Tree & Serpent Mapin Publishing
View Inside The Book

Tree & Serpent

Early Buddhist Art in India
John Guy

A pioneering study of the emergence of Buddhist art in southern India, featuring vibrant photography of rare works, many published here for the first time.   Advance praise: “Brilliant in conception, the publication Tree and Serpent brings together scores of stunning works of art from the beginnings of Buddhist art in India, many never seen before. Through the pieces he assembles and the text he provides, John Guy makes it clear that we cannot understand the Buddha until we see what surrounds him. In Tree and Serpent, the Buddha comes back home.” —Donald LopezDistinguished Professor of Buddhist Studies, University of Michigan  “This richly illustrated volume has artefacts from museums across India, Europe and the United States of America. Each of the artworks in the book is used to tell the story of the evolution of Buddhism, its allure, its spread outside India...among many other interesting facets. ” —Srimoyee Bagchi, The Telegraph Podcast Apple: https://litcity.in/e63-appleSpotify: https://litcity.in/e63-sptfyGoogle: https://litcity.in/e63-googleEverywhere else: https://litcity.in/e63-home   Media:  The Literary City podcast The Print The Print (Book excerpt) The Telegraph The Week  The Indian Express Sunday mid-day Mint Sunday Herald FESunday Abir Pothi OPEN Magazine

VIEW DETAILS
  • Successful pre-order.Thanks for contacting us!
    • ₹ 3,950.00 395000
A pioneering study of the emergence of Buddhist art in southern India, featuring vibrant photography of rare works, many published here for the first time.   Advance praise: “Brilliant in conception, the publication Tree and Serpent brings together scores of stunning works of art from the beginnings of Buddhist art in India, many never seen before. Through the pieces he assembles and the text he provides, John Guy makes it clear that we cannot understand the Buddha until we see what surrounds him. In Tree and Serpent, the Buddha comes back home.” —Donald LopezDistinguished Professor of Buddhist Studies, University of Michigan  “This richly illustrated volume has artefacts from museums across India, Europe and the United States of America. Each of the artworks in the book is used to tell the story of the evolution of Buddhism, its allure, its spread outside India...among many other interesting facets. ” —Srimoyee Bagchi, The Telegraph Podcast Apple: https://litcity.in/e63-appleSpotify: https://litcity.in/e63-sptfyGoogle: https://litcity.in/e63-googleEverywhere else: https://litcity.in/e63-home   Media:  The Literary City podcast The Print The Print (Book excerpt) The Telegraph The Week  The Indian Express Sunday mid-day Mint Sunday Herald FESunday Abir Pothi OPEN Magazine
Named for two primary motifs in Buddhist art, the sacred bodhi tree and the protective snake, Tree & Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India is the first publication to foreground devotional works produced in the Deccan from 200 BCE to 400 CE. Unlike traditional narratives, which focus on northern India (where the Buddha was born, taught, and died), this groundbreaking book presents Buddhist art from monastic sites in the south. Long neglected, this is among the earliest surviving bodies of Buddhist art, and among the most sublimely beautiful. An international team of researchers contributes new scholarship on the sculptural and devotional art associated with Buddhism, and masterpieces from recently excavated Buddhist sites are published here for the first time—including Kanaganahalli and Phanigiri, the most important new discoveries in a generation. With its exploration of Buddhism’s emergence in southern India, as well as of India’s deep commercial and cultural engagement with the Hellenized and Roman worlds, this definitive study expands our understanding of the origins of Buddhist
art itself.

Director’s Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Note to the Reader
Lenders to the Exhibition

MAPS
Indian Subcontinent
India’s Global Setting
Major Buddhist Sites Active in the Deccan, 200 BCE–400 CE

BEGINNINGS OF BUDDHIST IMAGERY
Early Buddhist Landscape of Southern India
CATALOGUE

RELICS, STŪPAS, AND TEXTS
Stūpas, Footprints, and Imagination in Early Buddhism
Stūpas and the Cult of Relics
Celebrating the Buddha in Early Southern India
CATALOGUE

MONASTIC BUDDHISM, COMMERCE, AND PATRONAGE
The Business Side of a Buddhist Monastery
Buddhist Patronage and Monastic Institutions in Āndhra: Epigraphic Evidence
Maritime Networks of Coastal Āndhradeśa
CATALOGUE

GLOBAL SETTING
Rome and Its Connections with India
Evoking the Buddha in Peninsular India, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia
CATALOGUE

THE BUDDHA REVEALED
The Development of Buddhist Image Worship in Early Āndhradeśa
Buddhist Narratives at Kanaganahalli
The Buddhist Stone of Āndhradeśa
CATALOGUE

Early India: Chronology and Key Events
Gazetteer of Buddhist Sites, Principally in the Deccan
ISBN 9789394501164
Pages 344
Number of illustrations 322 illustrations
Size 9 x 12.25” (228 x 311 mm)
Date of Publishing 17 July, 2023
Language(s) English
Co-publisher(s) Mapin Publishing
Rights Available South Asia
"Brilliant in conception, the publication Tree and Serpent brings together scores of stunning works of art from the beginnings of Buddhist art in India, many never seen before. Through the pieces he assembles and the text he provides, John Guy makes it clear that we cannot understand the Buddha until we see what surrounds him. In Tree and Serpent, the Buddha comes back home."

—Donald Lopez
Distinguished Professor of Buddhist Studies, University of Michigan

• • •

“This richly illustrated volume has artefacts from museums across India, Europe and the United States of America. Each of the artworks in the book is used to tell the story of the evolution of Buddhism, its allure, its spread outside India...among many other interesting facets.”

—Srimoyee Bagchi, The Telegraph

View inside the book