Bawa: Gods, Men and Women

Bawa, Seema:
Gods, Men and Women : Gender and Sexuality in Early Indian Art / Seema Bawa. - New Delhi : D.K. Printworld, 2013. - xxiv, 416 S. : Ill. - (Perspectives in Indian art & archaeology ; 12)
ISBN 978-81-246-0664-3
Rs. 5500
US$ 88,00 (The Indian Bookshop)
US$ 173,30 (D.K. Agencies)
US$ 183,00 (D.K. Printworld)
US$ 249,75 (South Asia Books)
DDC: 704.040934

Beschreibung
The book is an exploration of ancient Indian art from the perspective of gender. It focuses on the period from 181 BCE to CE 320 - a period of great turmoil in the politico-economic, socio-cultural and religious spheres that gave rise to contesting ideologies and gender complexities in ancient India. It delves into the development of engendered representation in art, with the emergence of aesthetic and sexual archetypes and stereotypes of women: goddesses, mothers, wives, nuns, semi-divine yaksis, ogresses and others. It examines the nature of the stereotypes and archetypes that were constructed on the basis of gender roles rather than on sex and how these were reflected by various attributes of the representations - nudity or its absence, ornamentation, gestures, direction of gaze and context. It gives interesting insights into the intention, agency and patronage patterns in early Indian art.
   The volume with its scholarly approach, providing fresh insights into early Indian art, will prove useful to scholars, students and researchers of Indian art and history alongwith the cognoscenti. [Verlagsinformation]

Inhalt
Preface
Acknowledgements
Key to Transliteration
Abbreviations
List of Plates
Introduction
1. GENDER AND ART : PARADIGMS AND PROBLEMATICS
   - Sex-Gender
   - Strisvabhava-Stridharma
   - Beautiful Women and Self-Controlled Men
   - The Body: Spiritual and Physical
   - The Body and Salvation
   - Nakedness
   - The Provocative Body
   - Fertility
   - Time, Transformation and the Image
2. THE ESSENTIAL, REPRODUCTIVE WOMAN
   - Lajja Gauri
   - From Aditi/Lakshmi to Dugdhadharini
3. MOTHERS: CHILD PRODUCERS, CHILD REARERS AND PROTECTORS
   - Mayadevi: Buddha’s Mother
   - Hariti
   - Matrikas
   - Shasthi
   - Naigamesha and Naigameshi
   - Malignant Goddess
   - Conclusions
4. LOVERS, MARRIED COUPLES AND WIVES
   - The Ubiquitous Couple
   - Sculptural Traditions
   - Meanings and Interpretations
   - Married Couple: Dampati
   - A Specific Couple: Sundari and Nanda
   - Wives in Narrative Episodes
   - Bad Wives
   - Good Wives
5. THE NON-WIVES : NUNS AND PROSTITUTES
   - The Nun and the Prostitute
   - The Nun
   - Courtesan Ganika
6. YAKSHI-SHALABHANJIKA: CULTIC AND ARCHITECTURAL MOTIF
   - Yaksha: Nature and Worship
   - Yakshis
   - Shalabhanjika and the Dohada Imagery
   - Context: Architectural Elements
   - Shalabhanjika and Eroticism
   - Fertility, Fertilisation and the Feminine
7. MARA’S DAUGHTERS, APSARASES AND OGRESSES: STRATEGIES OF EVIL, SEDUCTION AND TEMPTATION
   - Mara’s Daughters and the Temptation of Buddha
   - Apsarases
   - Ogresses/Yakshis
Conclusion
Appendix
Bibliography
Index

Autorin
Seema Bawa is an Associate Professor at Sri Aurobindo College, University of Delhi. She has written extensively on Indian art and artists. Her research papers and articles, especially on gender and sexuality in early Indian art, have been part of many scholarly books, and published in various newspapers and journals. She is also a regular columnist on art in Asian Age and Deccan Chronicle. She has authored a book, Religion and Art of the Chamba Valley. Dr Bawa is also documenting the art and architecture of the Western Himalayan Region under the aegis of the German Research Foundation. She received the Indo-German Cultural Exchange Fellowship to read at the Institute of Oriental Art History, University of Bonn. Faculty page (Sri Aurobindo College).

Quellen: D.K. Printworld; The Indian Bookshop; South Asia Books; D.K. Agencies; WorldCat
Bildquelle: D.K. Printworld, New Delhi
Bibliographie: [1]

References