Author: Usha Ramamrutham Bala Krishnan
Meera Sushil Kumar/Bharath Ramamrutham
Publisher: India Book House
Year: 1999
Language: English
Pages: 335
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8175081090
Description
Spanning 5000 years of this glorious legacy, Dance of the peacock takes an ethnographic approach, weaving factual information with the many fascinating stories recounted by ancient travelers to India. The book pays homage to the aesthetics of the patron and the virtuosity of the craftsman.
Above all, Dance of the Peacock celebrates the human impulse to adorn.
The peacock is the Bird of India, its dance a celebration of life and beauty. Radiant with iridescent colors, the flamboyant bird has inspired jewelers through the ages. In ear ornaments, necklaces and bangles, the peacock repeatedly recurs as a motif in Indian jewellery.
India, the Golden Country, has since time immemorial, lured those in quest of spices, gold and precious gems. The principal trade routes across land and see in the ancient world all led to India. As a repository of what was once the greatest concentration of mineral wealth on earth, this treasury of the world all led to India. As a repository of what was once the greatest concentration of mineral wealth on earth, this treasury of the world earned the epithet sone ki chidia or bird of gold.
Providing a spectacular visual panorama are the over 500 color plates, each item of jewellery meticulously photographed to set off its every technical and aesthetic nuance. Accessing collections that have never been documented before the book showcases some of the most outstanding examples of Indian jewellery from all over the world.
Contents
INTRODUCTION
The Bird of Gold
TRADE
Meadows of Gold and Mines of Jewels
ANCIENT INDIA
Stars to a Hundred Skies
SOUTH INDIA
The Golden Land
THE MUGHALS
Imperial Connoisseurs
FEMININE ORNAMENT
The Impulse to Adorn
FOR GODS AND MEN
Proclamations of Power
SYMBOLS
A Rosary of Wishing-Jewels
CRAFT
The Unknown Goldsmith
EPILOGUE
The Scattering of a Legacy
NOTES
GLOSSARY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PHOTO CREDITS
INDEX