Vision and Creation- Survey of Old Religious Architecture and Monuments of Calcutta from 1630 to 1947 AD

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Art and architecture have been an integral part of culture of a community or society in a broader perspective since the beginning of any institutionalized way of life. There is, therefore, no question of isolating these two cultural components from the larger contextually of a specific community/society at a given point of time.

The present title of the Asiatic Society's recent publication adds to that vast field of intellectual introspection authored by two studious researchers. They have quickly surveyed some old religious architecture and monuments of Calcutta in a time frame ranging between 1630 and 1947. Their stated purpose for this important enquiry has been to trace the evolution of style and technique as revealed by the studied architectural features. They also wanted to bring in this discussion an evaluative temper which help understand, by and large, the development of architecture in Eastern India embedded in certain religious-cultural heritage in the backdrop of Indian sub-continent.

This study has been apparently exploratory in nature. This could be enlarged by many more in-depth studies in this specialized area. I hope, the young scholars and researchers may derive some initial impetus and insight from this book for persuasion of their future researches in the subject.

The Centre of Advanced Study in the Department of Ancient Indian History and Culture University of Calcutta had undertaken a research project entitled Survey of Old Religious Architecture and Monuments of Calcutta The aim of this project was to make a comprehensive study and a concrete survey on the subject concerned from 17th to 20th century in and around Calcutta.

No doubt, at the time of undertaking the project the general importance of the architectural edifice was well known and their relevance to the study of the history of architecture of eastern region of the Indian sub-continent was well recognized. But it was also known that till then no attempt had been made to make a comprehensive study over this area for tracing the evolution of style and technique and also the most important architectural features revealed by them.

Such an evaluation was considered a desideratum for proper understanding of the development of architecture in Eastern India towards the religious and cultural activities in the Indian subcontinent. The project concerned was proposed to be launched to fulfil this need.

The project (No. WB Govt 5/1978) was undertaken with the approval of Professor Kalyan K. Ganguli, the then Director of the CAS. He kindly assigned the work of collecting data to Mr. Aseem Sarkar, Mr. Asim Sanyal of RBA and also to the undersigned. This team of scholars surveyed and collected. Data.

After the survey of data, the final scheme of the work was drawn up. But due to some unforeseen reasons the project did not materialize. Again, in the year 2016 the undersigned had approached to the Asiatic Society to complete the research project in a substantial form The Academic Committee as well as the Council of the Asiatic Society have approved and agreed to give financial support to complete the project.

**Contents and Sample Pages**