'This is certainly the best book covering the full history of Indian Art. It is accessible but at the same time raises important issues and has the distinct advantage of comprehensive coverage... ' (Frederick Asher, Department of Art History, University of Minnesota) 'A compact volume that is beautifully illustrated, delightfully written and well suited to those approaching Indian art for the first time.' (The Times Higher Education Supplement) 'Art & Ideas has broken new ground in making accessible authoritative views on periods, movements and concepts in art. As a series it represents a real advance in publishing.' (Sir Nicholas Serota, Director, Tate London) 'The format is wonderful and offers what had long been missing in academic studies: usable manuals for specific themes or periods...I am definitely not alone in welcoming Art & Ideas as a precious set of teaching tools.' (Joachim Pissarro, Yale University)

Vidya Dehejia is Associate Director and Chief Curator at the Arthur M Sackler Gallery and Freer Gallery of Art at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Her publications include Discourse in Early Buddhist Art, Visual Narratives of India and Slaves of the Lord: The Path of the Tamil Saints.

Introduction - mountains, rivers, people; experiencing art - the viewer, the art, the artist; bricks, seals and stone - into written history; stories in stone - popular appeal of early Buddhist art; after Alexander - Indo-Greek art and the Buddha image; into the mountainside - cave monasteries and cave temples; fierce deities and cosmic couples - esoteric Buddhist imagery; "seeing" the divine - image and temple; sacred and "profane" - the Nagara Temple; a riddle in stone - Pallava Mamallapuram; holy ground - Dravida Chola temples; God in the image of man - expanded temples and festival bronzes; linear abstractions - art and the sultans of India; cosmopolitan splendour - city of victory; visions of paradise - the luxury of Mughal art; palaces and pavilions - chivalry of Rajput Mewar; Rome of the tropics - churches of Portuguese Goa; jewel in the crown - arts of the British Raj; epilogue - art in a secular democracy.