Indian Miniatures An Album (An Old and Rare Book)

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Foreword The year 1997 is an epoch making occasion for the whole Nation as we are celebrating 50 years of India's Independence? The celebration is marked by a series of events involving people from all walks of life both in India and abroad. The Archaeological Survey of India being the premier organisation in the country involved in preservation and protection of her rich cultural heritage has formulated a number of schemes, involving study, research, displays and publications, to highlight and generate awareness among our people, and specially among students, of our renowned and extremely rich cultural history.

Indian painting, like other branches of our fine Arts, has a hoary antiquity and forms a worthy chapter in the history of World Art. The album on Indian Miniatures, a handy and useful publication of this Survey that was published in 1961, had become out of print and its stocks completely exhausted. As this album, representing the different schools of medieval miniature painting, is indeed in great demand, we thought it fit to reproduce it in this Jubilee year. I am thankful to the officials of the Publication Branch and the Printer, the Bengal Offset Works, for their sincere efforts in reproducing this volume in its present edition.

Preface In 1947-48, under the auspices of the Royal..Academy of Arts, an Exhibition of Indian Art was held in Burlington House, London. When the objects constituting the Exhibition returned to India, they provided ready material for another Exhibition, held in the Government House (now Rashtrapati Bhavan), New Delhi, in 1948-49. This Exhibition, in turn, formed the nucleus of the. National Museum of India, which came into being on the 15th August, 1950.

At the time of the New Delhi Exhibition, the Department of Archaeology, Government of India; which. had been responsible for its organization, decided that reproduction. Of some of the displayed miniatures; representing the different Schools of medieval painting, should be prepared and made available to the public. Twenty such reproductions are published in this Album; of them, one each pertains to the Western Indian and Deccani Schools. five each to the Rajasthani. and Mughul and eight to the Himachala.

The reproduced paintings belong to different organizations and individuals, mentioned on the next page. The Department of Archaeology is grateful to them for their permission to, utilize. their possessions in this Album.

The Department is also grateful to Professor V. S. Agrawala of the Varanasi Hindu University for his valuable intr•ductional to the Album and description of the plates.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages