Ratnasri: Gleanings from Indian Archaeology, Art History and Indology

Contents: Preface. Part-I : Archaeology. 1. The Neolithic pottery from Andhra Pradesh/J.S. Nigam. 2. Climate and enviroment in the Indus-Sarasvati civilization/Michel Danino. Part-II : Art and Iconography. 3. Incense, flowers and prayers in honour of the Buddha: ritualistic scenes in Ajanta and other Buddhist sites of Maharashtra fifth to eighth century/Claudine Bautze-Picron. 4. The divine bath of Sakyamuni represented in Gandhara sculpture: regional and social background of the visual narratives/Ghani-ur-Rahman.  5. A rare Visnu plaque from Pilibangan, Rajasthan/R. C. Agrawala. 6. Some Buddhist images from Udayagiri, Orissa/P. K. Trivedi and Subash Khamari. 7. Surya in the Lokesvara temple at Pattadakal/Vasundhara Filliozat. 8. Unique iconographic feature of Yajna-Varaha from Badoh Pathari (Madhya Pradesh)/Haripriya Rangarajan. 9. Saiva cult at Mathura/Vinay Kumar Gupta. 10. Not Yama, but Kubera: identifying an innovative set of directional guardians at Darasuram, Tamilnadu/Corinna Wessels-Mevissen. 11. New element of fantasy and rhythm introduced in Gupta art/Gouriswar Bhattacharya. 12. A note on the Purna Ghata motif in the Bharhut medallion of the Indian Museum Collection Kolkata/Mangala Chakrabarti. 13. Unique Vina-player from Ropar/Arundhati Banerji. Part-III : Architecture and Landscape Archaeology. 14. Architecture and society/M. K. Dhavalikar. 15. The Rajagopura of Arunacalesvara Temple-Complex, Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu/U. S. Murti. 16. The lives of monuments/N. James. 17. The control of water in Uttarakhand Himalaya : a diachronic study/Maheshwar P. Joshi. Part-IV : Epigraphy, Seals and Documentary Study. 18. Reconstruction of historical geography of Orissa: an epigraphical perspective/Snigdha Tripathi. 19. Interesting Clay Sealings of BhavarÈja/Devendra Handa. 20. Mi-li-kia-si-kia-po-no revisited with King Che-li-ki-to : Fresh Light on the Original Home of the Imperial Guptas/ Ashvini Agrawal. 21. The place of surya worship in Saivasiddhanta according to south indian documents/Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat. Part-V : Miscellaneous. 22. Tribes and castes of India, a study of some queer customs and usages/Haratosh Chakraborty and Nayan Ananda Chakraborty. Plates.

This book contains twenty-two papers contributed by eminent scholars from India and abroad dedicated to commemorate Dr. Neel Ratan Banerjee, who was a well-known archaeologist and earned distinction for his contribution on the Iron Age Archaeology in addition to his two most important excavations conducted at Ujjain and Nagda. He has also worked in many megalithic sites while he was in the Archaeological Survey of India. He later left the ASI to join as the Director General, National Museum.

The papers included herein are the outcome of researches done on archaeology, art, architecture, epigraphy, iconography, landscaping, monuments and seals, over the years besides reminiscences from some of his close friends and associates who always held Dr. Banerjee in high esteem. These papers, with notes, references and bibliography are well illustrated and are grouped into five sections, viz., Archaeology, Art and Iconography, Architecture and Landscape Archaeology, Epigraphy, Seals, Documentary Study and Miscellaneous.