Scholars have described in detail the themes of the 13,000-odd sq feet of the larger reliefs and yet most visitors merely walk right past these magnificent reliefs after a quick mandatory selfie. Most are not aware of the smaller and more fascinating wall reliefs which are a testament to the skill and scholarship of the Khmer artists.
For instance, the south-west and north-west pavilions contain representations of some rare episodes like the depiction of the abduction of Sita (not by Ravana), revelation of Krishna and Balarama's cosmic form to a charioteer (not to Arjuna), Khmer representation of Gatotkacha and many more images whose interpretations are still open for study and debate.
Join S Vijay Kumar, Founder, India Pride Project for his talk "Deconstructing the Bas Reliefs of Angkor Wat", as he takes us on a walk around these marvelous masterpieces that the twelfth century Khmer emperor Suryavarman II had caused to be sculpted, depicting the puranas and itihasas from a far away India.
Speaker:
S Vijay Kumar, Founder, India Pride Project is a largely self-taught expert on Indian Temple sculpture and art. He started documenting his learning process in Tamil and English on a bilingual blogsite – https://poetryinstone.in/ – writing extensively on sculpture and art appreciation, introducing audiences to the nuances of our temple art. The site, with more than 300 posts, is non-commercial. He and his team of dedicated volunteers aim to document and build an online searchable archive of temple art on the internet.
For the past sixteen years, Vijay has been instrumental in the tracking of trafficked Indian artefacts, working closely with various pan-global organisations assisting in their restitution efforts – including the return of the Vriddachalam Ardhanari, Sripurathan Nataraja, the Toledo Ganesha, the Ball state museum Alingana Murthy, the Kushan Buddha from the National Gallery of Australia, the Sripuranthan Uma from ACM Singapore, the Brahma Brahmani from Patan recovered from London.
His background work led to several raids conducted by Home Land Security USA during the Asia week in NYC. He played a key role in uncovering the antiquities smuggling network of Subhash Kapoor and the USD 108 million seizure of 2622 objects in America, which is chronicled in his non-fiction book “The Idol Thief” published by Juggernaut Books.
Vijay is a regular speaker and columnist for The Hindu, Times of India and other dailies. He also conducts free workshops to schools and colleges to encourage the next generation to take up an interest in Indian art.
Vrishnis: Evidence of Bhagavata Tradition in Early Indian Art - Dr VInay Kumar Gupta - 5:30 pm, Apr 6, 2024
In the Mahabharata, the Vrishnis were an important clan in which Bhagavan Vasudeva- Krishna was born along with his siblings Samkarshana-Balarama and Ekanamsa as well as other great warriors. The Bhagavata tradition is understood to have developed from the Vrishnis.
The spread of the Bhagavata doctrine in a vast area of ancient India and beyond is significant and provides important information about the development of the dharma not only in northern India but southern India as well.
In his Talk, "Vrishnis: Evidence of Bhagavata Tradition in Early Indian Art", Dr Vinay Kumar Gupta, Superintending Arcaheologist at ASI, Jaipur, examines the evolution of the Bhagavata tradition from the early images of Vasudeva and other Vrishnis that can be identified in rock and sculptural art.
Do join us at 5.30 pm IST on Saturday, March 2, 2024 for this on-line talk in English.
About The Speaker:
Dr Vinay Kumar Gupta is Superintending Archaeologist, Jaipur Circle in the Archaeological Survey of India. He was earlier Assistant Professor in Dr HS Gour Central University, Sagar, M.P. His Ph.D. thesis was on “Braj: An Art and Archaeological Study – Based on Archaeological Explorations in the Region of Braj”. His areas of specialization and interest include north Indian archaeology and early Indian art and religious studies.
Dr Gupta has directed excavations at Bewan, a site dating back to the OCP-Ganeshwar culture period, Barnoli-ki-Dhai, a PGW site and co-directed excavations at Rakhigarhi. He has also participated in excavations at Khirasara, Bhiranna, Baror and Hansi. At present, he is conducting excavations at Bahaj, a proto / early historic site in the vicinity of sacred Govardhan hills, Mathura. During his posting in the Antiquities and Customs Section, he played an important role in retrieval of various Indian antiquities from foreign lands and in preventing illegal export of antiquities.
Dr Gupta has authored and edited half a dozen books and has published about fifty research papers. His major publications include “Mathura: An Art and Archaeological Study” and the write-ups of “Mathura” and “Vraja” in the Oxford Bibliographies on Hinduism.
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