Portraiture in early India : between transience and eternity / by Vincent Lefèvre.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Print version record.

Foreword; Acknowledgements; List of Figures; Abbreviations; Introduction Portraiture, a Problematic Issue; Chapter One Identifying Portraits; 1. Painted portraits; 2. Portraits in the round and devotional portraiture; 2.1. Life-size and free standing portraits; 2.2. Devotional portraiture; 3. Coins; 4. Double-meaning images; 5. Naming the image; Chapter Two Viddha / Aviddha. Different Kinds of Portraits for Different Kinds of Purpose; 1. Some study cases; 1.1. Narasiṃha Ganga; 1.2. Kṛṣṇadevarāya; 1.3. Rājarāja I; 1.4. Jayavarman VII; 2. The likeness issue: textual evidence.

3. Physiognomic portraits3.1. Portraiture and identity; 3.2. Portrait as a substitute; 3.3. The Pratimānātaka or the ambiguity of likeness; 4. Typological portraits; 5. Portraiture as social and historical marker; Chapter Three Portraits, Worship and Divine Images; 1. Portraits, commemoration and death; 2. Portraiture and funerary and/or dynastic temples; 2.1. The Pratimānāṭaka; 2.2. Kusạ̄ṇa dynastic shrines; 2.3. South Indian 'funerary' temples; 2.4. 'Funerary' temples in Southeast Asia; 3. Divine portrait, human portrait; 3.1. Myths on the origin of images; 3.2. Divine images as portraits.

3.3. Ritual installation (pratiṣṭhā) of portraits4. Portraiture and deification; Chapter Four The Origin of Portraiture and the Representation of Heroes; 1. Portraiture in pre-and proto-historical times; 2. Portraiture in the Early-Historical period (Maurya-Śuṅga times); 2.1. Early human figures; 2.2. Portraits or Yaksas?; 2.2.1. The issue: statues and the cult of Yaksạs; 2.2.2. The debate: Yaksạ or royal portrait?; 2.2.3. The Yaksạ in ancient literature; 2.2.4. Back to the portrait interpretation?; 2.2.5. The case of Bharhut.

3. Portraits and the first 'divine images' at the beginning of the era (Kusạ̄ṇa period)3.1. Stories on the origin of the images of Buddha and Mahāvīra; 3.2. The Vrsni Vīras and the first representations of Krsna; Chapter Five The Royal Portrait, Portrait Par Excellence?; 1. The king as model; 1.1. In normative treatises; 1.2. The king as visual source; 2. Portraiture as political instrument; 2.1. Diplomacy, propaganda and legitimization; 2.2. Historical reliefs; 3. Allegorical portraits; 3.1. Allegorical portraits under the Guptas; 3.2. Allegorical portraits under the Pallavas.

3.3. Portraiture and political metaphorsAppendix Vaikuṇtḥaperumāl ̣Temple, Kanchipuram: Iconography of the Surrounding Galleries; Concluding Remarks; Bibliography; Index.

In the study of Indian art prior to the Mughal period, portraiture has so far been much neglected, when its existence has not simply been denied. This book is an attempt to reassess this issue, by showing that portraits have existed in great number in early India, since probably the first artistic achievements. Through a close scrutiny of sculpted and (more rarely) painted images brought together with textual and epigraphical references, it aims at highlighting the specificities of Indian portraiture, its relationship with divine images and, consequently, at understanding the development of In.

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