The Monograph Introduces The Remains Of A Legendary Stupa Of The Sunga Period (2Nd 1St Century B.C.) Which Once Stood Near The Village Bharhut In Madhya Pradesh . Since 1876 These Precious Antiquarian Gems Are The Prized Possession Of The Indian Museum, Calcutta. The Author In His Capacity As Director Of That Museum Had The Opportunity To Study Them Afresh And Reassess Their Cultural And Artistic Merits. The Renowned Scholar Dr. Mulk Raj Anand In His Capacity As Visitor To The Museum Suggested To Bring Out A Handy Pictorial Companion Which Could Be Useful To The Visitors To The Museum As Well As Lovers Of Early Indian Art. The Book Gives A Lucid Introduction Besides Several Interesting Interpretations About The Concept And Significance Of Stupa Tradition And Particularly The Socio-Religious And Artist Role Played By This Grand Edifice In The Pre-And Post-Christian Centuries. Important Sculptures Have Been Adequately Described And Projected Through Colour And Black And White Illustrations.

This volume provides the first comprehensive chronology of the earliest known stone sculptures from the north Indian city of Mathura. It includes new evidence for the reattribution of objects, emergence of the anthropomorphic Buddha image, and predominance of a heterodox sect of Jainism.

Pauranic Prana-aesthetics, a finer shade different from that of vitalistic aesthetics )the earlier having breathing-rhythm of Ksaya-Vrddhi --diminuation and augmentation--other than the latter`s emphasis only on the rhythm of augmentation), has been delineated in this study with examples from the world`s two of the best art-monuments: Ajanta (India), now not remaining unknown even to the most casual connoisseur, and Sopocani (Yugoslavia), the most significant and monumentally beautiful work of Byzantine art. Tracing Prana-aesthetics as the aesthetics of inner-light coded in the creeper-motif by the artists of Ajanta, this work emphasises decoding of the creeper-motif by Byzantine artists culminating into the frescoes of Sopocani done in Hellenistic-Byzantine aesthetics beatifield by Hesycast meditation to which that of Buddhists was not unknown. Comparisons of various determinant aspects, aesthetics and artistic denominators, and constraints not allowing similar consummation are properly investigated to substantiate the thesis that Prana-aesthetics transfigures at Ajanta but transubstantiates at Sopocani. The significance of the anabolic aspects of this aesthetics is highlighted especially as a way out from the reductivistic tendencies of the present day visual-arts straining them upto the stage of catabolic dissolution.