It was indeed a pleasure to accept the invitation of the Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Andhra Pradesh to write a monograph on the bronzes in the State Museum, Hyderabad, as the absence of such a publication appeared a little too conspicuous to a person engaged in the same profession.
The non-availability of such a publication became all the more noticeable as year after year this Department brought out a number of excellent publications on allied topics under the dynamic leadership of Shri Mohammed Abdul Waheed Khan, F.R.A.S., (London), the Director.
I do not know how to thank him adequately for all the help and encouragement he has offered in the publication of this monograph. I have freely made use of the works of Sri C. Sivaramamurthy, Director, National Museum, New Delhi, in the preparation of the introduction. I am indeed very grateful to Shri Karl Khandalavala who went through the manuscript and made various suggestions, which have been incorporated.
Museums today are no longer the old curiosity shops which they were fifty years ago. Today they are active centres of education. They can perform this task successfully, only, if suitable literature about their contents is made available. The present book on the bronzes of the State Archaeological Museum, Hyderabad, by Sri D. N. Varma, who is a well-known scholar in bronzes, thus fills an essential desideratum in the field of Museum literature.
Strictly speaking, bronze is an alloy of copper and tin but the term is used in a general way for all icons made in metal. Religion has by and large influenced every form of art in India but as far as bronzes are concerned there has been hardly any other influence. Buddhists, Jains and the followers of the Brahmanical religion all used metal for making their images in early and mediaeval India.
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