Puja and Piety: Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist Art from the Indian Subkontinent, by Pratapaditya Pal

Puja and Piety celebrates the complexity of South Asian representation and iconographyby examining the relationship between aesthetic expression and the devotional practice,or puja, in the three native religions of the Indian subcontinent. This stunning andauthoritative catalogue presents some 150 objects created over the past two millennia fortemples, home worship, festivals, and roadside shrines. From monumental painted templehangings and painted meditation diagrams to portable pictures for pilgrims, from stonesculptures to processional bronzes and wooden chariots, from ancient terracottas tovarious devotional objects for domestic shrines, this volume provides much-neededcontext and insight into classical and popular art of India. Featuring an introduction by theeminent art historian and curator Pratapaditya Pal; accessible essays on each religioustradition by Stephen P. Huyler, John E. Cort, and Christian Luczanits; and useful guides toiconography and terms by Debashish Banerji, this richly illustrated catalogue will provide alasting resource for readers interested in South Asian art and spirituality.Published in association with the Santa Barbara Museum of Art Exhibition organized by Susan S. Tai, Elizabeth Atkins Curator of Asian ArtExhibition dates: Santa Barbara Museum of Art, April 17–July 31, 2016Pratapaditya Pal has been affiliated with many prominent museums and universities as a curatorand a teacher. He has organized numerous groundbreaking exhibitions on the arts of Asia; haswritten more than sixty books and catalogues on the ancient art and culture of India, Nepal, andTibet; and was the general editor of Marg, a journal of art and culture published in India. Hispublications include Himalayas: An Aesthetic Adventure,Indian Sculpture (2 vols.), and Art of Nepal