Piety
and Splendour : Sikh Heritage in Art/B.N. Goswamy.
New Delhi, National Museum, 2000, 251 p., colour photographs, (pbk). ISBN
81-85832-09.
Piety
and Splendour : Sikh Heritage in Art/B.N. Goswamy.
New Delhi, National Museum, 2000, 251 p., colour photographs, (pbk). ISBN
81-85832-09.
From the foreword: "On the occasion of the celebration of the Tercentenary of the Birth of the Khalsa, the Government of India through the Department of Culture and the National Museum of India, is presenting the exhibition Piety and Splendour : Sikh Heritage in Art. It is an attempt to portray the richness of Sikh history and Sikh spirit that so deeply affected contemporary events. I feel that this exhibition, with its intellectual content and visual stimulation, will leave indelible impressions and enable that gaining of insights into "pure minds" (Khalsa)."
"This is not a general survey of the art of the Sikhs, but a serious, meaningful inquiry into some of the most significant aspects of the subject. Explored in it, through a wide range of works of art and other artefacts—paintings and drawings, textiles, arms, jewellery, coins, among them—are ideas that run, like a golden thread, through Sikh art and thought. Starting with Guru Nanak’s encounters, as outlined in the Janamsakhis—traditional accounts of the life of Guru Nanak—and Portraits of the Gurus, from Guru Nanak to Guru Gobind Singh, the book, like the exhibition to which it serves as a catalogue, moves from Piety, through the theme of Valour, to that of splendour, ending with the earthiness that one associates with the Sikhs and the Punjab. Some exceptional objects, all drawn from Indian collections, are featured here, each of them described and interpreted with care and sensitivity." (jacket)