Latest news with #AssamStateMuseum
Time of India
10-05-2025
- General
- Time of India
Bring the periphery to the centre
It was the final day of the week-long Rongali Bihu celebrations to mark the beginning of the Assamese new year and sowing season. Guwahati was dressed in festive finery, with vibrant japis (hats) and gamosas (white-and-red handwoven fabric) adorning every pause and turn. Assam State Museum was celebrating its 86th Foundation Day, recalling the contributions of many, especially Rai Bahadur Kanak Lal Barua, who had spent their lives collecting, documenting, and disseminating the tangible and intangible heritage of the people of Assam. #Operation Sindoor India-Pakistan Clash Live Updates| Pak moving troops to border areas? All that's happening Why India chose to abstain instead of 'No Vote' against IMF billion-dollar funding to Pakistan How Pak's jihadi general Munir became trapped in his own vice An invitation to Guwahati in end- April felt like being in the right place at the right time. Earning one's pitha (rice cake) and laru (a sweet) by speaking on the sculptural heritage of Assam to an august assembly can be daunting. But delectable larus and the beauty of Assamese sculptures make for a heady combination that can embolden an art historian to let her thoughts flow with the Brahmaputra. The Brahmaputra valley is a connected-yet-distinct geographical space nestled within the eastern Himalayas, Patkai, and Naga hills, and the Garo-Khasi-Jaintia and Mikir hills. Its natural beauty finds mention even in ancient inscriptions that extol its golden hills in the likeness of Kailash, with gushing waters of the grand Lauhitya River resembling the silvery rays of the moon. Play Video Pause Skip Backward Skip Forward Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration 0:00 Loaded : 0% 0:00 Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 1x Playback Rate Chapters Chapters Descriptions descriptions off , selected Captions captions settings , opens captions settings dialog captions off , selected Audio Track default , selected Picture-in-Picture Fullscreen This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Text Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Caption Area Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Drop shadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Moose Approaches Girl At Bus Stop In Bouira - Watch What Happens Happy in Shape Brahmaputra, lifeline of the valley, is known by 'Lauhitya' in some early inscriptions and texts. The ancient name of Assam best corresponds to Kamarupa in some historical records, such as Samudragupta's famous Allahabad pillar inscription, and Kautilya's Arthashastra. The other name, Pragjyotisha, of the epics and epigraphs, also included territories corresponding to ancient Assam . Assam's remote antiquity goes back to the Stone Age. But written records in the form of inscriptions begin to offer insights into its early history only from 4th c. CE. Substantial art and architectural remains in stone have survived from 6th c. CE, most notably, a grand temple doorway at Da Parbatia in the Tezpur-Sonitpur region (photo). Live Events Often explained in terms of a 'Gupta art'-inspired door frame, its own localised aesthetics have remained unsung. The personified river goddesses, Ganga and Yamuna, are conceptually aligned with 'Gupta' temple doorframes. But their iconography and stylistics at Da Parbatia reveal refined local artistic sensibilities. The presence of Lakulisha on the door lintel and, beneath him, a majestic garuda (eagle) in combat with nagas (serpents) is distinctively rendered, even if a coin of Gupta king Skandagupta Kramaditya reveals similar iconography. That ancient Kamarupa was connected with the great Gupta empire of central India is well-known. In the Allahabad pillar inscription, the king of Kamarupa is addressed as a 'pratyanta nripati' (frontier king). But even if Kamarupa was peripheral to the Gupta empire, centre and periphery are relative to one's vantage point. In its regional interactions with eastern Indian kingdoms too, from the time of King Shashanka of Gauda (circa early 7th c.) to the Palas of Bengal and Bihar (c. 8th-12th c.), Assam's contributions to regional, national, and Asian histories have remained underrepresented, if not eclipsed. It is a truism to say that West Bengal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Assam and Northeast Indian states formed culturally contiguous zones of contact with shifting political boundaries before the establishment of modern nation-states sharply segregated their identities. Perhaps less obvious is how such shared pasts are sculpted in stone. The artistic imagination of a multi-armed dancing Shiva (Nritteshvara) astride Vrishabha-Nandi (bull) is an east-northeast Indian creative innovation that had travelled to neighbouring and distant lands as far as Champa in ancient Vietnam. Perhaps nowhere is he as evocatively visualised as in a large 10th c. stone roundel housed in the Assam State Museum at Guwahati (photo). The northeast and its artistic achievements deserve to be relocated from the periphery to the centre. It's high time. The writer is professor of art history, Department of History, University of Delhi
Economic Times
10-05-2025
- Economic Times
Bring the periphery to the centre
It was the final day of the week-long Rongali Bihu celebrations to mark the beginning of the Assamese new year and sowing season. Guwahati was dressed in festive finery, with vibrant japis (hats) and gamosas (white-and-red handwoven fabric) adorning every pause and turn. Assam State Museum was celebrating its 86th Foundation Day, recalling the contributions of many, especially Rai Bahadur Kanak Lal Barua, who had spent their lives collecting, documenting, and disseminating the tangible and intangible heritage of the people of invitation to Guwahati in end- April felt like being in the right place at the right time. Earning one's pitha (rice cake) and laru (a sweet) by speaking on the sculptural heritage of Assam to an august assembly can be daunting. But delectable larus and the beauty of Assamese sculptures make for a heady combination that can embolden an art historian to let her thoughts flow with the Brahmaputra. The Brahmaputra valley is a connected-yet-distinct geographical space nestled within the eastern Himalayas, Patkai, and Naga hills, and the Garo-Khasi-Jaintia and Mikir hills. Its natural beauty finds mention even in ancient inscriptions that extol its golden hills in the likeness of Kailash, with gushing waters of the grand Lauhitya River resembling the silvery rays of the moon. Brahmaputra, lifeline of the valley, is known by 'Lauhitya' in some early inscriptions and texts. The ancient name of Assam best corresponds to Kamarupa in some historical records, such as Samudragupta's famous Allahabad pillar inscription, and Kautilya's Arthashastra. The other name, Pragjyotisha, of the epics and epigraphs, also included territories corresponding to ancient Assam. Assam's remote antiquity goes back to the Stone Age. But written records in the form of inscriptions begin to offer insights into its early history only from 4th c. CE. Substantial art and architectural remains in stone have survived from 6th c. CE, most notably, a grand temple doorway at Da Parbatia in the Tezpur-Sonitpur region (photo). Often explained in terms of a 'Gupta art'-inspired door frame, its own localised aesthetics have remained unsung. The personified river goddesses, Ganga and Yamuna, are conceptually aligned with 'Gupta' temple doorframes. But their iconography and stylistics at Da Parbatia reveal refined local artistic sensibilities. The presence of Lakulisha on the door lintel and, beneath him, a majestic garuda (eagle) in combat with nagas (serpents) is distinctively rendered, even if a coin of Gupta king Skandagupta Kramaditya reveals similar iconography. That ancient Kamarupa was connected with the great Gupta empire of central India is well-known. In the Allahabad pillar inscription, the king of Kamarupa is addressed as a 'pratyanta nripati' (frontier king). But even if Kamarupa was peripheral to the Gupta empire, centre and periphery are relative to one's vantage point. In its regional interactions with eastern Indian kingdoms too, from the time of King Shashanka of Gauda (circa early 7th c.) to the Palas of Bengal and Bihar (c. 8th-12th c.), Assam's contributions to regional, national, and Asian histories have remained underrepresented, if not eclipsed. It is a truism to say that West Bengal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Assam and Northeast Indian states formed culturally contiguous zones of contact with shifting political boundaries before the establishment of modern nation-states sharply segregated their identities. Perhaps less obvious is how such shared pasts are sculpted in stone. The artistic imagination of a multi-armed dancing Shiva (Nritteshvara) astride Vrishabha-Nandi (bull) is an east-northeast Indian creative innovation that had travelled to neighbouring and distant lands as far as Champa in ancient Vietnam. Perhaps nowhere is he as evocatively visualised as in a large 10th c. stone roundel housed in the Assam State Museum at Guwahati (photo). The northeast and its artistic achievements deserve to be relocated from the periphery to the centre. It's high time. The writer is professor of art history, Department of History, University of Delhi
