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This attractively produced book takes up for study and analysis the representation of the human body in Indian art, both in the sculpture as well as later Indian painting. Emphasis is placed throughout on the sensuously rendered body of the images, the ornaments that bedeck it, the inter-penetration of the sacred and the sensuous, and the manner in which the image so conceived and rendered serves as support for the realization of the divine. The primary thrust is towards an interpretation of the visual arts, but it is backed up by copious references to literature with which the art shares a common universe. The style is easy and elegant, and the work seems to be primarily addressed to Western or westernized audiences, replete as it is with copious translations mostly from Sanskrit, Tamil, and Braj Bhasha literature. Helpful as these are, one needs to remember that they are pale shadows of the originals.
The abundant ornamentation found in Indian art, both of the architecture as well as the images that adorn its exterior or are housed and worshipped in the interior have been a source of puzzlement and dismay to scholars ever since its systematic history was initiated, mostly by scholars of British origin, in the nineteenth century. Accustomed to European art,...