book reviews
fans among quilt aficionados and textile specialists
alike. The photographs are plentiful and evocative of
their communities of origin. Produced by the book-pub-
lishing wing of the French magazine Quiltmania, the
volume includes both French and English text. A map
n Art and Icon: Essays on Early Indian Art,  Whole: The Iconic Scheme at Khajuraho”, Desai inter-
by Devangana Desai. New Delhi: Aryan Books
International, 2013. Hardcover, xxv + 310 pages,
186 photographs. ₹ 2,800 | US$ 70.
Art registers a significant presence in the
aesthetic, metaphysical, religious, socio-
economic and political landscape of early
India. Its inherent multivalence and inter-
relatedness is splendidly explored in this collection of
16 scholarly essays written over a span of two decades
and a half by noted art historian, Devangana Desai.
Brought together for the first time in one volume, the pa-
pers traverse an admirable range – from terracottas to
temples, from the erotic to the religious, and from broad-
based social histories of art to a detailed analysis of icon,
image and visual narrative in early India.
In the inaugural essay, “Social Dimensions of Art in
Early India”, Desai emphasizes the need to view art in its
social context – as a function of the patron, art and artist
network. The author examines broad developments in
Indian art from 300 BCE to 1300 CE and relates these to
changes in the socio-economic milieu, thus bridging a
disciplinary hiatus between social history and art his-
tory. In a newly added epilogue (pp. 26–28) to this pa-
per written originally in the late 1970s, Desai states that
while the socio-economic approach provides important
answers to several concerns in a broad sweep of artistic
developments across the period, alternative perspect-
ives are necessary to explain other fundamental aspects
of art. These, in turn, call for a close investigation of its
BOOK REVIEWs 93
of Maharashtra and a description of quiltmaking tech-
niques in the introduction and a glossary at the end
provide helpful background information.
ӇӇ Marin F. Hanson
iconographical, iconological, narrative, formalistic and
stylistic details.
In “Textual Sources in the Study of Temple Art”,
Desai investigates the relationship between temple
sculptures and different genres of texts. Basing her ar-
guments on epigraphic, ethnographic and other his-
torical evidence, she surmises that the assumed gap
between text and practice is not as much as has been
generally presumed (p. 35). Apart from the architectur-
al treatises, the author makes judicious use of a range
of other literary texts for understanding the nature of
dialogue between image and text. This method has been
especially pursued by her in the case of the temples of
Khajuraho, an area to which she has dedicated decades
of research. In her essay “The Temple as an Ordered
prets the configuration of religious imagery on the body
of the temple. Moving beyond descriptive iconographic
identifications, these papers offer useful insights into
her “iconological” approach, a methodology that she has
sharpened considerably through meticulous attention to
visual detail and an admirable grasp of a range of par-
allel textual discourse. Desai’s interpretation of “iconic”
art in these essays takes simultaneous cognizance of the
icon’s socio-religious dimensions and its relationship to
other associated temple imagery and literature.
As is well-known, the canonical prescriptions for
making religious icons are recorded in the classical art
treatises. These injunctions provide the overarching
framework within which sculptors are expected to cre-
ate icons. Such detailed prescriptions may be expected
to impose limitations on artistic imagination. Yet, the
considerable diversity and qualitative difference en-
countered in practice offer ample evidence that “art and
icon” (also the title of the book under review) are not
mutually exclusive categories. Comparatively speaking,
though, another mode of artistic representation – the
visual narrative – is not bound by formulae in the way
that “iconic art” is. This is because the treatises do not
provide detailed prescriptions for visualizing narrat-
ives. The artist is thus at far greater liberty in conceptu-
alizing and sculpting a narrative panel or sequence as
compared to an icon. However, the categories of “iconic”
and “narrative” art are not mutually exclusive. Rather,
they need to be understood in terms of a preferred rep-
resentational emphasis. For, iconic art often assumes
and embodies one or more narratives and, conversely, a
visual narrative can have an icon as its focus. Even so,
the polarization of “iconic” and “narrative” art does offer
a useful analytical framework, with several intermediate
modes of representation seen in practice. This perhaps
also explains Desai’s preference for placing under the
category of narrative art, a depiction of Shveta-dvipa de-
votees at Khajuraho. The panel has as its focus an iconic
Vishnu-Narayana surrounded by its associated narrative.
Desai offers an insightful analysis of this unique panel
from the Lakshmana Temple at Khajuraho in the light of
a passage from the Shanti-parva of the Mahabharata.
The epic narrative of Vali-vadha in Indian sculpture
is treated with remarkable erudition in a detailed essay.
Beginning with the earliest available representations
from the Gupta period, Desai charts the course of this
narrative sculpture in a pan-Indian context up to the
13th century. Different literary tellings of this episode
are seen alongside its many renditions in stone to un-
derstand the ways in which the story of the killing of Vali
by Rama has been variously understood in Indian art
and literature. The author also makes a convincing argu-
ment for the close connections between oral traditions,
natya (theatre) and shilpa (sculpture) in the interpreta-
tion of this episode. The interrelationships between the
visual, performing and literary art forms are also high-
lighted in two other papers – “Dancing Ganesha” and
“Shalabhanjika and Surasundari”.
Two essays are devoted to terracotta art, a medium
identified with popular or folk genres and often mar-
ginalized in mainstream Indian art history. The first
discusses the social context of early Indian terracottas,
drawing a direct correlation between their increased pro-
duction and the processes of urbanization that led to the
emergence of societies with specialized crafts, organized
markets and institutionalized religious practices. The
second essay examines the role, variety and iconography
of female terracotta figurines in ritual art, from the Chal-
colithic cultures of Mehrgarh and other Indus sites to
those of the early historic period. In another interest-
94 Marg • september 2014 • Vol. 66 No. 1
ing paper, Desai focuses on minor artefacts such as ring
stones and plaques to examine the relationship between
the mother goddess and her male partner. Here, the male
partner is seen to assume a subordinate role. Two further
papers continue the iconographical approach – the first
discusses a Kushana-period “image-linga” from Mathura
while the second draws attention to Buddhist bronzes
from Sopara.
Three essays engage with erotic representations –
“Erotic Literature”, “Tantrism and Erotic Temple Sculp-
ture” and “Beyond the Erotic at Khajuraho”. Drawing a
distinction between depictions of mithunas (amorous
couples) and maithuna (coitus), Desai states that the
earliest maithuna scenes in temple art belong to the
6th–7th century, a period “when the Tantras came to be
accepted by the literate class” (p. 206). Analysing the pos-
sible connections between tantrism and erotic temple
sculpture, she concludes that tantrism was a major factor
that led to a “wild outburst” of sexual representations
on temples (p. 228), although its metaphysical aspect
was not responsible for this. She relates the profusion
of erotic imagery on temples to two consequences of
tantrism – the popularity of magic and the social per-
missiveness for such representations.
The rich symbolism of the kurma (tortoise) in Indian
art and myth receives mature treatment in one of the es-
says. The idea of the kurma as the support of the earth
and the pivot for Mount Mandara in the churning of the
milky ocean (samudra manthan) has been translated into
architecture and sculpture in many innovative ways by
artists. Desai’s keen powers of observation are evident in
the sheer range of artefacts she brings into her discus-
sion, starting with an endearing image of a kurma from
Stupa 1 at Sanchi, which has aptly been used as a leitmotif
throughout this well-produced book. Rich with the fruits
of committed and enduring research in the field of In-
dian art history, this is an important volume. It also offers
valuable insights into the changing directions of Desai’s
own academic journey over the past quarter of a century.
ӇӇ Parul Pandya Dhar