Terracotta Art of Bengal

Contents: Foreword. Preface. 1. The background. 2. Centres, perspective and milieu. 3. The art. 4. The types. 5. Social contents. 6. Epilogue. 7. Description of plates. Plates. Select bibliography. Index.

From the preface: A significant feature of the archaeological explorations and excavations carried out over different parts of Bengal has been the discovery of numerous artifacts made of terracotta. These antiquities have opened a new horizen in the study of the traditions of plastic art of this region. These have also been found to reveal very deep and positive reflex of the nature and personality of the people for whom these were made and hence can be considered as valuable documents for understanding the socio-cultural upbringing of the people express- ed in terms of the way of their life for which there hardly exists any other document worthy of consideration. In view of this, the art of terracotta may well be held as the only media through which to make a contact with those long forgotten epochs of human movements over centuries for which we have virtually no other source to work upon. Although this fact has been emphasized from time to time, a detailed study of the terracotta art of Bengal has not so far been undertaken in a really serious vein. An effort had consequently been made, as will be understood from the following pages, to develop a comprehensive survey of this form of art and this had eventually earned a Ph.D. Degree for the author from the University of Calcutta in 1978. The work has later been thoroughly revised and enlarged in order to bring out a full scale and lively account of the art forms as such and the life and society of the contemporary days as revealed through these creations.