South Asian Terracotta- Through The Ages (C. 7000 B.C.-578 A.D.) (Set of 3 Volumes)

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This book "South Asian Terracotta Art Through the Ages are in three volumes. These are documentation work of Terracotta Art which are mostly in India and some rare items of Pakistan and other countries his Volume I covers mostly Harappan and Mauryan Terracotta Art. This is photo documentation of rare Harappan, Post Harappan & Mauryan Terracottas objects. Till today we have excavated 252 Harappan sites in north west part of south Asia. The art style of the Early Harappan terracotta art is primitive and these are hand made. Their facial contour is absent and bare breasts are mostly round in shape, which represents fertility cult. The bottle shaped terracotta mother goddess figurines having bird like face and joint legs shows Iranian influence in this region. With the mature Harappans first urban stage (3000-1900 B.C.) began a new era of terracotta art, produced a large variety of terracottas and in great quantities at urban sites like Dholavira, Banawali, Rakhigarhi, Baror, Bhirrana, Lothal, Chanhudaro, Kalibangan, Nausharo, Nagwada, Harappa and Mohenjodaro. Most of these are hand-made by pinching and appliqué method. The mature Harappans also rarely used single mould technique and few puppet masks discovered from Mohenjodaro and Harappa were mould made and majority of the Harappan terracotta are solid.

Second Volume is on Sunga Kusana and Satavahana Terracottas Art. The Shunga artists of the 2nd and 1st centuries B.C. brought revolution in the field of terracotta art by introducing once again the technique of single mould which led to mass production and standardization of figuring's For the first time, themes and legends from ancient literature, scenes from everyday life and various icons etc. formed the subject matter to terracotta art. A large number of Shunga terracottas have been found at Patna, Buxur, Kausambi, Mathura, Chandraketugarh, Tamluk etc. Around late 1st c. B.C. double mould terracottas were prepared by Sunga artists of Chandraketugarh and Kausmabi. Which was continued during early Kushana age (50 B.C. TO 100A.D.).

The Satavahana terracotta artist in North Deccan, from the 2nd c. B.C-2nd c. A.D. used white kaolin soil to produce figurines. Kaolin soil is much finer material than clay. They had mastered the art of producing figures in round by the use of double mould, which is evident from the figures of Yakshas, Yakshis, horses and horse-riders found at sites like Ter, Kondapur, Mansur, Adam, Sanethi, Paithan and other places. One can also see the influence of Roman art i.e. they introduced double mould made terracottas, technique which were continued till Gupta period. Ornamented horse which was discovered from Ter confirms royal horse sacrifice (Ashvamedha) which was performed by Satavahana rulers. The Kushan terracottas of the period from c. 50 B.C. mid to 3rd century A.D. present a cruder variety. Though the terracotta were produced on a large scale at Mathura, Ahichchhatra, Kaushambi, Kheradih, Newal and other places, still these were roughly modeled. A number of clay figures bearing Hellenistic influence have also beenreported from Taxila, Gandhara and Akhnoor region which comprise human figures, Buddha, Bodhisattva images. They also used double mould.

The Gupta period c. 319-578 century A.D.), also known as or Classical Age of Indian art, produced terracottas of great variety and artistic excellence, unparalleled in the history of South Asian art. Gupta artists had mastered the technique of modelling and depiction of moods. The life-size image of Ganga and Yamuna and heads of Shiva and Parvati from Ahichchhatra and Hariti and Gaja Lakshmi from Kausambi are some of the best examples of Gupta terracottas. The temples built at Apsad in Bihar, Ahichchhatra and Bhitargaon in U.P. and Sirpur in Madhya Pradesh were embellished with large size terracotta panels of high relief depicting gods and goddess and scenes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata.

The Palas and Senas of Eastern India carried forward the tradition of Indian terracotta from the 8th to 12th century. Clay tablets depicting temples, shrines, Buddhist deities etc. from Bodha Gaya, Nalanda, Vikramshila, Paharpur, Antichak, Mainamati and other places form a distinct group of terracotta's of this period. Terracotta art of religious icons sharply declined with the consolidation of Islamic rule, from about 1200 A.D. The artists of Bengal and Bihar are, however, credited with the revival of terracotta art from the 17th to the 19th century when the walls of temples were adorned with terracotta panels depicting mythological scenes from ancient literature and also contemporary scenes of everyday life. Maluti in Santhal Pargana (Bihar), Shyamrai temple and Jor Bangla temple at Bishnupur, Lakshmi Janardhan temple at Singti are fine examples of revival of terracotta art. Terracottas are produced even today for different social and religious purposes, but the elegance and the excellence of the past could not be reproduced. The present day terracotta centres are Nilgiri (Tamilnadu), Golpara (Assam), Bakura (Bengal), Gorakhpur (U.P.) and Khojawa in Varanasi.

Dr. D.P. Sharma is an Archaeologist, Museologist and Art Historian. He did his M.A. in Ancient Indian History Culture & Archaeology form Allahabad University and D.phil research on Art and Architecture of Lower Ganga-Yamuna Doab Region from University of Allahabad. From 1980 to 1985 he was working as Antiquities Registering officer at Allahabad and Varanasi Regions. During 1983-84 he was awarded commonwealth scholarship and he qualified M.A. Archaeology from the Institute of Archaeology University of London. He did excavation at Sussex (U.K.) and Pincenvent (France) under Dr. Mark Newcomer and Prof. Gourhan. During 2003-04. He did excavation at Sterkfontein cave in South Africa, under RJ. clark. Where 3,3 M. old Australopithecus skelton was discovered. Since 1985-2005 he had been working as head of Harappan and prehistoric collection of National Museum, New Delhi. In 2005 become Associate Professor & H.O.D. Muscology in National Museum Institute (Deemed University). Dr. Sharma has published 240 Papers/Lectures and 87 Books in which few new are given below: Panorama of Harappan Civilization, Early Harappan and Indus Sarasvati Civilization Vol. I & II, Harappan Art, Glimpses of Harappan Civilization, Prehistoric Art and Archaeology Vol. I, Gupta Classical Art, Mauryan Art, Romance in Mathura Kusana Art, Haarappan Minor Art & Crafts, Harappan Jewellery, Harappan Terracotta, Harappan Seals, Harappan Potteries, Garunda in Asian Art, Harappan Architecture, Copper Hoard Weapons of South Asia, O.C.P. & Copper Hoard (ed), Harappan Script on its way to Decipherment, Harappan Science & Metal Technology, Archacology of Lower Doab, Vol. & II, Lost Sarswati Civilization, Bharat Ka Puratattva (Hindi) Potteries of South and East Asia in four Vol, The Stone Age in South Asia and Roots of South Asian Art. He was working As Director in Bharat Kala Bhavan Museum of Banaras Hindu University, at present he is visiting Professor Archaeology in Amity University Noida & various Other University in India, Archaeological Department and other Institutions. During April 2015 to April 2017, He was Awarded senior Academic fellow by ICHR, New Delhi. At present he is working as Coordinator of a project on Roots of Symbol in Sindhu Saraswati Art under IGNCA.

My earlier publications on Harappan civilization like Harappan seals, Sealing and copper tablets. Panorama of Harappan Civilization, Harappan script of the way of decipherment. Bharat aur Sindhu sahhyta, Harappan terracotta Art, Harappan Art, Early Harappan and Indus sarasvati civilization potteries of South and East Asia through the Ages, is already in the hands of the readers. My four other books Harappan Jewellery, Mature Harappan. Late Harappan and Urban planning and settlements of Harappan civilization are Roots of South Asian Art, Mauryan Art, Sensual Female image in Kushan, Mathura art and Classical Art of Gupta. Till today have written 78 books on different aspect of Harappan civilization & Indian Art The present book South Asian Terracotta Art Through the Ages is 79 book of Author. Digital photo documentation of the excavated material is assuming greater importance due to role of multimedia information to the door steps of the user. It is being introduced first time by D.P. Sharma in the Harappan gallery of National Museum, New Delhi and Bharat Kala Bhavan Museum, Varanasi, Madhuri Sharma are doing lot in this direction and they have published several papers books on Terracotta Art and Harappan Civilization.

These books "South Asian Terracotta Art Through the Ages" are in three volumes. These volumes of book are documentation work of Terracotta Art which are mostly in India and some rare items of Pakistan and other countries.

The text of this was gone through by late Dr. BL. Nagarch Former Director of ASI who edited these three volumes and author is grateful to him. The author records his appreciation for cooperation and assistance received by Madhuri Sharma, Kadambini Pandey, Devangana Sharma & Anuj Pandey, Abhinara, Ajit Kumar Chaudhary. Bahadur Kumar Kannaujiya, Prakash Rao. Mr. J.C. Arora and Tejveer Singh prepared photograph. Bahadur Kumar Kannaujiya & Brijesh Kumar did Computer typing work Pratibha Parashar, R.R. Singh Chauhan and Sanjib Kumar Singh did academic help. Discussion with Nayanjot Lahin, B.R. Mani, Alok Tripathi, Rakesh Tiwari, OM. Singh, Sachin Tiwari, Priyanka Singh. Aditya Ojha, Pramod Trivedi, Jamal Hasan D.V. Sharma and Arundhati Banerji added quite a bit to the authors knowledge and he is indebted to them.

The author has also consulted the publications of B.B. Lal, Pramod Trivedi, B.R. Mani, Subhara Pramanik, Amy G Postel, Chundamani Nandgopal, Amrendra Nath, J.P. Joshi and M.L Nigam and learnt from the new discovery. Author is also beholden to lan Glover and Marks Newcomer both retired Professor who had been his teachers at Institute of Archaeology London. Author is also grateful to his other teachers R.K. Verma, V.N. Misra, GR. Sharma, J.N. Pal, B.B. Misra, R. V. Joshi, M.K. Dhavalikar, O.P Yadav, J.S. Negi, V.D. Misra who taught him Archaeology in Allahabad and Deccan College Poona. Author is also grateful to Mr Praveen Mittal who Published these Volume within six month.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages