Kalamkari Temple Hangings
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has the world’s most important collection of nineteenth-century temple hangings from South India.
- Category: All Books, Crafts, MAPIN20
The nineteen pieces in this book are all from the V&A collection. This is the first time they have been fully illustrated with complete translations of all their Telugu and Tamil inscriptions. Each piece is accompanied by a summary of the story it tells—whether a version of the Ramayana or an epic celebrating a local hero—as well as a detailed ‘frame-by-frame’ analysis of the narrative as it unfolds on the textile.
The majority of these pieces are from Coastal Andhra Pradesh or Tamil Nadu, with one extraordinary Ramayana hanging included from Sri Lanka. All date from the 19th century except for one remarkable 20th-century hanging from Srikalahasti which depicts the life of Christ in the style of a traditional Hindu kalamkari. Bringing this group of hangings together for the first time gives the opportunity for a new look at the remarkable variety of regional styles in which they were made, and allows the work of some master craftsmen whose names are now known to us to be celebrated for the first time.
Anna L. Dallapiccola has a PhD in Indian Art History and a Habilitation (D.Litt) from the University of Heidelberg (Germany). She was Professor of Indian Art at the South Asia Institute of Heidelberg University from 1971 to 1995. In 1991, she was appointed Honorary Professor at Edinburgh University. She worked in India with the Vijayanagara Research project from 1984 to 2011. She has presented papers at a number of international conferences and written and edited many books. Her most recent publications are South Indian Paintings: Catalogue of the British Museum Collection (London, 2010) and The Great Platform at Vijayanagara (New Delhi, 2010). She is presently collaborating with Anila Verghese, Mumbai, on a research project concerning the art of the Vijayanagara successor states in southern India.
Rosemary Crill is a Senior Curator in the Asian Department at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Her most recent publication is The Fabric of India (V&A, 2015).
• The Ramayana: ‘Constructed, Killed and Brought’
• Two Episodes from the Mahabharata
• Two Ganga Hangings
• Introduction to Holy Sites
• Bibliography
• Glossary
• Acknowledgements
| ISBN | 9789385360046 |
| Pages | 192 |
| Number of illustrations | 120 |
| Size | 8.5 x 11" (216 x 280 mm), hc |
| Date of Publishing | 2015 |
| Language(s) | English |
| Co-publisher(s) | Mapin in association with V&A Publishing, London |
| Rights Available | World rights |