LUPADAKHE*-UNKNOWN MASTERS OF ANCIENT INDIAN SCULPTURE

*Lupadakhe (rupadaksa) is a Prakrit term for a sculptor or a painter.

India has a great tradition in aesthetic theorization but surprisingly it has totally ignored the possibilities of
critiquing a specific aesthetic manifestation. Indian aesthetic tradition does not reveal a single occurrence of
any theoretical or critical analysis of a particular creation : literary, performative or visual. Since value
judgment was never an agenda of the aesthetic contextualization in this tradition, it never attempted to identify
the peaks of creativity and excellence.

It is ironical that the very maker of sculptural history in ancient India is cursed with anonymity. For various
reasons, the sculptural tradition of this country is tight-lipped regarding its creative geniuses. This anonymity
was further romanticised by many, identifying it as the selfless gesture of the Indian master artists. A few
stray names of artists surface from some myths, texts or inscriptions but they cannot be associated with any
of the known sculptural manifestations. Despite a long inventory of publications on Indian sculpture, the
sculptors in ancient India are lost in collective oblivion, either because of the social hierarchy in which they
were not placed in an enviable strata or because of the a-aesthetical perspective of Indian art historians who
did not find it necessary to give a thought to the artistic component of this discipline.

The proposed publication gives a brief introduction of the artists’ community and art activity in ancient India
and the most significant masterpieces of the past. In the core chapter, employing the methods of intrinsic
studies, mainly focusing on the stylistic typologies and morphological developments, we have tried to identify
a number of masters of Indian sculpture from different eras and sculptural lineages. We presume that it has
not been attempted earlier in Indian art historical writing. The text also attempts to draw attention to the glyptic
aesthetics of the spatial creations in India.

The volume follows the methodology of intrinsic i.e. formal and stylistic studies of Indian sculpture. Heinrich
Wolfflin is one of the significant scholars who pioneered this methodology. Though, this is the most
appropriate methodology for studies in Indian sculpture, in absence of adequate recorded information, it has
not been exploited enough in India. The present volume, though rooted in the art historical discipline tries to
address the art lovers from the other disciplines also hopefully enriching their understanding of Indian
sculpture and plastic aesthetics.

Deepak Kannal
Kanika Gupta
Deepak Kannal is an Art Historian, a sculptor and a teacher. He taught at the Department of Art
History and Aesthetics, Faculty of Fine Arts, MSU of Baroda, shouldering the responsibilities as
the Head of the department, UGC/DSA coordinator and the Dean of the Faculty. He has a long
list of publications that includes a book “Ellora-An Enigma in Sculptural Styles’’, a monograph,
four co-edited volumes - one of them on Ellora Sculpture and Architecture, three edited journals,
three full length plays, three dance dramas and more than seventy papers and articles on Art and
Aesthetics to his credit. His dance drama named ‘Dipta Kailasa’ narrating the history of
Kailasanatha monolith of Ellora and the myths associated with it was performed at Ellora, in the
vicinity of the caves. He has organized and participated in many National/Inter National seminars,
has delivered series of lectures for coveted institutes in India, US and UK and was invited on
prestigious chairs instituted by various Academies, Museums and Universities. He is a recipient
of a number of awards, scholarships and distinctions in Sculpture, Theatre and Art History
including the Charles Wallace fellowship for his post doctoral project at Cambridge, UK, National
Lalitkala honorable mention, A.P. Council National award, The Gujarat Gaurav Puraskar, Raja
Ravi Verma Samman and the Tagore National Fellowship under which, he is working on the
correspondence between Indian Linguistic Theories and Indian sculpture .

Kanika Gupta is a young art historian, dancer and a film maker. She did masters in Art History
from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda, where she studied under
Professor Deepak Kannal. She has worked on several research projects like accessioning and
documentation of Ananda Coomaraswamy and Kapila Vatsyayan personal collections for Cultural
Archives of Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Delhi and assisted Professor Kannal in the
content writing for thirty-five modules on ‘History of Indian Sculpture’, for e-pathshala, Online Post
Graduate Diploma Course, University Grants Commission. She has a number of publications to
her credit. At present, she is pursuing her PhD under the guidance of Professor Y.S. Alone from
School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.