Bibliography on Indian Buddhist Art and Archaeology (General and Classified Under Geographical Sites)

About the Book The bibliography includes 4081 entries, covering published materials in English and French languages over the last two centuries. It is divided into two parts. The first part contains 2410 entries dealing with Indian Buddhist art and archaeology and Indian art in general, history, religion, some Buddhist sites outside present India - with special attention given to Pakistan -, etc.

Entries in the second part are exclusively devoted to Indian Buddhist sites. There are 57 sites; each one is individually studied. The book gives a representative overview of what has been researched and accomplished in the field of Indian Buddhist Art and Archaeology since Wilkins's article on Bodh-Gaya in 1788 or Thomas Daniel's first illustration on the Kanheri caves in 1798.

About the Author Utpal Chakraborty (born in 1951) graduated in Fine Arts from the Vishva Bharati University (Santiniketan, West Bengal, India) in 1972 after which he received 'National Cultural Scholarship' from the Government of India and 'Cultural Scholarship' from Government of France. He obtained a Master and a Doctorate degree from the University de Paris III, Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris) on Indian Buddhist Art and Archaeology under the guidance of late Professor Jean Boisselier. Currently he is working on two projects on Indian Buddhist Caves.

Mr. Chakraborty is also a painter and is living in Paris since 1976.

Preface The present bibliography has developed out of two sources. First work I had prepared as a memoire for my master's degree under the title "Bibliography of Indian Buddhist Architecture." It was annotated and special emphasis was given to publications of the Archaeological Survey of India. Second, my doctoral dissertation in which I classified the bibliography according to Indian Buddhist geographical sites.

Since then, for my own research and also in view of eventual publication, I kept compiling the titles. This time, the subject is not limited to Buddhist architecture but also covers other aspects of Buddhist art and archaeology in general, such as sculpture, paintings, Epigraphy, history, geography, religion, etc.

This bibliography which is the result of many years of research and compilation includes 4081 entries covering published materials that span more than two centuries.

Previous Bibliographies and Sources

Besides the Catalogue of books in the Library of the Indian Museum (1889), and Sten Konow's Classified Catalogue of the Library of the Director General of Archaeology (1908-16), the first attempt at compiling a bibliography was made by A. Coomaraswamy in 1925 under the title Bibliographies of Indian Art. It contains 1250 entries dealing with sculpture, painting, textiles, minor arts, etc., special attention had been given to paintings.

Since then, a number of bibliographies on Indian Art and Archaeology have been published either through collective or individual effort. The most important are Annual Bibliography of Indian Archaeology (1928-1984), Bibliographie Bouddhique (1930-1966), Jagadish Chandra's Bibliography of Indian Art, History and Archaeology (1978). Recently, the International Institute for Asian Studies has published ABIA Southeast Asian Art and Archaeology Index (vol. 1, 1999) edited by Karel R. Van Kooij et al.

Today apart from printed bibliographies, we find many electronic databases accessible through Internet services, like Buddhist Bibliography, Buddhist Religion: a bibliography, Gandhara Bibliography, ABIA database index, etc.

The bibliographical sources, I consulted while compiling this bibliography, are mentioned in the list of sources.

The bibliographies, either printed or electronic that I have mentioned above can be classified as general bibliographies. The Annual Bibliography of Indian Archaeology and Bibliographie Bouddhique contain many volumes and are the result of collective efforts. Both provide more or less detailed lists of books and articles pertaining to architecture, sculpture, painting, history, religion, etc., of India and Asian countries. Jagadish Chandra's bibliography is the first that deals with aspects of Indian art and culture in a single volume. ABIA index can be considered a renewal of the Annual Bibliography of Indian Archaeology (it only includes titles published between 1996-97) and is a printed version of the electronic ABIA index.

Because of technical facilities, electronic bibliographies have the advantage of giving quick information on specialised subjects. The sources can be easily browsed either by subject, author, or publisher, etc.

**Contents and Sample Pages**