India Rediscovered: Re-Assessing the Legacy of Alexander Cunningham
Contents: Preface. 1. Re-assessing Alexander Cunningham/Upinder Singh. 2. Alexander Cunningham, James Prinsep and Varanasi/O.P. Kejariwal. 3. Alexander Cunningham and Indian Numismatics/Sanjay Garg. 4. Sir Alexander Cunningham and the Journey of Indian Archaeology: With Special Reference to Sarnath/B.R. Mani. 5. Contribution of Alexander Cunningham to the Study of Indian Architecture: With Special Reference to Gupta Temples and the Temples of Gwalior Fort/Amar Singh. 6. Sir Alexander Cunningham and the Archaeology of Indian Temple Architecture/Pushpa Tiwari. 7. Revisiting Gandhara through the Lens of Xuanzang, Alexander Cunningham and Alfred Foucher/Suchandra Ghosh. 8. Writings on Historical Geography of Bengal: A Survey/Sarita Khettry. 9. Xuanzang’s Travels in Gujarat and the Vadnagar Monastery/Y.S. Rawat. 10. Provenance, Journey and Present Status of the Buddha’s Alms-bowl: Cunningham’s Research and Further Reflections/Siddharth Singh. 11. Alexander Cunningham’s Gift to the Connoisseurs of Sculptural and Performing Art: Bharhut Railings – Discovery and Preservation/Iravati. 12. Redefining the Date and Association of Bharhut Sculptures: In the Light of Cunningham’s Report and Contemporary Researches/Ajit Kumar. 13. The Reign of Dialectic in the Approaches of Cunningham: An Art Historiographical Perspective/Vipul Tiwari. 14. Following Xuanzang’s Trail: How Alexander Cunningham Retrieves Xuanzang’s Itinerary through Central India in His The Ancient Geography of India, Buddhist Period (1871)/Pallavee Gokhale. 15. Paradigm Shift in the Study of Art and Archaeology in India since Alexander Cunningham/Vibha Tripathi. 16. Reviewing Temple Architecture of Lalitpur: As Expounded by Cunningham and Later Researchers/Rajendra Yadav and Subhash Chandra Yadav. Appendix.
Alexander Cunningham, a great scholar, archaeologist and art historian, contributed immensely to the cause of Indian art and archaeology. He is rightly hailed as the ‘Father of Indian Archaeology’. He was among the first to acknowledge the role of textual scholarship, particularly in understanding the sites of ancient India and paid particular attention to sculptural art and epigraphic records. His efforts to trace Buddhist history through the architectural remains greatly impacted the consolidation of Buddhist religious identity. He was perhaps the earliest art historian to advance an evolutionary model to study Indian temple architecture. The present study provides a critical and comparative analysis of his work. Though Cunningham is criticized for his ‘text-aided’ approach, the influence of Buddhist sites and his obsession with Chinese pilgrims, yet his grand contribution to preserving Indian art and heritage cannot be ignored.
The volume containing 16 articles is an outcome of the effort to bring into print the proceedings of the International Seminar on ‘Sir Alexander Cunningham and the Art Heritage of India’ organized by the Department of History of Art, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, to mark Cunningham’s bicentenary year, and to re-assess his contribution to the cause of Indian art and archaeology.
The book is enriched by the contributions of some highly acclaimed scholars in their respective fields. It will be useful to history, historiography and heritage-related academia and to the general reader interested to know more about Cunningham and the history of our heritage.
