Prajnadhara: Essays on Asian Art, History, Epigraphy and Culture: In Honour of Gouriswar Bhattacharya, Vols. I and II

Contents: Preface. Editorial remarks. Bibliography of Gouriswar Bhattacharya\'s Publications (1971-2008). I. Gandhara: 1. Yasodhara\'s dreams/Anna Maria Quagliotti. 2. The water tank from Gandhara/Monika Zin. 3. The pious donation of wells in Gandhara/Harry Falk. 4. Two stamps with the Bodhigarbhalamkaralaksa Dharani from Afghanistan and some further remarks on the classification of objects with the ye dharma Formula/Ingo Strauch. Section II: Northern India, Central India, Nepal: 5. Surya worship in Vraja in ancient times with special reference to a rare Kusana Lintel of a Surya Temple/Vinay Kumar Gupta. 6. The formation of temple ritual in the Gupta period: Puja and Pancamahayajna/Michael Willis. 7. Mapping Masrur\'s iconography/Michael W. Meister. 8. The Kashmir connection of the Vaikuntha image of Khajuraho/Devangana Desai. 9. Vatukesvara--a Vama-Bhairava sculpture in the Lucknow Museum/R. Nagaswamy. 10. The identification of a sculpture of Mrtyumjaya/Amrtesa and Amrtalaksmi in the \'Royal Bath\' in Patan (Nepal)/Gudrun Buhnemann. 11. Almora copper plate of Abhaya Candra, Saka 1296 (AD 1374)/Maheshwar P. Joshi. 12. Omkareshvar Mandhata and transplantation of temples/Amar Nath Khanna. 13. Recasting the architectural landscape: the late 12 and 13 century Ghurid annexations of Northern India/Alka Patel. 14. Umrao Jan Ada: Her carte-de-visite/Joachim K. Bautze. III. Western India: 15. Coins of the city-state of Mahismati/Devendra Handa. 16. Buddhism in Rajasthan--its evolution and devolution/Nayan Ananda Chakraborty and Sangeeta Chakraborty. 17. Some early Torana representations from the Maharashtra Caves/Parul Pandya Dhar. 18. To what God shall we render homage in the Temple at Modhera?/K. Mankodi. IV. Southern India: 19. Raksasas and purusamrgas in the South-Western corner of the Airavatesvara Temple at Darasuram/Corinna Wessels-Mevissen. 20. A rare Saiva icon at Lepaksi/Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat. 21. Two Kalamukha Temples in Haveri District (Jakkanacarigudi in Karnataka)/Vasundhara Filliozat. 22. Girija-kalyana Friezes in the temple art of the Gowdas of Yelahanka/Anila Verghese and Anna L. Dallapiccola. 23. Geneaological history of the Nayakas of Velur, South India, and their patronage to art and architecture (c. AD 1500-1604)/U.S. Moorti.

Vol. II: V: Eastern India and Bangladesh: 24. Mahamayuri and Janguli as attendants of Prajnaparamita. Investigation of an unusual iconographic feature based on Bihari Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita manuscripts from the 11 century/Eva Allinger. 25. Illustrating the Perfection of Wisdom: the use of the Vessantara Jataka in a manuscript of the Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita Sutra/Jinah Kim. 26. The Visnu image from Sarisadah in the Indian Museum, Kolkata/Claudine Bautze-Picron. 27. Further observations on some unusual aspects of a recently acquired Pala Masterpiece in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art/Stephen Markel. 28. Some Surya images of the Pala-Sena period in the National Museum of Pakistan, Karachi/Ibrahim Shah. 29. A note on some interesting sculptures in the Koch Bihar Palace Museum/Bimal Bandyopadhyay. 30. Jaina Cult in Ancient Bengal--The Tutelary couple of Deopara/Isabell Johne. 31. Dedicatory inscriptions of the time of Mahendrapala: a fresh appraisal/Rajat Sanyal. 32. Re-reading two copper plate inscriptions of Gopala II, Year 4/Ryosuke Furui. 33. Re-visioning the state apparatus in Samatata (Mid-7 to Mid-11 Century AD)/Shahnaj Husne Jahan. 34. Economy of Samatata in the Early medieval period: a brief overview/Suchandra Ghosh. 35. A note on an important coin collection of the Bengal Sultans in the Bode-Museum, Berlin/Sutapa Sinha. 36. Incarnation revived: Three temple sculptures from Mallabhuma/Sharmila Saha. 37. A note on the Manjuvara Manjusri image at the Khiching Museum, Orissa/Rajasri Mukhopadhyay. 38. New light on the Adi-Bhanjas of Khijjingakotta and other minor ruling families of their times in Orissa (An epigraphical perspective)/Snighda Tripathy. VI. Pan-Indian Issues: 39. Dikpalas and Grahas at Paharpur in context of contemporaneous Pan-Indian Temple imagery/Gerd J.R. Mevissen. 40. Icons of Tripada deities in Indian art/Arundhati Banerji. 41. Revisiting the "Vrsa/Nandi" Issue/Pratapaditya Pal. 42. A five-headed Wooden elephant: a case study/N.P. Joshi. 43. Jala Mandirs, Tirtha-Patas and cosmic islands: creating, replicating and representing landscape in Jaina Art and architecture/Julia A.B. Hegewald. 44. Hegel and the Trimurti/Adalbert J. Gail. 45. Can Guided tours make sense of world heritage?/N. James. Section VII: Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Tibet: 46. A recently discovered Surya Image from Thailand/Peter Skilling. 47. Surya\'s Nagas, Candra\'s Square seat and the mounted Bull with two guardians--iconographical notes on two Khmer illustrated Stela inscriptions/Arlo Griffiths. 48. Indo-Tibetan influences in banners from Dunhuang/Chhaya Bhattacharya-Haesner. 49. "Indra\'s Visit"/Tianshu Zhu. 50. Wall paintings in the Arhat Chapel of the Monastery at Zhwa lu, Tibet: notes on iconography and style/Helmut F. Neumann and Heidi A. Neumann. 51. Iconographical suppositions in connection with a Thangka series made in the Qianlong period/Bela Kelenyi.

"Prajnadhara: Essays on Asian Art, History, Epigraphy and Culture is a collection of fifty-one research papers in honour of Dr. Gouriswar Bhattacharya, contributed by authors from India and abroad who acknowledge the eminent scholar of Bengal origin as a stalwart on every aspect of Indian art and Indological studies.

 Bound in two volume, these articles with notes, references and bibliographies, are well illustrated and cover a wide range of topics related to Indian, Tibetan, Southeast Asian and Central Asian art, architecture, iconography, painting, epigraphy, numismatics, religion, heritage management and photography.

The papers are grouped into seven sections according to distinct geographical regions, viz., Section I: Gandhara; Section II: Northern India, Central India, Nepal; Section III: Western India; Section IV: Southern India; Section V: Eastern India and Bangladesh; Section VI: Pan-Indian Issues; and Section VII: Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Tibet." (jacket)