India (Art and Architecture in Ancient and Medieval Periods)

Sir William Hunter's well-known book The Indian Empire was published in 1881. It was revised and published in four volumes in 1907-09 under the title The Imperial Gazetteer of India. These four volumes have now been revised and brought up-to-date. They are entitled The Gazetteer of India: Indian Union. The second volume- History and Culture-was published in 1973.

Some of the chapters of this volume, namely, Government and Economic Life; Society, Religion and Literature; Arts and Architecture; Pre-Historic and Proto-Historic Periods; Early History of India up to A.D. 1206; and History of Medieval India (A.D. l206-A.D. 1761) which have a wider public opinion, are being published separately in the form of booklets. The idea is to provide to the general public especially the university students, low-priced publications containing authentic and objective information on these subjects by well-known writers who are experts in their respective fields.

J. Burgess contributed the chapter on Architecture to the Imperial Gazetteer of India. In the revised Indian Gazetteer, there are a number of contributors who wrote the chapters on Art and Architecture in Ancient and Medieval India on which this booklet is based. These are S.K. Saraswati, J.N. Banerjea, Niharranjan Ray, V. Raghavan and Ajit Mookerjee for Ancient Period and Mulk Raj Anand, C. Sivaramamurti, Anand Krishna, V. Raghuvan, Kapila Vatsyayan and Nilakashi Sen Gupta for Medieval Period. It is hoped that not only this booklet but the entire series will have a useful purpose and meet the requirements of the general public.