The Sculpture of Early Medieval Rajasthan (Studies in Asian Art and Archaeology, 21)

During the early medieval period, from the seventh to the ninth centuries, the area of western India now known as Rajasthan was transformed from a politically and artistically minor region to one of relative importance. Rajasthan was the homeland of the Gurjara Pratiharas, one of the most powerful dynasties in northern India, and many important temples were produced during their brief tenure there.
While these monuments provide rich sources of information about iconographic preferences and artistic styles, this book argues that they further provide important, and overlooked, clues to Rajasthan's charged early political history.
In analyzing sculptural style and iconographic programs within chronological and regional parameters, the book proposes that the Gurjara Pratihara presence in Rajasthan was energizing but disruptive, particularly to dominant religious and stylistic patterns in the region.

Cynthia Packert Atherton, Ph.D. (1988) in Fine Arts, Harvard University, is Associate Professor of Art History at Middlebury College in Vermont. She has published articles on Indian art and iconography in Artibus Asiae (1995) and the Dictionary of Art (1996).