Iconography of Hindus Buddhist and Jains

Author(s): R S Gupte
Publisher: D B Taraporewale Sons and Co Pvt Ltd

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FOREWORD
DR. R. S. GUPTE'S publication of The Hindu, Buddhist and Jain Iconography acquires seminal significance in view of the current interest in reviewing the Indian cultural heritage through a new perspective. This volume not only bridges the yawning gap in properly evaluating the representations of the icons belonging to the three major religions of India but also provides a thorough and comprehensive survey of the subject matter. Dr. Gupte's perceptive treatment of a rather complex subject and his lucid exposition of the subject enable the general reader to comprehend a host of intricate religicus and cultural configurations.
The plan and the structuring of this book together with diagrammatic illustrations and the relevant photographic reproductions, provide an overview of the significance and the temporal and spatial variations of the icons, and might well shape and establish the attitudes and responses of both the general readers and the researchers in this area of knowledge. The reader might discover for himself, how Dr. Gupte's treatment of the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain iconography, beginning with exploratory suggestions becomes gradually comprehensive. The plethora of gods and goddesses and numerous minor deities in Hinduism with their variant names and special attributes are categorised and succinctly presented in the discursive segment of the chapter dealing with Hindu iconography. The tabulated segment makes it easier for the reader to readily recognize and identify the several godheads. The chapters on Buddhist and Jain iconographies also serve a similar purpose. The book has several merits and the excellent and comprehensive treatment of the iconographies of the three major religions of India in a single volume makes it singularly handy and is thus doubly welcome. I greet this latest scholastic venture of Dr. Gupte and have great pleasure in recommending it to students of Indian art and architecture.
R. P. NATH Vice-Chancellor, Marathwada University
Aurangabad