(Apologies for cross-postings.)
Hello,
I am forwarding an announcement for a new book on Indian sculpture written
by a colleague. Published in India, the book will be available in North
America only from the author. Please respond to Michael Rabe at the
address given in the last paragraph.
Thanks,
Claire
Claire Eike
Director, The John M. Flaxman Library
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
______________________________________
Rabe, Michael D. The Great penance at Mamallapuram:
Deciphering a visual text: 1st ed.: Chennai: Institute of Asian
Studies, 2001. Description: xxviii, 198 p., [77] p. of plates: ill., maps
; 25 cm. Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [177]-198).
LC Control Number: 2002286660; ISBN: 8187892005 for Hard
Cover, Rs. 500.00; Paper bound: ISBN: 8187892013, Rs. 300 from
the publisher; $30 and $20 respectively, postage paid, from the
author in Chicago.
For well over a century of Western scholarship, one of the most
intractable controversies in the study of Indian art concerned the
authorship and intended subject matter of the world’s largest
narrative relief sculpture. Best known alternatively as _ Arjuna's
Penance_ or _The Descent of the Ganges _, the almost perfectly
preserved cliffside tableau at the coastal resort village of
Mamallapuram (or Mahabalipuram) was presumed to date from
the seventh century, but few hazarded to guess which of 4 or 5
successive kings of the Pallava dynasty might have
commissioned the colossal undertaking, nor what his
underlying rationale might have been.
Now, after completing a predicate -laying dissertation on the
chronology of the region (Tamil Nadu)'s rock-cut monuments, Dr.
Michael D. Rabe, Assoc. Prof. of Art History, Saint Xavier University,
and Adjunct Asst. Prof. of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago,
has written this monograph which purports to finally resolve
thevisual conundrum, which turns out to be the earliest known
instance of a Sanskrit literary genre known as _sandhana-kavya,_
lit., _simultaneous poems_. (The kernel of his argument was first
published in The Dictionary of Art [Macmillan, 1996; goveart.com]
and an extract of this monograph appeared in_ Artibus Asiae_ as
_The Mamallapuram Prasasti: a Panegyric in Figures_ LVII, 3/4
(1997): 189-241.)
Given the perpetual stream of tourists and prospective readers to
the popular coastal site, Dr. Rabe chose to have this
comprehensive history of the problem and its resolution published
in the nearby metropolis of Madras (Chennai), where it will
hopefully remain in print in perpetuity. However, to facilitate its
acquisition by Western university libraries he is authorized to resell
copies directly for the dollar prices stated above. Orders or other
inquiries are welcome via email: [log in to unmask]
______________________________________
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