Wall Paintings from Rajasthan: A Legendary Culture

Contents: Preface and Acknowledgements. Part I: Dr. R.A. Agarwal: A Journey Within. 1. His childhood and early education. 2. His family and his academic glimpses. 3. Some academic details. Part II: Wall Paintings from Rajasthan - A Legendary Culture. 1. The beginning. 2. Rajasthan - A wonderland of splendorous beauty. 3. Mewar - the land of Chivalrous Sisodias and Shrinathji. 4. Marwar - The land of sun and sand. 5. Hadoti - The land of Braves and Bavadis. 6. Dhundhar - The land of Dhundhs and Damsels. 7. Technique. 8. Style. Glosary. Bibliography. Index.

The present publication has two parts: Part-I is dedicated to the life-story of Dr. R.A. Agarwal, under the title ‘Dr. R.A. Agarwal: A Journey Within’ contributed by renowned sculptor Ram V. Sutar Ji. Dr. Agarwal is relly a reputed scholar and has got published several outstanding works on Rajasthani and Central Indian Wall Paintings. Also, he, as being a wellknown artist, has showcased his works in reputed galleries of the country. His reputation among art-historians, artists and university scholars has always been very high. Thus, his all painstaking works have made him a Magnum-opus.

Later, on being known that Dr. Agarwal is in the close contact of world-renowned Sculptor, Shri Ram V. Sutar Ji - an Awardee of Padma Bhusan by the President of India, so as publishers we got interested to approach Shri Sutar Ji to get written the Life-Journey of Dr. Agarwal by him. On our insistence, Shri Sutarji very generously agreed to pen down his life story courteously, for which we are beholden to him very much. This benign contribution by him has been added in this book as Part-I.

Part-II contains a unique story of the Legendary Culture of Wall Paintings from Rajasthan. Dr. R.A. Agarwal, the author of Part-II of this book, has observed the painted walls very cautiously during his long and tiring sojourns in the past several decades across the whole of Rajasthan. The walls of magnificent palaces, havelis, temples and cenotaphs (chhatris) in its different principalities are embellished with a variety of themes done mostly between early 17th and late 19th centuries. 

Dr. Agarwal has studied very keenly the technique of their execution and the style as well. These phases of wall paintings have seldom been examined together in such a comprehensive way. Dr. Agarwal did it through the present work entitled WALL PAINTINGS FROM RAJASTHAN: A LEGENDARY CULTURE. 

Dr. Agarwal, further, has enhanced the value of this monograph by adding some appropriate illustrations to give the reader a fascinating insight into the respective periods of their execution.