Exploring India's Sacred Art

Stella Kramrisch (1896-1993) was a pioneering interpreter of Indian art and its religious contexts. During her sixty-year career as a creative scholar, teacher, museum curator, and editor, she was been a dominant force in shaping European, American, and Asian notions of Indian culture. Exploring India's Sacred Art presents a selection of her influential essays, along with a biographical essay.The writings collected here emphasize the cultural and symbolic values of Indian art. The first section discusses the social and religious contexts of art. This is followed by essays on various forms of ritual art. The section entitled "The Subtle Body" is derived from her term for the form that underlies concrete shapes; it includes studies of literary and visual symbolism. Further essays concentrate on formal and technical aspects of temple structure and painting in the context of their symbolic meaning.