. The contributors wrestle with old controversies, particularly the notion that Gandhāran art is a legacy of Hellenistic Greek rule in Central Asia and the growing consensus around the important role of the Roman Empire in shaping it. But they also seek to present a more complex and expansive view of the networks in which Gandhāra was embedded. Adopting a global perspective on the subject, they examine aspects of Gandhāra’s connections both within and beyond South Asia and Central Asia, including the profound influence which Gandhāran art itself had on the development of Buddhist art in China and India.

Ajanta: History and Development

Ajanta: History and Development
Author: Walter Spink
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 435
Release: 2018-11-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 904741635X

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The twenty-nine Buddhist caves near Ajanta form a devotional complex which ranks as one of the world's most startling achievements, created at the very apogee of India's Golden Age. "Ajanta: History and Development," appears as part of the series Handbook of Oriental Studies, present the reader with a systematic treatment of all aspects of the site, the result of forty years of painstaking research "in situ" by Walter M. Spink. Volume one deals with the historical context in which this dramatic burst of pious activity took place under the reign of Vakataka emperor Harisena, (c. 460 - 477 A.D.), and with the sudden halt of activity almost immediately following the death of the emperor. In surprising detail the relative and absolute chronology of the site can be established from a careful reading of the physical evidence, with consequences for our dating of India's Golden Age. Ajanta, it appears, is a veritable illustrated history of Harisena's times, crowded with information on its history, development and how it was used.

Ajanta: History and Development, Volume 5 Cave by Cave

Ajanta: History and Development, Volume 5 Cave by Cave
Author: Walter Spink
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 406
Release: 2006-12-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 9047411870

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Volume Five comprises, along with introductory comments, two "cave by cave" guides. One which, very briefly, describes the character of each cave and its patronage, is intended to be useful for the general visitor to the site. The other, very detailed, discusses the position and peculiarities of each cave in relation to the overall, year by year, development of the site. This volume also contains a complete set of cave plans, and various illuminating charts, graphs, outlines, and maps.

Ajanta: History and Development, Volume 3 The Arrival of the Uninvited

Ajanta: History and Development, Volume 3 The Arrival of the Uninvited
Author: Walter Spink
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2018-11-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 9047416279

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Volume Five comprises, along with introductory comments, two "cave by cave" guides. One which, very briefly, describes the character of each cave and its patronage, is intended to be useful for the general visitor to the site. The other, very detailed, discusses the position and peculiarities of each cave in relation to the overall, year by year, development of the site. This volume also contains a complete set of cave plans, and various illuminating charts, graphs, outlines, and maps.