From
the Publisher
The present monograph is unique in that it, for the first
time, extensively treats the subject of Indian temple jalas or
grilles together with an in depth discussion in the light of
relevant medieval vastusastra passages in Sanskrit on Indian
architecture. Besides identification, classification, and
description of the different grille types as well as their
forms, features, and ornamentation, it investigates their
purpose and their relationship with the environment with the
building of which each example is an integral part. It
likewise traces the origins - or at least the earliest
incidences - together with the development, wherever
discernible, of the Indian grilles. While maintaining the
thrust of writing towards the ancient and medieval Indian
grilles, it brings within its purview the Islamic screens and
the Gothic traceries for comparing and contrasting their
characteristics with the earlier Indian. In the process, it
also dwells on the factors of concept, form, and function and,
above all, aesthetics. The visual appearance of the jalas
developed in each of these three architectural systems
considerably varies due to environmental, creedal, cultural,
and hence stylistic differences.
The text of the monograph is elucidated by carefully drawn
55 line drawings and 348 photo illustrations. Being scholarly
and, as a result, of academic disposition, it will not have
the privilege of the company and prestige of coffee table
books. It likewise cannot be a companion book for the
iconographers who in India dominate the field of ancient art
and pass as art historians, nor is it useful to the modernists
and lovers exclusively of contemporary arts and literature.
What is more, in orientation, treatment of theme, and the
tenor of discussion, it adheres to the methodology of art
history proper and, by the same token, not that of neoart
interpretatory, a different and new discipline which their
protagonists, the Newtrendians in the West and because of them
the Newtrendianoids in India, claim and proclaim as 'New art
history', just as they look down at the other/original one by
qualifying it as conventional, traditional, old-fashioned, and
outmoded. They are largely unconcerned about history and
chronology, socio-religious and cultural background, and
ignore style, inherent concepts, philosophy, metaphysics, and
aesthetics.
Author Description
Professor M.A. Dhaky, currently Director (Emeritus)
at the American Institute of Indian Studies (Center for Art
and Archaeology), Gurgaon (Haryana), is a historian and
researcher of ancient and medieval Indian art, architecture
and historical archaeology as also of Sanskrit and Prakrit
texts that relate to the architecture of the ancient
buildings. Prof. Dhaky had served at the AIIS' Varanasi Center
from August 1966, on deputation first from the Department of
Archaeology, Government of Gujarat, and next, from 1974
onwards, from the L.D. Institute of Indology, Ahmedabad, where
till 1987 he was posted as the Research Professor of Indian
Art and Architecture.
Among his publications are the short and long monographs
and papers, chapters to the volumes of the Encyclopaedia of
Indian Temple Architecture, and many research articles in
English, Gujarati and in Hindi. Besides archaeological and art
historical themes, he also writes on the history and
chronology of ancient and medieval jaina literature (including
the agamas, their commentaries, and ancient and medieval
hymns) as well as has determined the dates of the famous
authors of Nirgrantha-darsana/Jainism. Moreover, he has
published articles and papers involving criticism and
interpretation of art, architecture, as also musicology,
horticulture, and gemology. Altogether, these writings number
over 310. He also has participated in several national and
international seminars and delivered lectures in a few
prestigious lecture series.
He is recipient of several awards and
honours: the 'Kumara'
silver medal (Ahmedabad 1974), silver plaque with citation
from the Archaeological Research Society, Porbandar (Porbandar
1974), an award of the Prakrta Jnanabharati, Bangalore (Bangalore 1993), the Campbell Memorial Gold Medal of the
Asiatic Society of Bombay (Bombay 1994), the Hemacandracarya
Award from Jaswanta Dharmarth Trust, Delhi (Delhi 1997), and
an award with gold medal from Hemacandracarya Nidhi, Ahmedabad
(Ahmedabad 1999). He also got two silver plaques, each with
citation (Varanasi 1996 and Delhi 1998) from the American
Institute of Indian Studies.
Foreword
It would be impossible for such a visually sensitive person
as M.A. Dhaky to live in Ahmedabad without being impacted by
the beautifully rendered traceries the adorn the city's fine
Sultanate buildings. The best known and most often reproduced
one is on Siddi Saiyyid's mosque, a virtual visual symbol of
Ahmedabad, but there are many others as well. However, it was
Dhaky who recognized that such traceries are not exclusive to
Islamic architecture but are part of a much larger visual
vocabulary that is shared among the multiple cultures that
comprise India and serve to shape an Indian identity rather
than an identity exclusive to any single religious tradition.
Although Dhaky is best known for his brilliant work on Indian
temples, he sets issues relating to traceries in a much larger
environment, essentially in a global context as he draws upon
Medieval European traditions to understand rich tracery forms.
One particular strength of this volume, as with much of
Dhaky's other work, is the weaving of textual and visual
tradition. And while it might appear to many that the verbal
texts serve as a basis for the visual forms, in fact the two
functions together to shape traceries through time and across
the Indian subcontinent.
His fine introduction sets Indian traceries in their global
context. He then considers the Sanskrit terms used for
traceries. It might be interesting to note here the origin of
the English, term, generally used for the fine stone work on a
Gothic window. It is said to have been first used in writing
by the architect Christopher Wren in the late 17th century; he
described it as a mason's term, probably ultimately derived
from the sense of a track, that is, the drawn basis for the
ornate architectural form. That is quite different from the
origins of the Sanskrit term jala or its variants that Dhaky
describes in this chapter. He then provides us with extensive
text extracts to show the verbal understanding of traceries at
times closer to the production of the architectural traceries
discussed in the volume. To show the relationship between
textual references and actual designed traceries, Dhaky
branches from the area for which he is so well known to
discuss Islamic traceries from North Africa to South Asia and
then to discuss Gothic traceries, not just in northern Europe-
so often considered the heartland of the Gothic style-but also
in Spain and Italy, showing an erudition that is most
impressive.
It is with pride, then, that the American Institute of
Indian Studies presents another publication by one of the most
prolific scholars in any field and certainly the one who knows
this tradition better and more deeply than any other scholar
in the world.
