This book argues that the development of symbols and signs informing scripts, mainly the idea of coding thoughts through symbols and images, has always been uniquely ‘historical.’ Rock art abuts and occupies long periods of time in which the translation of indigenous thoughts was perfected through numerous mnemonic practices.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Any artistic creation, be it a painting or sculpture, initiates a reaction within us, invoking within us a desire to analyse or evaluate it. The criticism of art definitely has its presence. But the question is—in what form and of what relevance is it? Art criticism is exclusively presented in the written form—it does not consist of descriptions of pictures, interpretations, or re-creations; but of something new and autonomous, related to the piece of art in some way. Criticism always gives us novel ideas for modern art, which in turn, enriches the Indian heritage. Art has been part of our life since ancient times. Traditionally, Indian art writing was mainly composed of commentaries on courtly art conventions and on the poetic texts that inspired paintings and sculptures. Since the 20th century, there has been a breakdown of established conceptions of meaning in the all streams of arts and several rapid changes in artistic style. This book will help readers understand the journey of modern art criticism since Indian independence. It formulates as precisely as possible, the basic principles and norms that will enrich artistically sensitive laymen and critics alike.

DIVA theoretically informed cultural study of the design, production, and circulation of Indian calendar art./div

Catalogue of an exhibition held at National Museum, New Delhi during 14th March to 7th June 2014.