Large number of rock paintings found in the natural rock shelters, caves and caverns across many parts of India throws light on the life-ways of prehistoric people, provides information on their thoughts and beliefs, society, religion and rituals, material culture, technology, economy and also about the fauna and flora that was exploited and revered in the past. But the female figures found in the Indian rock art sites have not received their due attention and were not studied properly in order to identify the role they have played since prehistoric times to the historic periods. Study of different types of female figures found at various rock art sites in Africa and Europe suggest different meanings and purposes. This paper examines the different types of female figures found in the rock art sites of India with special reference to the Raisen District of Madhya Pradesh to understand their role in the day-to-day life of various indigenous communities from the remote past. It also attempts to understand their identity in the society as well as to establish a relative chronological sequence of such representations on the basis of the study of stylistic features including theme and subject matter and superimpositions.

Keywords: Rock paintings, Raisen District, female figures, identity, style, chronology.

The Hoysala Dynasty in southern part of Karnataka was an important ruling family that reigned from the eleventh century to almost the first quarter of the fourteenth entury CE. Hoysala kings were great patrons of art and architecture. They not only built beautiful temples but were also great patrons of artists. The Hoysala temples have been decorated with highly intricate and decorative sculpture depicting the exuberance of carving skills. Artists were invited from across the state to adorn these magnificent temples. Artists from Balligave, Gadag and regional artists were invited for carving sculptures. Well-known artists like Dasoja, Honnoja, Malloja, Maniyoja deserve mention. The artists who have been discussed in the present essay is Baichoja, and Mallitamma. These are the two artists whose names appear in the temples datable from late twelfth century CE to mid-thirteenth century CE. The present paper examines interesting aspects of the artist Baichoja with reference to his sculptures.

Keywords: Baichoja, Mallitamma, Singoja, Nagalapura, Nuggihalli, Amrutapura, Kedareshwara, Tumkur, Nandi, Doddaballapur.

Sonepur is widely recognized for hosting a month-long cattle trade fair, popularly known as the Sonepur fair. Its roots are traced back to antiquity and puranic legends. In contrast to the divinity of the Sonepur fair, the paper tries to understand the historical processes that came to shape the landscape of the Sonepur fair as an exclusive site with multiple meanings attached to it with time. To the colonial state and the colonized subjects, it has been a site of power play and identity formation; for the former, it was a powerful conduit of political control, disease, rumours, and sedition that demanded tight regulations, whereas for the latter it was a sacred sphere engendering the imagination of a shared past and eventually becoming aground for rooting nationalists’ ideology among the masses. In this process of defining and redefining, there were moments of conflict and compliments that came to shape the ‘modern roots’ of the Sonepur fair. To understand the ‘modern’ beginning of the mela in the public sphere, the paper analyses the print culture and the coming of railways in the nineteenth and twentieth century that shaped public opinion about its historicity and played an important role in contextualising the importance of the fair among the masses.

Keywords: Sonepur, nationalism, colonialism, politics, pilgrimage, public sphere, fair.

Building temples for the religious merit of a major section of the people became a very common religious practice during the Vijayanagara period. These temples without exception were dedicated to different deities like Vishnu, Siva, Ramaand so on. During the medieval period, members of the royal family and others, made several endowments in the form of villages, lands, jeweler and monetary gifts to temples in different parts of Andhra Desa, and their subordinates also founded a good number of new temples and endowed them with villages and land gifts. There was no village in the kingdom without a temple; in fact most villages had at least two temples, one for Siva and another for Venkatesvara or Rama-Sita with Hanuman. The construction of temples and auxiliary structures and installation of deities was considered an act of great merit. The temple was conceived as a form of worshipping the deity itself. The building of a temple, which is one of the Saptasantanas, was expected to confer on the builder several benefits like longevity, health, wealth and prosperity in this world, besides religious merit in the other world after death. It is for these reasons that many people from the princes down to the ordinary citizens, vied with one another in building temples. It is proposed to examine the different aspects of the grants made to the temples by the Rayas of Vijayanagara in medieval Andhra Desa.

Keywords: Land Grants to Temple, gifts of gardens, festivals, offerings, worship, neck-laces.

In Hindu iconography the deities are generally shown with multiple heads, arms, eyes and legs to exhibit their superhuman powers and to distinguish them from the figures of mortal beings. Siva is carved with a single leg, two legs and even eight legs as in ?arabhe??a form. On the other hand, Agni, Bhairava (Atirikta?n?ga Bhairava) and Jvarahare??vara are some of the divine beings whose figures are depicted with three legs. The figures of the mortal being Bhr?in?gi with three legs sometimes confuses the onlookers, devotees and art historians and make it difficult to identify the figures as that of an ascetic, who was a staunch devotee of ?iva. The multifarious personality of Bhr?in?gi illustrated in the stone sculptures and paintings has not drawn the attention of the scholars that it deserves. Further, regarding the relations between Bhr?in?gi and ?iva described in the literary works, his religious status among the divine and semi-divine beings is not well addressed except for the legend of Pa?rvati?’s curse on him. To unravel the less known facts about Bhr?in?gi an attempt is made here to discuss these things as well as to report for the first time a rare sculpture of ?iva blessing Bhr?in?gi that can be referred to as Bhr?in?gi??a?nugrahamu?rti from the Viru?pa?ksha temple at Pattadakal.

Keywords: Bhairava, Bhr?in?gi, Bhr?in?gi??a?nugrahamu?rti, Lepakshi, Viru?pa?ksha temple

The Kul?ta region is located in the Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh in northern India. Its sculptural art depicts on the one hand ??ktism i.e., worship of woman as a deity which was prominent in the region, whereas on the other hand, the prominent duties were performed by the men of the society and women were restricted to household chores or seen as musicians and dancers. Men are depicted as yog?, warriors, musicians who are playing musical instruments for which women are not considered apt. Women are depicted as wives who are worshipping various deities, singing, dancing and entertaining the men. The present research finds a clear-cut discrimination and hypocritic mind set of the society regarding the status of a female deity and an ordinary woman. This division of the social duties is highlighted and visible in the sculptural art of the ancient Kul?ta region, as art mirrors society. It is proposed to make an attempt to depict the condition of women using certain images of the sculptural art of the respective region.

Keywords: Art, Discrimination, Goddess, Kul?ta, ??kta, Sculpture, Society, Women.