The Word is Sacred; Sacred is the Word: The Indian Manuscript Tradition

Description

"The Word is Sacred; Sacred is The Word: The Indian Manuscript Tradition" sets out to demonstrate the wealth and diversity of India's manuscript traditions and to communicate a lasting impression of India as a multifarious and multicultural society that holds knowledge and knowledge systems in high regard. Some one hundred precious manuscripts, books, and related documents introduced in this book span a timescale of almost two millennia of Indian cultural history. Often lavishly illustrated, the works come from the sub-continent's most important public and private collections. The project was a presentation of India as Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2006. The exhibition had been organized by the National Mission for Manuscripts, New Delhi and the Museum of Applied Arts, Frankfurt.The National Mission for Manuscripts was set up by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Government of India, in 2003 to document, conserve and provide access to the vast manuscript wealth of India spread in thousands of public and private repositories across the country and abroad.

Author(s)

B.N. GOSWAMY, distinguished art historian, is Professor Emeritus of Art History at the Panjab University, Chandigarh. A leading authority on Indian art, his work covers a wide range, and is regarded, especially in the area of Pahari painting, as having influenced much thinking. He has received many honours, including the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship, the Rietberg Award for Outstanding Research in Art History, and the Padma Shri. Among his publications are: Pahari Painting: The Family as the Basis of Style (Marg, Bombay, 1968); Painters at the Sikh Court (Wiesbaden, 1975); Essence of Indian Art (San Francisco, 1986); Wonders of a Golden Age (Zurich, 1987); Pahari Masters: Court Painters of Northern India (with E. Fischer; Zurich, 1992); Indian Costumes in the Collection of the Calico Museum of Textiles (Ahmedabad, 1993); Nainsukh of Guler: A Great Indian Painter from a Small Hill State (Zurich, 1997); Painted Visions: The Goenka Collection of Indian Painting (New Delhi, 1999); Piety and Splendour: Sikh Heritage in Art (New Delhi, 2000), and Domains of Wonder (with Caron Smith; San Diego, 2005). B.N. Goswamy has been responsible for major exhibitions of Indian art in Paris, San Francisco, Zurich, and San Diego. He has taught, as Visiting Professor, at the Universities of Heidelberg, Pennsylvania, California (at Berkeley and Los Angeles), Zurich, and Texas (at Austin), and lectured extensively at museums and universities in Europe, the U.S., and India.