Recently added articles from Marg, A Magazine of the Arts:
From the general editor's desk.
Mar 01, 2009; ... The classic example of how a catastrophe can affect public response to an apparently unrelated subsequent event was recently demonstrated by the release in the USA of the film Slumdog Millionaire soon after what is now referred to as India's 26/11. A couple of weeks after its release in ...
Changra and Changpa: Pashmina goats and their herders.(Report)
Mar 01, 2009; ... For the grass that you have just eaten, oh goat, Give us some good pashm. For the water that you have just drunk, oh goat, Give us some good pashm. Sit down on the grass and be still, oh goat, So that we can take out your pashm. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As they gently ...
Pashmina spinners, weavers, and needleworkers.(Report)
Mar 01, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Kashmir shawl, acknowledged as one of the world's great art textiles, is the product of hugely complex commercial and technical processes. In this article, we focus on the technical aspect, to describe the structure and making of the shawl. Pashm, (1) ...
Innovation and continuity: a new temple for Kala Bhairava at Adichunchanagiri, Karnataka.(Report)
Mar 01, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] With an elaborate inauguration ceremony, held from February 11 to 29, 2008, the newly constructed Shri Kalabhairaveshvara Temple at Adichunchanagiri (figure 1) opened its doors to worshippers. It bears witness to the thriving art of Hindu temple ...
Photo essay: images from Ladakh's monasteries.(Report)
Mar 01, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Geographically the great Tibetan plateau extends westwards into the northernmost state of India, at a general altitude of 3000-4000 m above sea level; this region of mountainous, rocky Himalayan landscape is Ladakh, often referred to as "Little Tibet" ....
Building Communities in Gujarat: Architecture and Society during the Twelfth through Fourteenth Centuries.(Book review)
Mar 01, 2009; ... Building Communities in Gujarat: Architecture and Society during the Twelfth through Fourteenth Centuries, by Alka Patel. Brill, Leiden-Boston, 2004. 229 pages, 140 plates. Price not mentioned. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Western assessment of Indology, in all its aspects, ...
Editorial.(Viewpoint essay)(Report)
Dec 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In my four decades plus years in America, I don't recall another occasion when India received such sustained coverage in the media as it did of the Mumbai mayhem and carnage during the Thanksgiving holiday. Although in the three days of battle ...
A passage to China 2008.(Travel narrative)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Flying into Beijing again after almost a decade we landed at the brand new gargantuan terminal 3, another Norman Foster creation. May felt like the perfect spring month, in spite of the simmering nationalistic zeal, which was palpable, almost as if we had escorted the "flame" from Hong ...
The Mughal port cities of Surat and Hugli.
Dec 01, 2008; ... With the establishment of the Mughal empire in India, there was a qualitative expansion in overseas trade and commerce. The Indian Ocean trading network, extending from the Far East to West Asia, expanded in variety, density, and traffic in the 16th century, supported by the emergence of ...
Mapping the landscape of Pondicherry in the 17th century.
Dec 01, 2008; ... On June 29, 1673, Francois Martin, the agent of the French East India Company, received a cowle (lease) of land to establish a trading factory at Puthucherry (literally, in Tamil, "New Settlement") from Sher Khan Lodi, a governor of the Bijapur Sultanate who ruled Valikandapuram. Martin ...
Of merchants, monarchs, and monks: an 18th-century patolu re-examined.
Dec 01, 2008; ... The ancestry of a 200-year-old Indian trade cloth, treasured as sacred on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, may be linked to a fascinating chapter in the history of medieval India. This essay attempts to unravel a historical episode, set in Patan, the capital of the ...
The toddler saint of Tamil Nadu.(Sambandar)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Of the 63 Shaiva saints known as nayanmar venerated by the Tamils of south India, one of the most remarkable is Sambandar. Not only is he one of the earliest, having lived in the 7th century, but he is also the youngest. Having died prematurely at the age of 16, he is always represented in ...
Dancing in the dark: Robert Heinecken's "Manifestations of Shiva".(Critical essay)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Robert Heinecken (1932-2006) could never decide what to call himself. Early in his career, it was "paraphotographer", and then at the end, as the title for a 35-year retrospective he had in 1999, it became "Robert Heinecken, Photographist". The point was, anything but photographer. In ...
A man of the people: the Artist Ramkinkar Baij, 1906-80.(In memoriam)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Ramkinkar through the Eyes of Devi Prasad, curated by Naman P. Ahuja <Pre>I kept myself totally engrossedin my work. I have always beenindifferent towards death .... Deathin no way can come near an artist aslong as he is completely involved in...
Jagat Singh's Ramayana.
Dec 01, 2008; ... The Ramayana: Love and Valour in India's Great Epic was on display at the British Library, London between May 16 and September 14, 2008. This was a unique opportunity to view almost in its entirety, the manuscript known as "Jagat Singh's Ramayana", a splendid and elaborate illustration of ...
A new centre of art.(Newsletters From Kolkata)(Rabindranath Tagore Centre)
Dec 01, 2008; ... A new horizon has opened on Kolkata's art scene with the founding of the art multiplex, Rabindranath Tagore Centre, by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) under the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. This is the first government art complex of international ...
Hampi: a world heritage site to the danger List and back.(Conservation Newsletter)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Barring the Taj Mahal, Hampi, the erstwhile medieval city of Vijayanagara, is the site in India that has had the largest number of research papers and publications, both international and local, focused on it exclusively for nearly three decades. The "Group of Monuments of Hampi" was ...
The Archaeology of the Mons of Dvaravati.(Book review)
Dec 01, 2008; ... The Archaeology of the Mons of Dvaravati, by Pierre Dupont. Translated with Updates, Additional Figures and Plans by Joyanto K. Sen. White Lotus, Bangkok, 2006. Two volumes: Vol. 1, 340 pages; Vol. 2, 601 illustrations. Price not mentioned. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The ...
Bhuj: Art / Architecture / History.(Book review)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Bhuj: Art / Architecture / History, by Azhar Tyabji. Mapin Publishing, Ahmedabad, 2006. 304 pages, 146 colour and 129 black-and-white photographs, 15 maps. Rs 3543/US$ 85. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This book is a much-needed text in the world of architecture, especially ...
Mumbai musings.(From the General Editor s Desk)
Sep 01, 2008; ... Every time I come to Mumbai it seems that one or other small group of agitators unnecessarily creates problems over two recurring issues: Mumbai and Shivaji. They seem determined to eradicate the name "Bombay" altogether, from every business and institution, clearly trampling on freedom of ...