Research Catalog

Title

The body adorned : dissolving boundaries between sacred and profane in India's art / Vidya Dehejia.

Author

Dehejia, Vidya

Publication

New York : Columbia University Press, c2009.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xii, 238 p. : ill. (some col.); 27 cm.

Summary

The sensuous human form--elegant and eye-catching--is the dominant feature of premodern Indian art. From the powerful god Shiva, greatest of all yogis and most beautiful of all beings, to stone dancers twisting along temple walls, the body in Indian art is always richly adorned. Alankara (ornament) protects the body and makes it complete and attractive. In The Body Adorned, Vidya Dehejia, who has dedicated her career to the study of Indian art, draws on the literature of court poets, the hymns of saints and acharyas, and verses from inscriptions to illuminate premodern India's unique treatment of the sculpted and painted form. She focuses on the coexistence of sacred and sensuous images within the common boundaries of Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu "sacred spaces, "redefining terms like "sacred" and "secular" in relation to Indian architecture. By juxtaposing visual and literary sources, Dehejia demonstrates the harmony between the sacred and the profane in classical Indian culture. Her synthesis of art, literature, and cultural materials not only generates an all-inclusive picture of the period but also revolutionizes our understanding of the cultural ethos of premodern India.

Subjects

• Human body > Symbolic aspects
• Arts, Indic
• Beauty, Personal, in literature
• Beauty, Personal, in art
• Human body in literature
• Human figure in art

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [224]-231) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

List of illustrations -- Preface and acknowledgments -- The body as leitmotif -- The idealized body and ornament -- The sensuous within sacred boundaries -- To the divine through beauty -- Inserting the gods in the world of men : Rajput painted manuscripts -- Afterword: The body revealed and concealed : issues of intention and perception -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.

ISBN

• 9780231140287 (cloth : alk. paper)
• 0231140282 (cloth : alk. paper)
• 9780231512664 (e-book)
• 023151266X (e-book)

LCCN

^^2008028861

OCLC

• 226360260
• SCSB-9879503

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library