On the Cusp of an Era: Art in the Pre-Kuṣāṇa World: Art in the Pre-Kusana World: 18 (Brill's Inner Asian Library, 18) - Tapa dura

"... to work through this book is an absolute necessity for everyone dealing with pre- and Kusana art and culture." - Harry Falk, Berlin, in: Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, 104 (2009), 4-5 "In her introduction Doris Srinivasan sums up the 'hallmarks characterizing the vitality and creativity of Pre- and early Kusana art' as being adoption, adaptation, and transformation (p. 25). I would argue that these are characteristics of Indian art as a whole, and the papers in this excellent volume testify to some of ways in which this holds true dureing the first centuries before and after the common era." - Sonya Rhie Quintanilla, San Diego Museum of Art, in: JAOS 2009: 129.3

South Asian religious art became codified during the Kusana Period (ca. beginning of the 2nd to the mid 3rd century). Yet, to date, neither the chronology nor nature of Kusana Art, marked by great diversity, is well understood. The Kusana Empire was huge, stretching from Uzbekistan through northern India, and its multicultural artistic expressions became the fountainhead for much of South Asian Art. The premise of this book is that Kusana Art achieves greater clarity through analyses of the arts and cultures of the Pre- Kusana World, those lands becoming the Empire. Fourteen papers in this book by leading experts on regional topography and connective pathways; interregional, multicultural comparisons; art historical, archaeological, epigraphic, numismatic and textual studies represent the first coordinated effort having this focus.